A Princess of Mars - 1917 versus 2012

Original Artwork - 1917

 Dejah Thoris - 2012

My 11 year old son enjoyed reading the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Tales, so I took him to see the new movie of the first book in the series, John Carter of Mars.  We both enjoyed the movie and weren't too put off by the plot changes made in order to make it to the big screen.  More interesting to me than the plot changes, however, was the way that the characters were changed to make them suitable to a modern audience. 

John Carter, the protagonist of the books, is portrayed in the movie as an adventurous, though none-too-bright, disgruntled and angry civil war veteran, who is mostly out for himself until he falls for the Princess of Mars.  In the book he is a southern gentleman, who though a man of war, is filled with virtue and compassion, he even teaches the green men of Mars to treat their beasts of burden with kindness.

The contrast between the 1917 princess and the 2012 version is even more striking and is captured in the two poses found in the images above.  The modern princess is a warrior in her own right in contrast to the Dejah from 1917.  The following quote from the book also illustrates how "far" she has come:  "I am happy here. I do not know why it is that I should always be happy and contented when you, John Carter, a stranger, are with me; yet at such times it seems that I am safe and that, with you, I shall soon return to my father's court and feel his strong arms about me and my mother's tears and kisses on my cheek."  Alas, not the stuff of the modern princess.