John Carter, Warlord of Mars #5 - Oct. 1977

"...And One Shall Die!" by Marv Wolfman, Gil Kane, and Rudy Nebres.

In Helium, the debate on whether John Carter is a traitor or not rages:

As Jadak's men undergo training, John Carter is once again forced to participate in another "meaningless raid." Carter does his best to fell his opponents without killing them, but on Mars most fights are to the death.

Carter then turns his attention to his goal: stealing an ancient statue called The Issus Stone. Carter grabs a hold of it, barely escaping the laser blasts that follow him as he departs.

Carter boards Stara-Kan's airship, but Kan is not there. Carter hands the Issus Stone to one of Kan's flunkies, and takes the opportunity to do some spying: he finds Kan's logbook, and sees a specific coordinate as the most recent entry. Believing this is where Kan is keeping Dejah Thoris, Carter takes off for the destination!

He finds himself at a volcano, and hidden inside a nearby crevice is a vast complex:

Having escaped the giant spider (yeesh!), Carter telepathically scans the nearby buildings until he detects some people nearby. Its not Dejah Thoris, but it is Stara-Kan and his fellow Council of Five.

Carter overhears Kan mention that now that Dejah Thoris of no further use to them, she should be killed. This of course drives Carter to break into the room, swords swinging and fists flying.

Carter and Stara-Kan face off again, with Kan's robot arm proving to be equally matched with Carter's enhanced strength. Even so, Kan resorts to cheating a little, using the "obedience collar" he slapped onto his foe when he had the chance. But even the searing pain will not stop John Carter, Warlord of Mars:

...to be continued!


I love this issue's cover blurb: "Giant Battle Issue!"--as if the first four issues of this series were My Dinner With Andre.

I'm glad Stara-Kan is killed off here; in comics there's always the motivation to create a singular, ongoing villain, which makes sense--every comic book hero needs a Lex Luthor. But since John Carter wasn't strictly a Marvel comic--not set in the Marvel Universe at least--you could try some different things. So killing off your main bad guy was a nice way to distinguish this book from the rest of the pack.