Dejah Thoris, I was aware of from the phenomenal run she has had at Dynamite, but I had never read the novels themselves. I’ve started reading them now though, she is a fantastic character. The costume she wears can distract people I think, because when you first meet her in the novels, it’s really clear that she is in charge, she has the upper hand, it’s John Carter that is trying to work out how things work. I have been having great fun writing her. She is awesome.
Dejah Thoris is only flaunting her sexuality by Earth or Jasoomian standards. On Barsoom she is wearing the equivalent of jeans and a t-shirt.
Burroughs took the idea of a white man turning up in some remote village and being utterly amazed to see the women’s breasts out in the fresh air, and transposed it into the fantasy pulp world. It’s a classic trope, where the young dashing man is sent to a planet where the natives only wear cling film and demand lessons in Earth Kissing.
The difference with Dejah is that from the start she is not impressed with John Carter. She finds him gauche, bumbling and socially awkward with his total lack of Barsoomian manners. Yes she succumbs to his Jasoomian wiles eventually, but she is not just a good looking girl to drape over his arm. She is written as a smart regal woman who can handle herself in a fight, and I’m so happy to write that character!
When we meet her she doesn’t know where her husband is, as he has been missing since the last Dynamite arc finished, she has had a weird black and silver sword delivered, her right hand man Tars Tarkas has vanished, a huge statue of Red Sonja has appeared, and then a mad gunman appears and starts taking pot shots at the people of Helium. Dejah is understandably vexed by all this, and the first time we see her, she is in full on battle mode. No royal manners, no nice conversation, just a chip on her shoulder and a mean right hook.
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