A Queen of Mars Book 4: The Heart of Mars is a comic written and drawn by Mick Beyers. When the world of Bardudar falls under sinister influence two of its young royals flee in search of help. This is a science fiction fantasy drama comic that has a large cast, strange creatures, deep mysterious lore, and it takes place in a unique ancient world. The first character we see is Princess Novan of Bardudar whose father appears to be mad and is quick to anger and violence. Prince Cordu is her friend from a neighboring kingdom who is trying to both save Novan and seek help. Some of the Barsoomians we’ll see are Queen Phaidor, her lover Isdar, the Thark Ned, and a few others. This story begins with Cordu climbing the balcony of the palace where Novan lives, much to her shock. He is trying to take her with him as he flees to somewhere safe but she wants to stay and help her people. She recalls the Scientist and believes that they could seek her aid but their conversation is interrupted by a banging at the door. This takes place on an Edgar Rice Burroughs-influenced Mars with different humanoid races, supernatural happenings, and dinosaur-like creatures. The action here can get very gory with some blood. This moves at a slower pace as lengthy conversations are frequent and there can be a lot to take in. This has the tone of a sci-fi epic like Star Wars or Dune mixed with something like Red Sonja or Conan. There is very high tension here with pervasive drama and multiple violent moments. The dialogue here is spoken in a proper English style (like something from a British period drama) and it is very verbose with quite a few unique words. Though this is mainly spoken aloud there is some informative narration as well. There are multiple word-heavy pages and a few that feel like it. This is a riveting, entertaining, and pulpy issue that sets the stakes early, showcases its strong characters, and has a lore-filled story set in a strange world. There is a five page bonus comic about Ned when he was younger.
The art here is drawn in a realistic but lightly cartoonish style with decent shading; this is in black-and-white. Most of this story takes place outdoors in a landscape with mountains, plains, large bodies of water, and occasional tree. The buildings here are grand, made of stone, and they can have unique layouts. Backgrounds here are frequently a solid white but there will usually be something physical in the foreground. The expression level here is high with characters having real and constant reactions to what goes on. Shock and fear are common emotions with anger, rage, and sadness too; happiness and joy is very rare. Faces here have strong features from the eyebrows to the lips with most expressions, even the subtle ones, being very clear. There is some slight face sameness among a few of the ladies so you’ll need to pay attention to the hairstyles. The creatures look like dinosaurs, psittacosaurus and pterodactyls specifically. Weapons used are swords and laser-like guns. There are some brutal hits and gruesomeness that leads to heavy gore with a decent amount of blood. Action scenes are relatively frequent with a variety of panels, angles, and an overall smooth flow. Everybody here is wearing tight, revealing, little, or no clothes at all; nudity really isn’t sexualized here.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like science fiction fantasy stories that have a sizable cast of royals and their close companions dealing with strange evil with heavy drama, deep lore, and a large world then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness, nudity, lewdness..
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Carrying our people from a doom we know, to one we do not.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mccomics/queen-of-mars-1-4/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 43
Violent Pages: 19, for 44% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 5
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 2
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 3
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
