Dejah Thoris vs. the White Apes

Not gonna lie, this one can probably be summed up in one panel.

T & A and apes and gore.

So, the quirky thing about this was that I was rooting for Dynamite, even with all the obvious T & A. (Yeah, I know in the original Barsoom stories, everyone ran around in their birthday suits, still...)  You see, I think one thing wrong with the John Carter movie was the portrayal of the White Apes.  They seemed more monstrous than ape - strange faces, really oversized bodies compared to the original A Princess of Mars descriptions.  And, the movie only hauled them out for the big arena fight.

I think one of the stronger chapters of A Princess of Mars is when Carter first encounters the apes.  The apes haunt the ruins of Mars.  It is a much more suspenseful reveal and certainly could be setup as a horror movie scene, rather than the big monster of the arena, thing.

Anyway, at first glance of plot it seemed Dejah Thoris and the White Apes of Mars might harken back to those roots.  But, it got stuck in gore horror mode.  Blood and dismemberment and apes gnawing on flesh.  A lot of it.

Plot motivation is a little on the simplistic side.  Set in the ten years John Carter disappeared, Dejah is bored and decides on a archaeological field trip with her lady friends.  Given the "girly" dialog at some points, I find it hard to believe these women wouldn't rather be at a weekend spa.  Their airship crashes near some ruins before they reach their destination.  Cue apes.

On the plus side it is sharply drawn.  It is a very visual story with little dialog once the action starts.  Dejah is rather badass, fighting to the last.

I guess I might buy the digital version if it were on sale and I didn't already have the print.  Might be okay in print if you don't pay full cover price.