Re: John Carter (the character, not the movie) I was always under the impression that he was the/an avatar of the God Mars. Am I the only one?
Doesn’t ever remember a childhood.
Always a fighter, known and admired for it by all, even enemies
Utter physical perfection/martial prowess, with seemingly little effort.
Research into his past by his “nephew” (their blood-relationship is unclear, and it seems from the text to likely be one of those Southern “honorary uncle-hood” relationships that people create with close friends or compatriots) reveals he’s been around for a good long while - perhaps immortal.
The scene where he was “spirit-walking” out of the cave where he (didn’t) die, and saw “his planet” Mars.
I’m rather glad they didn’t go too much into Rocket’s past. If you look at the HUD during his indigtment, Halfworld and Lylla are clearly mentioned. This means that ideas conceived by too much atmospheric lead and cocaine[sup]1[/sup] could be MCU canon.
This is completely off-topic, and I apologize for continuing the hijack, but this is probably the best explanation I’ve seen for John Carter’s unique characteristics.
1 - Yes the storyline was fun, but did it really belong in The Incredible Hulk’s book?
Lasciel, that’s exactly what I meant by “letting go of the assumption that Carter was human”. I don’t know if it was meant to be obvious, but you’re the first person I’ve met besides myself who’s put forth that conclusion.
Carter is a healthy young man in the prime of his life, at least as depicted in the movie. We see no other human on Mars, so we don’t have any real idea of how normal he is.
You could just as plausibly posit Kal El is a avatar of Zeus or Hercules or something.
Carter in the books is capable of travel between planets via sheer willpower, telepathy, and blocking of the telepathy of others; is an absolute master of every form of combat ever invented, including those he had previously never heard of; and is apparently immortal. We don’t need to see any other humans on Mars to know that that’s not human-normal.
Yeah, I think the movie really could have distinguished itself by embracing the old-timey tropes of the book rather than “more realistic” modern science fictional ideas. Yes, tanks to contain the buoyancy ray, egg-laying Red Martians, the works. Again, just like in Guardians of the Galaxy, you can throw in off the wall stuff and you don’t have to explain it to death. Rocket is a talking raccoon, got it in two seconds, we’re moving on now. Oh, you got to Mars by wishing? Fine with me, moving on.
Besides, John Carter did not originally will himself to Mars. He went there when he “died” on earth, and returned to his body on earth when he"died" at the end of the first book. Then he taught himself to transfer spiritually at will. I don’t remember if the “nephew” writing the account was continued after the first two books.
The nephew trope hangs around for several books. I think it’s “Chessmen of Mars” where the framing story is just Carter suddenly appearing at the nephew’s door solely to tell him a story about Carter’s daughter’s adventures.
I think Xandarians are just HumanAliens. The Celestials (Marvel’s Jack Kirby giant inscrutable space gods) may have just liked the biped primate design.
Ronan is a blue HumanAlien, from the Blue Kree minority. I think in the comics there are technically more “White Kree”–that lack significant blue pigmentation and are basically HumanAliens.
Hey, any royalties to help Bill Mantlo’s family are cool with me.
Unless you know the god Mars can’t, either, I’m not sure what that proves. I have heard the claim “John Carter is the god Mars” somewhere before…probably on this message board, though.
As it stands now, the blue ones are a minority, although I don’t think it was always so. The whole think reeks of retcon although I don’t know the details.
I don’t think the Celestials are responsible for the basic humanoid design though. They tinker with primitive races that are already humanoid and make them smarter, give them different abilities, etc. Some of the eldest beings in the universe like the Stranger and Collector look human. I think a basic “human” appearance is just really common in the universe.
