John Carter, Warlord of Mars #9 - Feb. 1978

"Armageddon...At Last!" by Marv Wolfman, Gil Kane, and Rudy Nebres.

In stark contrast to last issue, this time John Carter and Dejah Thoris are together, but this time preparing for battle:

The Council has a series of laser cannons hidden inside craters of the Martian surface, and begins to use them to blast the Helium ships out of the sky.

One of the ships hit is that piloted by Tars Tarkas, who abandons it once he realizes its going to crash. John Carter swings by, plucking his friend from the sky.

Meanwhile, The Great One--leader of the Council of Five--orders the next line of defense: in this case, the entire structure they are in is lifted into the sky!

Carter and Dejah's ship manages to evade the cannon fire, and they land onto the surface of the structure. Unbeknownst to them, a solider of the Council has the drop on them, and is about to fire. But just as he's aiming, Kantos' ship fires upon him, saving the lives of Carter, Dejah, and Tars.

Kantos and his friend Grogg land as well, fighting mano-a-mano:

John Carter makes it into the structure, as does Tars Tarkas, who plants bombs. But Tars is interrupted by another green martian, named Karak, who considers Tars a traitor to his people.

Karak pulls a laser on Tars, who retaliates by tossing a bomb into his hands (all of them). The bomb explodes, knocking Karak's lifeless body out of the window. Outside, Kantos is so enraged over what the Council did to his Lyssia that he takes to strangling his opponents with his bare hands.

Someone fires at Kantos from behind, and Kantos blindly lashes out, tossing his dagger in the direction of the sneak attack:

...to be continued!

This issue features another one of those "Giant Battle Issue" blurbs on the cover, which I guess you could call almost a running joke--as if the other issues were talky bore-a-thons. How much more action can you cram into 17 measly pages?

This Great One character looks a little too Micronauts-y for my taste, but maybe John Carter will dispense with him even faster than he did Stara-Kan. Be back in two days to find out!