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Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris Reading order (Dynamite Comics)

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Created by Edgard Rice Burroughs in 1911, the Barsoom series — also called the John Carter of Mars series —  is one of the most influential science fiction and fantasy tales of the 20th Century. The story features John Carter, a veteran of the American Civil War who is transported to the planet Mars, known as Barsoom by its inhabitants where he lives dangerous adventures, falls in love with the princess of Mars and saves the world. Some classic tales!

John Carter has influenced characters like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Superman as well as other massive stories including Dune, Star Wars, and Avatar. He was also a popular character among many famous people like Carl Sagan, Michael Chrichton, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke.

This is then no surprise that John Carter found his way into the comic book format. In the past, John Carter has been adapted by companies like DC Comics (as John Carter featured in Tarzan and Weird Worlds), Marvel Comics (in John Carter Warlord of Mars), and Dark Horse (see Tarzan / John Carter: Warlords of Mars).

But the most important publisher is Dynamite (Red Sonja, Evil Dead)  which has released many series in the John Carter Universe since 2010. His main series Warlord of Mars ran from 2010 to 2014 and spawned several spin-offs, most notably Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris as the Princess of Mars is the breakout character of the comics. Several crossover stories have also been published, with other popular female characters from Dynamite but also with other franchises.

In 2012, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., the family company in charge of handling everything associated with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, sued Dynamite Entertainment over trademark infringement. It never stops the publisher who released new comics during all that time. The matter was settled in 2014, and both parties worked together to relaunch the series as John Carter: Warlord of Mars.

The Warlord of Mars franchise is still expanding today, and to help you find your way, follow this Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris Reading order!

What to read before Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris Reading order?

This is the perfect place to recommend the books, and you’ll notice that Dynamite has adapted only the first four books.

You can also check out the series John Carter, Warlord of Mars published by Marvel in the ’70s.

Dejah Thoris and The Warlord of Mars Reading order

Since the beginning of this adventure, Dynamite released several series, spin-offs, crossover stories, and a few one-shots. Following is a listing of all the series published by Dynamite Entertainment in their Warlord of Mars franchise in publication order:

    • Warlord of Mars (2010-2014)
    • Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris (2011-2013)
    • Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom (2011-2012)
    • Warriors of Mars (2012)
    • Dejah Thoris and the White Apes of Mars (2012-2015)
    • Dejah Thoris and the Green Men of Mars (2013-2014)
    • Lords of Mars (2013-2014)
    • Dejah of Mars (2014)
    • John Carter: Warlord of Mars (2014-2015)
    • John Carter: Warlord of Mars Special #1 (2015)
    • Swords of Sorrow (2015)
      • Swords of Sorrow: Dejah Thoris & Irene Adler (2015)
    • Dejah Thoris Vol. 1 (2016)
    • Pathfinder: Worldscape (2016)
      • Worldscape: Warlord of Mars One-Shot (2017)
      • Worldscape: Swords Of Sorrow (2017)
      • Worldscape: Dejah Thoris One-Shot (2017)
    • John Carter: The End (2017)
    • The Greatest Adventure (2017-2018)
    • Dejah Thoris Vol. 2 (2018)
    • Vampirella/Dejah Thoris (2018-2019)
    • Barbarella/Dejah Thoris (2019)
    • Warlords of Mars Attacks (2019)
  • Dejah Thoris Vol. 3 (2019-2021)
  • Dejah Thoris: Winter’s End (2021)
  • Dejah Thoris vs. John Carter of Mars (2021-2022)
  • John Carter of Mars (2022)
  • Dejah Thoris: Fairy Tales (2022)
  • Dejah Thoris Vol. 4 (2023-)

Dejah Thoris/Warlord of Mars Omnibus Edition

Let’s first point out that Dynamite Entertainment has released a few omnibuses (in softcover):

Dejah Thoris/Warlord of Mars, trade paperbacks

This adventure starts 100,000 years before the time of John Carter with Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom which details the fall of its ancient civilization.

What was Dejah Thoris doing all those hundreds of years before John Carter arrived? This question has been explored in several series, but most notably in Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris – the longest of all with 37 issues.

Other prequels to ‘A Princess of Mars’ have been released since then including Dejah Thoris Vol. 2 in 2018…

And also the last Dejah Thoris volume whose publication started in 2023 takes place before A Princess of Mars.

  • Dejah Thoris Vol. 4 (2023-)

 

It’s time to reconnect with Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic story as Dynamite’s Warlord of Mars is an adaptation of ‘A Princess of Mars’. John Carter is an ex-cavalry officer in the Confederate Army who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars, joined on his adventures by Tars Tarkas, his Martian comrade, and Dejah Thoris, a Martian Princess.

Taking place between ‘A Princess of Mars’ and ‘The Gods of Mars’, the Princess of Helium leads an archeological field trip to unearth the dark secret of the ancient battle site beneath the fabled ‘face of Mars’ formation.

Warlord of Mars continues to adapt the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs along with some expansion stories. First comes the 3-part story ‘Heretic Of Mars’, a murder mystery of Barsoomian proportions taking place at a time when John Carter returned to Earth. Then, we have the adaptation of ‘The Gods of Mars’

The third volume three contains the two-issue story ‘Worms Of Mars‘ centered on Carthosis, followed by a five-part adaptation of the third Barsoom novel ‘Warlord Of Mars’:

Before John Carter of Mars, there was Gullivar of Mars! Created by Edwin Arnold in 1905, Lt. Gullivar Jones journey to Mars with a magic carpet and fell in love with a Martian Princess. The character didn’t find success but inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs. Dynamite Entertainment brings these characters together, telling the story of their first meeting! 

John Carter is not the only pulp hero of Burroughs, there is also Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) who first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes and became a literary star. He’s also headlined his own comic book series — at this time, Lord of the Jungle (2011) — and it seems natural for Dynamite Entertainment to have these two legendary characters collide in a crossover event called Lords of Mars! There was 15 Lord of Jungle published before the crossover, and this series has not been collected.

The peace John Carter brought to Helium and Thark is new and fragile. On the eve of a Red & Green festival to balm age-old hatreds, Dejah Thoris is kidnapped. The ordeal triggers her lingering nightmares of abuse and helplessness at the hands of brutal Tharks. And the kidnapper is a nightmare personified: Voro. He caters to a taste some green men never lost: the red meat of Helium women…

All of Mars is united under John Carter, but forces behind the scenes are plotting to tear the Red Planet apart. A conspiracy threatens to trigger an all-out war between the Red Martians and the savage Green hordes – can Carter’s most steadfast ally, the mighty Tars Tarkas, overcome his own bestial urges and save the planet? Those are the last issues of Warlord of Mars.

It’s time for a celebration! Dynamite Entertainment marks its 100th comic made in their Warlord of Mars franchise with a special one-shot featuring several stories. The events depicted in this one-shot were directly followed up by Warlord of Mars #0 and the miniseries Dejah of Mars.

Now comes the relaunch! Following ERB Inc.’s lawsuit, a new regular series was relaunched with ERB Inc.’s approval and it lasted 14 issues. John Carter must save his adopted world from an adversary who is every bit his equal on the Red Planet: Captain Joshua Clark, formerly of the Army of the Potomac and now the strategist for a species of star-hopping conquerors.

Warlord of Mars was not the only one to be relaunched! At the beginning of 2016, Dynamite chooses to relaunch its three top female characters: Red Sonja, Vampirella, and of course, Dejah Thoris. The Princess of Helium wears more clothes than usual in this short-lived series where she goes into a self-imposed exile, where she assumes a new identity and new duties as a rookie soldier in the Barsoomian outlands. This ‘reboot’ didn’t really take and lasted only 6 issues.

What about some crossovers? First, Dejah was part of an adventure featuring Vampirella, Dejah Thoris, Red Sonja, Purgatori, Lady Demon, Chastity, Jungle Girl, Jennifer Blood, Kato, Lady Zorro, Irene Adler, and many, many more! The Princess of Helium even teamed up with Irene Adler:

  • Swords Of Sorrow: The Complete Saga
    Collects Swords of Sorrow #1-6, Chaos! Prelude one-shot, Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #1-4, Masquerade & Kato one-shot, Dejah Thoris & Irene Adler #1-3, Black Sparrow & Lady Zorro one-shot, Red Sonja & Jungle Girl #1-3, Pantha & Jane Porter one-shot, Miss Fury & Lady Rawhide one-shot

We continue with the greatest heroes of the Edgar Rice Burroughs universe coming together as the crew of the good ship Venture, with none other than Tarzan as their captain. From the creator of Fables. 

Pathfinder: Worldscape! The Pathfinders Valeros, Seoni, Kyra, and Merisiel are drawn into the interdimensional Worldscape, where the greatest warriors throughout the history of Barsoom, Golarion, and Earth clash in an ancient battle of life and death! Only the most dangerous among the combatants – a assortment which includes such legendary heroes as Red Sonja, John Carter and Tars Tarkas of Mars, the jungle adventurers Tarzan and Thun’da – have any hope of surviving the deadly gladatorial pits and joining with the Pathfinder heroes in armed revolt against their oppressors!

Vampirella / Dejah Thoris. When an alien scout ship crashes on Mars, Dejah Thoris must risk reigniting war with the Green Martians and becoming dinner for the white apes. But the stakes are raised so much higher when the ship is revealed to carry Vampirella, who is on a desperate mission of survival-one that might end before it truly begins!

Barbarella/Dejah Thoris. Barbarella, the siren of space, meets Dejah Thoris, Princess of Barsoom, and together they must solve a murder mystery that spans time and space in order to find their way home.

The Warlord of Mars meets Mars Attacks! This is the battle between the dashingly heroic John Carter Of Mars and the neverendingly power-hungry little green men of Mars Attacks! 

There is some new palace intrigue and adventures for Dejah Thoris as the Princess of Mars must discover why her world is freezing, then continues her quest on Earth to discover the mystery that may save her home world before an ancient and mysterious race of immortal “gods” arrived to reclaim Mars!

John Carter of Mars headlines a new series and finds himself again back on Earth as an invasion plot is underway…

Published in 2017, John Carter: The End takes place in a possible future. Centuries have passed and time has taken its toll on Mars. Conflict burns across the landscape. A war of supremacy and genocide at the hands of a brutal despot has brought the planet to the edge of collapse. A search party has finally located an aged John Carter and Dejah Thoris, living in quiet seclusion on a desert moon, in perpetual mourning for their lost son. How could they be Mars’ last hope?

Finally, let’s go back to the beginning with a retelling of Snow White mixed with the story of Dejah Thoris. Once Upon A Time, a queen most jealous sought to destroy any woman fairer than she. And so, a beautiful woman struck out into the wilderness, desperate to evade the queen’s envious wrath. The beauty would find allies in the wild, unlike any she’d ever seen before. And she made plans to return to the queen, to lay claim to the planet of Barsoom…

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