John Carter of Mars is a fictional Virginian soldier who acts as the initial protagonist of the Barsoom stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

A veteran of the American Civil War, he is transported to the planet Mars, called Barsoom by its inhabitants, where he becomes a warrior battling various mythological beasts, alien armies and malevolent foes.

John Carter was the lead character in the first novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, set on a fictionalized version of Mars known as Barsoom.

In September 2021, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. released John Carter Of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten, by Geary Gravel.

On Mars, which its natives call Barsoom, Carter encounters both formidable alien creatures resembling the beasts of ancient myth, and various humanoids.

He wins the hand of a Martian princess, Dejah Thoris of Helium, but after several years of marriage he sacrifices himself to save Barsoom from the loss of its atmosphere.

Carter then collects the wealth that resulted from his discovery of a rich vein of gold ore right before his original passage to Barsoom.

Unable to return to Mars, he spends several more years in a small cottage on the Hudson River in New York, where he once more appears to die on March 4, 1886.

He returns to Earth on a number of occasions afterward to relate his adventures to his nephew ("Burroughs"), revealing that he has mastered the process of astral travel between the two worlds.

[3] In 1933, King Features Syndicate, wanting a science fiction strip to compete with the popular Buck Rogers, discussed a John Carter adaptation with Burroughs.

However, Burroughs and King Features were unable to reach an agreement, and the syndicate decided to use an original strip—Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond—instead.

[3][4] In 1941, United Feature agreed to the creation of a John Carter strip, hoping it would become as successful as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

In 2023, Glénat Éditions published La Princesse de Mars - Tome 1, a graphic novel adaptation by Jean-David Morvan (script) and Francesco Biagini (art).

In Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series final novel, Settling Accounts: In at the Death, a character named John Carter of the "Tarkas" estate (a reference to Tars Tarkas, one of the green men of Mars), appears before a U.S. general after having protected African-Americans from the genocide taking place elsewhere.

In Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i, the protagonist, James Links, is always called "John Carter" by the WIRED officer, Baan Dorfloun.

In Episode 15 of the anime series To Love-Ru, a prince named Carter, from the planet Burroughs, arrives on Earth to conduct a hunt in a hidden alien game preserve in Guyana.

In "Secret Origins", the pilot episode of the cartoon TV series Justice League, the first US astronaut on Mars is named J. Allen Carter.

John Carter of Mars was a major influence on other science fiction/fantasy tales and characters through the 20th century, including Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Superman, Adam Strange, Dune, Warp!, Den, and Star Wars to name just a few.

"[14] In the first chapters of Gore Vidal's novel Washington, D.C. (1967), the character Peter Sanford – aged 16 at the outset of the plot – indulges in vivid and detailed fantasies of being John Carter, and adds explicit erotic scenes not appearing in the original Burroughs books.