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| John Carter | |
| Aliases: | Dotar Sojat Jack Carter |
| Continuity: | Warlord of Mars |
| Notability: | Main character |
| Type: | Warrior |
| Occupation: | Military personnel |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race: | Human |
| Location: | Virginia, Earth Helium, Barsoom |
| Relatives: | Dejah Thoris [1] Mors Kajak [2] |
| Status: | Alive |
| First: | A Princess of Mars |
| Actor: | Antonio Sabato, Jr. [3] Taylor Kitsch [4] |
John "Jack" Carter is a fictional soldier and warrior and the main character featured in the Warlord of Mars multimedia franchise as first envisioned by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. He first appeared in the story A Princess of Mars, which was published in novel format in 1917.
Biography[]
From Earth to Mars[]
John Carter's history before his advent on Barsoom is mostly a mystery, even to himself. As far as he knows he has always been a man of about thirty, and remembers no childhood. He has always been a warrior with a strong sense of duty, which may account for the honors bestowed upon him by three republics and the decorations and friendships of an old and powerful emperor and several lesser kings, in whose service his sword has been red many a time. When the American Civil War ended he found himself with only a captain's commission in an army that no longer existed and several hundred thousand dollars (Confederate). In an attempt to regain his fortune he traveled to Arizona to search of gold with the aid another Confederate officer James K. Powell.
John Carter fights on Barsoom.
While in the Arizona desert, John Carter's companion James K. Powell was abducted and killed by the native Apache peoples. In an effort to save the man John Carter found himself chased into a cave where he was inexplicably paralyzed (possibly by the fumes in the cave), fearing for his life he desperately tried to escape being completely unable to move his body. He broke free, and he inexplicably split from his body, as he left the cave he stared into the heavens seeing the red star that is Mars and feeling its calling he was mysteriously transported from Earth to Mars.
Soon after arriving upon Mars John Carter discovered his increased strength and agility. Finding nobody within sight he found his way to a small structure which he discovered was an incubator, this incubator held the hatching green Martian eggs. Soon he was captured by the tharks, who were greatly impressed with his abilities. Amongst the tharks he learned the language of the planet, and developed telepathic abilities while gaining their trust. Carter also taught tharks to respect their animals (animal cruelty was rampant before) and made a friend with the pet Woola. During his time with the tharks a fleet of fliers was attacked, the tharks managed to make a prisoner of one of the fleets human passengers. The princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris.
After a time with the tharks, John Carter found himself needing to escape with the princess Dejah Thoris, the two joined with the thark Sola escaped the city of thark and found themselves lost. Soon, John carter was apprehended by the horde of warhoon, but not before giving them a fight.
The Warhoon & Tal Hajus[]
John Carter and Tars Tarkas by DC Comics.
John Carter was captured by the warhoon and forced to fight in the savage horde's great games, during his time with them he met the red man Kantos Kan, the two were forced to fight each other. The two stalled until it was dark, pretending to kill John Carter, Kantos Kan earned his freedom and John Carter escaped.
After escaping from the Atmosphere factory, John Carter met his old friend, Tars Tarkas whilst in the Martian wastes. John Carter and Tars Tarkas ventured back to Thark where they planned to overthrow the evil Tal Hajus. John Carter found himself face to face with the evil Tal Hajus, but decided not to kill him, and let Tars Tarkas kill him instead because he wanted to avenge his beloved Gozava, who Tal Hajus had mercilessly killed. Tars Tarkas and Tal Hajus fought in a duel to the death, and Tars Tarkas killed Tal Hajus and avenged Gozava. After this, Tars Tarkas became the new jeddak of Thark.
John Carter's lover, Dejah Thoris, was forced into marrying Prince Sab Than whom she did not really love. Sab Than was the prince of Zodanga, which had always been enemies with the people of Helium the homeland of Dejah Thoris.
In an attempt to rescue Dejah Thoris, John Carter and Tars Tarkas led an attack against Zodanga with an army of Tharkian warriors. John Carter arrived just in time to prevent the wedding, then he had a duel with Sab Than, whom he did not kill due to Martian customs. Instead, Tars Tarkas killed Sab Than.
Following the victory at Zodanga, John Carter took his lover Dejah Thoris back to her homeland of Helium, where there was a celebration for the defeat of Tal Hajus and Sab Than. At this celebration, Tardos Mors, the grandfather of Dejah Thoris, decided to make an alliance with the Tharkians because of the bravery of Tars Tarkas. Also during this celebration, John Carter and Dejah Thoris got married and John Carter became a prince of Helium in the house of Tardos Mors.
Return to Earth[]
The operators of the atmosphere factory died and their machines were shut down. This caused there to be changes in the Martian atmosphere, it beginning to thin and the inhabitants of Barsoom beginning to die.
John Carter managed to open the doors to the atmosphere factor with the knowledge he had gained on his previous visit to the installation, but John Carter lost his life in exchange. John Carter had died on Mars, but he woke up alive and back on Earth in the Arizona cave where he had been before he was transported to Mars. John Carter, disappointed to be back on Earth, longed to be back on Mars with his lover Dejah Thoris. John Carter became wealthy for serving in the Civil War and bought a house back in his homeland of Virginia, which overlooked the Hudson River. He spent ten years living back on Earth in Virginia, and at night he would gaze at the planet Mars, and imagine Dejah Thoris and a young boy waiting for him there.
When he finally managed to return to Mars, he gave this house to his nephew Edgar and instructed for his own body to be buried in a special tomb that was well ventilated and could only be opened from the inside.
Film version[]
In the mid 1800's in the Arizona Territory, John Carter is prospecting for gold and having violent encounters with the local Apache Indians. After he was captured by Colonel Powell, who wishes to Shang-high Carter back into active military service. Carter tries to escape from imprisonment. John goes on horseback to escape and the accidentally runs into a group of apaches. When one of the apaches is accidentally shot, a fight breaks out.
Powell gets hurt, John goes back for Powell and the pair take shelter in a nearby cave, John discovers a large quantity of gold. A strange figure suddenly materializes in the cave; John kills his would-be attacker and, due somehow to the stranger's large elaborate medallion, is inadvertently teleported to Barsoom (Mars). There, due to his different bone density and the planet's lower gravity, John is able to jump fantastically high and throw killer punches. He is soon captured, by the giant, four-armed Green Martian Tharks under the rule of Tars Tarkas.
Elsewhere on Barsoom, the cities of Helium and Zodanga have been at war for a thousand years. The Jeddak of Zodanga, Sab Than, is now armed with a special weapon given him by the Therns, and proposes a cease-fire and an end to the war by marrying the Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris. The defiant Princess escapes and is rescued by John.
John, Dejah, and Tarkas's secret daughter Sola embark on a quest descending the sacred River Iss to find a way for Carter to get back home. There they find information about the medallion, and the process by which the Therns teleport ("telegraph") from planet to planet, but they are attacked by the Thern leader Matai Shang and his minions, the Green Martians of Warhoon.
After the attack, Carter is captured and taken back with Dejah, while Sola is able to escape. Dejah agrees to marry Sab Than, then gives Carter his medallion and tells him to go back to "Jasoom" (Earth). Carter decides to stay back and is now captured by the shape-shifting Matai Shang, who tells him about the secret purposes of the god-like Therns and their age-old manipulations of the histories of civilizations on different planets. John is able to make yet another escape thanks to the faithful Martian hound Woola, and he and Sola go back to the Tharks and ask for their help.
There they come to know that Tarkas has been overthrown as Jeddak by the vicious Tal Hajus. Tarkas, Carter, and Sola are subjected to a gladiatorial contest with two gigantic white Martian apes. After defeating them and killing Hajus, Carter is acclaimed leader of the Tharks. A vast Thark army, with Carter at its head, advances on Zodanga, then on Helium, and defeats the Zodangian army, killing Sab Than. Carter then marries Dejah himself and becomes Jeddak of Helium. That night, Carter decides to stay forever on Mars and throws away his medallion. Seizing this opportunity, Shang re-emerges from hiding and banishes him back to the Earth.
Dejah Thoris and John Carter.
Resuming the original framing story, it is revealed that Carter has undertaken a ten year long quest, looking for clues of the Therns' presence on Earth and hoping to find another medallion. His sudden "death" and unusual funeral arrangements would seem to indicate that he has succeeded and returned to Barsoom, leaving his "Earth body" in a coma-like state. His presence on Mars was via a sort of virtual body, and the death of his Earth body would end his life on both planets. He makes Ned his protector, giving him clues about how to open the mausoleum. Ned now hastens to the mausoleum, opens it, but finds no body. He has been covertly stalked by a Thern, in the form of a man with a bowler hat. As the would-be assassin prepares to strike, Carter suddenly reappears and kills him. He discloses to Ned that he never found any medallion, but instead laid a clever trap for a Thern to get that Thern's medallion. John then takes the Thern's medallion, invokes the necessary code words, and is instantly teleported back to Mars, to continue his Barsoomian life with Dejah.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Jonathan Carter was created by writer Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Appearances[]
Novels[]
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Films[]
- Princess of Mars
- John Carter
See also[]
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Wife; a Red Martian.
- ↑ Father-in-law; a Red Martian.
- ↑ Actor Antonio Sabato, Jr. portrayed the role of John Carter in the 2009 direct-to-video film Princess from Mars.
- ↑ Actor Taylor Kitsch portrayed the role of John Carter in the 2012 feature film John Carter by Walt Disney Productions.