History LIterature / JohnCarterOfMars

* ''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/62/62.txt A Princess of Mars]]'' . Serialized February-July, 1912, book form October 1917.
* ''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29405/29405.txt The Gods of Mars]]''. Serialized January-May, 1913, book form September 1918.
* ''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/68/68.txt The Warlord of Mars]]''. Serialized December, 1913-March, 1914, book form September 1919.
* ''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/72/72.txt Thuvia, Maid of Mars]]''. Serialized April, 1916, book form October, 1920.

John Carter also has been adapted into comic book format and published by companies like Marvel. The most prominent and recent adaptation is [[Creator/DynamiteComics Dynamite's]] ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'', which features several spin-offs and original stories exclusive to Dynamite, as well as crossovers with other properties like ''Literature/GullivarOfMars'' and ''Literature/{{Tarzan}}''. There were also Czech comic adaptations of some of the first books done in the 60s and 70s, apparently the only ones to ever follow the original storyline all the way to ''[[http://www.erbzine.com/mag15/1526.html Thuvia, Maid of Mars]]''.

The complete series is composed of the following novels, the first few of which are PublicDomain in the US due to their age (anything published in 1925 or earlier). ''All'' of Burroughs' works are PD almost everywhere else in the world. Since most countries now have a term of "life plus 70"—i.e., the author's lifespan, plus 70 years—and Burroughs died in 1950, his works entered the PD in Australia, Canada, the EU, New Zealand, and the UK no later than 2021.[[note]]Because Australia, and Canada used to use "life plus 50", and NZ still does, Burroughs' works entered the PD there in 2001. While Australia and Canada have since adopted "life plus 70", Australia didn't make its change retroactive, and it would now be PD in Canada anyway.[[/note]] That said, the ''trademark'' is another story entirely.

The complete series is composed of the following novels, the first few of which are PublicDomain in the US due to their age (anything published in 1925 or earlier). ''All'' of Burroughs' works are PD almost everywhere else in the world. Since most countries now have a term of "life plus 70"—i.e., the author's lifespan, plus 70 years—and Burroughs died in 1950, they entered the PD in Australia, Canada, the EU, New Zealand, and the UK no later than 2021.[[note]]Because Australia, and Canada used to use "life plus 50", and NZ still does, Burroughs' works entered the PD there in 2001. While Australia and Canada have since adopted "life plus 70", Australia didn't make its change retroactive, and it would now be PD in Canada anyway.[[/note]] That said, the ''trademark'' is another story entirely.

The complete series is composed of the following novels, the first few of which are PublicDomain due to their age;

* AdaptationalCurves: Many comic book adaptations of the novels give Green Martian females breasts. It's not clear in the novels if they would have breasts or nurse their young (being egg-layers). Of course, the Red Martian females are ''also'' oviparous, and there's no question but that their females have breasts (though what they use them for is an open question, since by the time the eggs hatch the young martians are well beyond infancy).

** The ending of "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" can also be considered one. At the end of the story John Carter and Dejah Thoris are still on Jupiter (they have a ship that can take them back to Barsoom, but still), the BigBad has not been defeated yet, and there is no reason to believe that the Morgors' planned invasion of Barsoom has been thwarted. This cliffhanger was left unresolved, at least partially due to AuthorExistenceFailure a year or so after the first part was published.

** In ''Chessmen of Mars'' Turan apologizes to Tara for forcibly carrying her to safety while leaving their companion Ghek in danger, explaining that if they had been three fighting men they could have died together but both he and Ghek are morally required to give their lives to save a woman. Tara accepts this with regret but not anger. That's just how things roll on Barsoom.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Warriors from Helium have a ''bad'' case of this. Though John Carter himself subverts this trope in ''Gods of Mars'' reminding himself that Dejah Thoris herself would never dream of sacrificing the good of Helium for her own sake - and neither should he.
** In ''Chessmen of Mars'' Turan apologizes to Tara for forcibly carrying her to safety while leaving their companion Ghek in danger explaining that if they had been three fighting men they could have died together but both he and Ghek are morally required to give their lives to save a woman. Tara accepts this with regret but not anger. That's just how things roll on Barsoom.

** Conversely, don't assume all Red Martians are good guys; the ones from Zodanga in particular wind up fighting John's friends in Helium an awful lot, and we see them being pretty despicable. Even the Heliumites can be as bad as anybody.
** The White Martians play this one straight on their first few appearances. However, after their religion got exposed, they integrated with society again. Carthoris, in ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', actually passes off a companion as a thern.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The court of [[spoiler: Issus and the other Black Martians]] in ''The Gods of Mars,'' who use Red Martian and White Martian slave labour for virtually everything except warfare. Particularly extreme cases include slaves that constantly speak for their masters (who are too lazy to speak themselves) and one female Black Martian who has a slave describe the world around her to ''avoid having to open her eyes.''

* DeathWorld: Barsoom's cities are safe enough (though beware the wars and the DeadlyDecadentCourt), but away from civilization, the dead world is an extremely dangerous place. Aside from being a planet-sized desert, just about every animal is either an easily-angered berserker of a herbivore, or is a carnivore with a special taste for human flesh. And if a place is ''not'' a desert, that means that something's going on and the place is even ''more'' dangerous.

** In ''The Chessmen of Mars'', the ReverseMole who saves Gahan and Tara was a childhood friend of Gahan's, enslaved.

* ReverseMole: In ''The Chessmen of Mars'', a character suddenly comes to Turan and Tara's aid, and reveals that he was one of the Gathol slaves held captive there.

* InsufficientlyAdvancedAliens: Martians have access to better advanced medicine, metallurgy, aircraft and firearms than we have even today. They still settle arguments by sword fight (due to cultural emphasis on honorable combat and to Mars being a dying planet where tech isn't very common outside of cities).

* FantasyCounterpartReligion/FictionalReligion: Burroughs gave the Red Martians their own religion based around the goddess Issus. The second book in the series, The Gods of Mars, prominently features this religion and the eventual discovery that it's [[ScamReligion all a fraud]]. Issus is just an old Black Martian, not a goddess. The book The Master Mind of Mars introduces another Martian religion centered around the god Tur. Unlike the Issus-based religion, which is global, this one appears to be limited to just the city of Phundahl. And like Issus, it's all a big scam. The statue of Tur in the temple is just an animatronic operated from within.

* SolarSystemNeighbors: The series holds that much of the Solar System is inhabited, from the red and green Barsoomians of Mars to the Tarids of Thuria (Phobos) to the Skeleton Men of Jupiter.

* AdaptationalCurves: Many comic book adaptations of the novels give Green Martian females breasts. It's not clear in the novels if they would have breasts or nurse their young (being egg-layers).

%%* UnfamiliarCeiling: Happens to Carter a few times, although he generally winds up as a prisoner in those situations.

%%* TheAce: Carter. And to a lesser extent, every other male protagonist.

* OurElvesAreBetter: The Black Martians are an {{Unbuilt|Trope}} version, predating Tolkien. Tall, inhumanly beautiful to the point of EvenTheGuysWantHim, a ProudWarriorRace even compared to the Red Martians, and (at least according to the creation myth) the oldest and purest of the Martian races, ruled by the living goddess of all Barsoom. And they therefore consider themselves to be the MasterRace, and exist by [[ToServeMan literal predation]] on the other Martian races, particularly the Holy Therns.

--->"I am a citizen of two worlds; Captain John Carter of Virginia, Prince of the House of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium. Take this man to your goddess, as I have said, and tell her too, that I as I have done to Xodar and Thurid, so also can I do to the mightiest of her Dators. With naked hands, with long-sword or with short-sword, I challenge the flower of her fighting-men to combat."

* CallASmeerpARabbit: The White Apes. All those other crazy multi-limbed creatures do have their own names, but they are repeatedly compared to horses, lions, etc. At least it's acknowledged that the locals would ''already'' have named everything, and what some of those names ''are''

* FantasyCounterpartReligion: Burroughs gave the Red Martians their own religion based around the goddess Issus. The second book in the series, The Gods of Mars, prominently features this religion and the eventual discovery that it's [[ScamReligion all a fraud]]. Issus is just an old Black Martian, not a goddess. The book The Master Mind of Mars introduces another Martian religion centered around the god Tur. Unlike the Issus-based religion, which is global, this one appears to be limited to just the city of Phundahl. And like Issus, it's all a big scam. The statue of Tur in the temple is just an animatronic operated from within.

** Phaidor fears this waiting for her when she is kidnapped by the Black Martians. Over the eras, they regularly raided the Therns' domains and capturing any women they can put their hands on, and only the women, with [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty the implications]] being that their fate is worse than death.

* FictionalReligion: Burroughs gave the Red Martians their own religion based around the goddess Issus. The second book in the series, The Gods of Mars, prominently features this religion and the eventual discovery that it's all a fraud. Issus is just an old Black Martian, not a goddess. The book The Master Mind of Mars introduces another Martian religion centered around the god Tur. Unlike the Issus-based religion, which is global, this one appears to be limited to just the city of Phundahl. And like Issus, it's all a big scam. The statue of Tur in the temple is just an animatronic operated from within.

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: "Swords of Mars" begins with a plot that involves John Carter going on an undercover mission in Zodanga to try and take down the assassins guild there, but after the assassins realize who they're dealing with, they kidnap Dejah Thoris and the plot switches to the more traditional Burroughs formula of John having to locate and rescue her.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: Various forms of thoat (a large, hairless grey-and-white creature with eight legs, a long head and neck and a wide, flat tail) are used as the equivalents of horses by several of the Martian races. Most stand around ten feet tall at the shoulder and are best suited to the enormous Green Martians, though references are occasionally made to the more humanoid races breeding smaller, less disproportionate thoats for themselves.

* KarmaHoudini: Ghron, the jed of Ghasta who serves as a secondary antagonist in "Fighting Men". He's by far one of the cruelest, saddistic and ugliest villains of the series, who tortures people for his own amusement, yet his evil reign is not put to an end and basically the only "bad" thing happening to him is that the protagonists escape his clutches before he can have his way with them.

* RomanticFalseLead: In ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', the story opens with the news that Carthoris's CannotSpitItOut has resulted in Thuvia's accepting the suit of Kulan Tith. Unusually, she then gets kidnapped, Carthoris goes to rescue her, and [[spoiler:Kulan Tith does not even feature until the very end, when Carthoris get her to his ship, where he can protect her and goes to leave, Thuvia begs him to stay though she knows she is dishonoring herself, and Kulan Tith steps aside]].

** In ''A Fighting Man of Mars'', Sanoma Tora is [[{{Pride}} proud of her wealth]], [[{{Greed}} contemptuous of a poor wooer]] until she learns he is related to RoyalBlood, [[DirtyCoward cowardly in captivity]], and [[spoiler:[[{{Turncoat}} treacherous]]]]. While her father claims to be a minor noble, many suspect he has no BlueBlood.

* SchizoTech: Though the Red Martians are more advanced that humanity in many respects (particularly with their airships and medical science), their weapon technology often comes off as pretty medieval. Justified by their honor system- they ''have'' powerful firearms, but swordsmanship is more highly regarded, so it's the weapon and fighting style that gets emphasized.

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Helium is known to be the ''the'' place to go for husband hunting damsels as John Carter attracts the best of Barsoom's warriors to his service.

* StrawVulcan: These come up a lot. Whenever someone declares themselves to be rationalists, "above emotions" or otherwise focused more on logic, it's a bad thing. Also, in almost every case, [[TinMan they're actually deluding themselves, and they're even more emotional and irrational than everyone else]] (the one exception, the kaldanes, don't even count as human by Mars' loose definition of the term).

* {{Turncoat}}: In ''The Chessmen of Mars'', the ancient I-Gos is perpetually praising his days. So thorough is his admiration that he changes his loyalties on seeing the hero and heroine demonstrate valor worthy of the Old Days.

** The White Martians, who used to govern Barsoom in its distant past, have long died out and reduced to reclusive civilizations such as the Therns and the Lotharians.
** The Yellow Martians have retreated to the North Pole and so far, only two of their major cities exist.
** The Tarids on Thuria (The Phobos moon, as Barsoomians call) had a powerful empire that stretched across their moon which they called Ladan. After a devastating war against another nation brought down their empire, the survivors retreated into a single city-state, which only a thousand people live hiding from all people using their psychic powers to render themselves invisible to outsiders.

* YouHaveWaitedLongEnough: In ''A Princess of Mars'', Dejah Thoris agrees to marry another prince, believing John Carter to be dead. He appears and leads on an attack on the city to free her -- carefully ensuring that someone else kills the prince, since she would be forbidden to marry the man who killed her fiance.

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: While this is not shown to apply to the majority of Martian creatures, John Carter does manage to gain the undying loyalty of the calot Woola in the early chapters of ''A Princess of Mars'' by treating him with the same kindness he'd show to a dog on Earth.

** Conversely, don't assume all Red Martians are good guys; the ones from Zodanga in particular wind up fighting John's friends in Helium an awful lot, and we see them being pretty despicable.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: The White Apes. All those other crazy multi-limbed creatures do have their own names, but they are repeatedly compared to horses, lions, etc.

** Explosive: The casing is made of glass, and contains a powder that explodes when exposed to sunlight.[[note]]While the [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis author]] says the powder uses Radium, it's handwaved as TranslationConvention, along the lines of 'the notes use a Martian term, I expect Radium to behave this way, so Radium it is'.[[/note]]