Who is John Carter?

Who is John Carter?

Let’s talk about a character that is infinitely strong and can leap tall buildings in a single bound. No I am not talking about Superman, I am talking about John Carter of Mars. There are a lot of John Carter fans out there who are screaming “we didn’t forget him!” “we knew about John Carter before everyone else.” Unfortunately in the public psyche the name John Carter is synonymous with one of the biggest movie flops of all time. Even still, so few people went to see John Carter, not many people would know that fact. John Carter, according to many historians and science fiction aficionados is not only the first modern science fiction story but arguably one of the most influential characters to science fiction of all time. Today we are going to talk about the history and influence of John Carter to science fiction and why such a revered classic hasn’t been able to catch on and become mainstream. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs did not create the Science Fiction genre. As we discussed previously the concept of science fiction had been developed much earlier. Writers like Mary Shelly (Frankenstein), H.G. Wells (The Time Machine), Jules Verne (From the Earth to The Moon) and quite a few others, are considered the founders of science fiction. Just to be clear I and many others define science fiction as a work that uses science and technology to drive a narrative where extraordinary things happen. Prior to that such as in fantasy, magic and mysticism drove the narrative. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter on the other hand has directly influenced and dictated the course of science fiction all the way up to the present day. Lets break down some of the key tropes that came from the John Carter series and you be the judge about just how influential John Carter has been to Sci-Fi. 

Planetary Romance

A Princess of Mars is the first novel of the Barsoom series of novels, also known as the John Carter Series. A Princess of Mars is considered to be a seminal work of planetary romance. Now based on that title and the title of the book you might think this is a “Save the girl, save the world” type deal. However Planetary Romance is more defined as the exploration of different planets, worlds, and cultures. A key staple of the planetary romance is the ability to travel between worlds, by spaceship or other means. Although the concept of culture shock did not originate with Edgar Rice Burroughs, he was the first to use it in space. Also having written the Tarzan series of novels Burroughs was very good at creating and illustrating different cultures, which is probably why the Barsoom series works so well. So applying the culture shock narrative to a cosmic scale is also something innovative that is included in the science fiction sub-genre of planetary romance. 

Essentially planetary romance is universe building. Like Tolkien who influenced fantasy with world building. Burroughs influenced science fiction with universe building. It’s creating a completely different universe that has a history and lore of its own. With the concept of planetary romance we wouldn’t have Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar, Firefly, Doctor Who, etc. 

A Western in Space

As you may or may not know a “Western” typically takes place in post Civil War America. The time period being 1865-1900, is usually when a “western” takes place. The character John Carter is a Civil War veteran and was prospecting for gold in the west before he was whisked away to Mars. On Mars he finds himself not only caught in the middle of a civil war but also fighting natives just like any western. Again movies and shows like Avatar, Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon, etc. all are influenced by John Carter.

The Superman

Throughout A Princess of Mars, John Carter realizes that he is not the same man physically he was on earth. He has nearly unlimited strength and overall is “better, faster, stronger” It is discovered that because John is accustomed to the gravity of earth he is much stronger and faster than anyone on Mars. Superman is powerful on Earth because the gravity on earth is much lower than Krypton. Comic Books, nearly all comic books have “borrowed” ideas from the John Carter series. This isn’t conjecture, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, C.C. Beck, Jerry Siegl, Joe Schuster, all have mentioned and credited John Carter as inspiration in someway shape or form for many of the comic book heroes we know and love today. 

The Human Helps Save the Alien World

On Mars there is somewhat of a civil war going on, and the fate of the planet all rests on the outcome of this cosmic civil war. Now if that plot doesn’t seem familiar to you then I don’t know what will, but until Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote John Carter it really hadn’t been written before. There is clearly a bad side and a good side and John having fought for the confederacy on earth, this time he ends up fighting on the right side of cosmic history. 

Save the Princess (Save the Girl, Save the World)

Now prince charming, and white knights have been saving princesses from the tower since almost the beginning of time, John Carter is very different. First off, Princess Thoris is, from all accounts extremely beautiful, unlike damsels in distress though, she is smart, witty, courageous, and determined. Burroughs in 1912, wrote Princess Thoris as an exceedingly strong female character which was obviously uncommon for the time. Even though much of the plot of “A Princess of Mars” is about saving the Princesses life and virtue, it was still groundbreaking to have a female character play such a strong role in the story like Princess Thoris. Although “saving the princess” might feel like a common plot, on a cosmic scale no one did it before Burroughs. I challenge you to read “A Princess of Mars” and not think of Han Solo and Princess Leia. Therein lies the problem with John Carter and why it’s damn near impossible for it to be adapted, you’ve seen it already. 

I’ve Seen This Already

The Barsoom series of novels was revolutionary at the time it was written. It was exciting and it was innovative. It refreshed old fantasy tropes and made them modern. Tropes that people never considered to apply to science fiction. Edgar RIce Burroughs inspired countless authors after him just like Tolkien did with fantasy. Unlike Tolkien however, Burroughs seems to have been forgotten. He inspired authors who inspired authors, who inspired screenwriters, and in all of the inspiration John Carter was lost. A Princess of Mars was published in 1912, and for decades Hollywood thought it could never be made. First they thought people wouldn’t want to see a serialized set of movies. Flash forward to 2019 and there are nearly two dozen Marvel movies that make over a billion dollars each. Hollywood then thought that the technology wasn’t there yet to do the story justice. It’s true, visually it would have been extremely difficult to make John Carter from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. The visuals of the martians, their technology, were just beyond the capabilities of Hollywood. All the while fragments of John Carter were taken and used as inspiration for other stories, that got turned into movies. Leading all the way to 2009’s Avatar by James Cameron. 

The similarities between John Carter and Avatar are undeniable. That doesn’t mean that from a story perspective and a cinematic perspective it isn’t an extraordinary achievement. Also I am not saying that James Cameron plagiarized, copied, or any other inflammatory accusations. I am simply saying that like scores of authors before him James Cameron used science fiction tropes established by John Carter to create and extraordinary movie. But with the creation of Avatar someone finally decided that the technology was ready. So movie executives dusted off the John Carter scripts that were piling up and three years later made “John Carter” and it failed miserably, because everyone thought it was a copy of Avatar. 

The 2012 film adaptation of John Carter failed for a few reasons. I can’t possibly blame Avatar entirely for its downfall. It wouldn’t be the first or even hundredth time Hollywood failed miserably in adapting a book to film. However if you read some of the critics reviews of the film, some seemingly uniformed reviewers use terms like “throwback”, “derivative”, “uncreative”, “uninspired” I don’t know how something can be derivative if it’s the original. It’s very possible still that people just didn’t like the movie or it failed in other areas, although the one thing that can’t be said about the movie is that it isn’t beautiful. I think in the age of reboots and remakes, John Carter deserves a second chance. So if anyone in Hollywood is reading this, give me a call I have a few ideas. 

The First is Artwork for John Carter and the second is one of the original poster for Star Wars…..you be the judge