For years, the Marvel Omnibus has been one of my favorite ways to purchase comics. Despite whatever is going on this month on the stands, regardless of whether the current event is Civil War great or Fear Itself 'meh,' the greatest Marvel comics from every era get collected with gorgeous binding, remastered art, brilliant creative teams and the best story lines, produced in sequential order. The Marvel Omnibus, in short, is the criterion DVD box set collection of comics.

With Disney's John Carter coming to movie screens soon, now is a great time to read up on Marvel's John Carter, Warlord of Mars stories, so that you can understand the epic awesomeness of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Barsoom novels.

The John Carter, Warlord of Mars omnibus will be released February 22 and is available for order now from Amazon.

Marvel's top talents of the 1970s take on Edgar Rice Burroughs' savage swordsman of Barsoom! John Carter, a hunted soldier on the Western frontier, is transported to an alien world filled with six-armed aliens, sinister super-science and the love of his life, the incomparable Dejah Thoris! A must-have science-fiction epic in the Mighty Marvel Manner! Collecting JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS #1-28 and ANNUAL #1-3.

Two things Frank Cho specializes in: monsters and sexy women. So John Carter: Warlord of Mars femme fatale Dejah Thoris makes for an excellent subject, as Cho proves in this gorgeous illustration.

Walt Disney has released the first teaser trailer for John Carter, based on the pulp hero created by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan). The character has until now been best known as "John Carter of Mars," but Disney has simplified the name in the interest of launching a franchise - that's right, it's already on track to be a trilogy.

John Carter will be directed by Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo) and is scheduled for release on March 9, 2012. Here's the official synopsis:

The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch ), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe ) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins ). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of [the Martian civilization] Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.