Dejah Thoris versus John Carter of Mars #05

Dejah Thoris versus John Carter of Mars #05

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Dan Abnett

Illustrated by Alessandro Miracolo

Coloured by Dearbhla Kelly

Lettered by Simon Bowland

John and Dejah continue to fight IMPOSSIBLE odds! Having escaped into the random folds of time, our favourite alien power couple wage war against decaying emissaries of evil that are searching for a perfect host, and may have found one in…JOHN CARTER!?

Well there’s another issue still to go but dang this is what I love about these characters. We see Gall and all his machinations to date have sent Dejah and John travelling through time. Now I wanna talk about the events in this issue but I won’t because I don’t do spoiler reviews but I love what we see. I am serious because with the way Gall lured Dejah into this knowing that John would rush in without thinking to save her and thus his plans would come to fruition. If only things worked out as we want them to but where’s the fun in that, besides life is full of surprises, twists & turns and huge messes along the way. So it’s been fun to see Dejah’s entourage stuck in the same spot while she and John have one of their unique adventures.

I’m thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in fleshing out their ever evolving personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story, the revelations along with the twists & turns are exciting to see unfold.

I’m really rather impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that we see the layers opening up new avenues to be explored. Now I love seeing the creatures from the past and Gall’s whole deal and what these do is add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

I am loving the interiors here. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout the book and at various stages really shine here. The linework is spectacular and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work is extremely well rendered. How we see backgrounds enhance and expand the moments while also working within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a fantastic eye for how colour works.

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This is a fantastic story and we’re finally seeing where the title comes into play. We are treated to a nice tour de farce here that really does hold the readers’ mind, imagination and creativity. It’s also an engaging story as well since more than a few moments makes you think and takes you off the page. This has some extraordinary writing and characterisation alongside some really solid and dynamic interiors.