Publication Story
Dejah Carter is a original character to Dynamite Entertainment continuity, not part of the John Carter's original books, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. She first appeared in Warriors of Mars #5 and was confined to that single appearance until her story received a conclusion an year later in the regular miniseries Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris.
Biography
She is the reigning Warlord of Mars in a distant future, over 500 years after John Carter's arrival on Barsoom. She is his direct descendant and shares the same name as well as an uncanny resemblance to his wife, Dejah Thoris. In her timeline, Barsoom has being invaded and conquered by Earth forces (referred to as Jasoomians) who used advanced technology to terraform the planet, bringing back the oceans and thicken the air (which ironically deprive them of the chance of turning them into superhumans just like Carter) with Dejah Carter leading the resistance against them.
During a battle being fought between the Jasoomians and Barsoomians, a time-displaced Dejah Thoris from an even further past before she married Carter, making it a thousand years from the current time period, was pulled into a time portal and ended up caught in the battle and due to her similar resemblance to Dejah Carter, is captured by Earthmen under the belief she is the resistance's leader. Upon retreating, the resistance suspect that their prisoner was of high importance and decide to infiltrate the base.
Carter's group find her ancestor as she was escaping with the help of Bor Vik, a Red Martian scientist from her own period. Both groups managed to make their way safely and she informs Dejah Thoris about the situation. Since the Earthman terraformed the planet, the time portal used to return to their time is submerged under the deep sea and she warns Thoris she cannot return home. During a private conversation, Carter reveals she is secretly dying of exposure to a nerve gas and requests that her ancestor take her place in leading the resistance.
When the Earthmen discover the existence of the time portal, they use a submarine to recover it and use it for their own ends. To prevent them from doing this as well as to unmake her own future, she devises a plan to send Thoris back in time. Carter causes a diversion by surrendering herself to the enemy and distract them long enough to detonate a bomb inside her teeth, killing herself as well as the Earth commander. Dejah Carter's sacrifice spared her from suffering a slow and agonizing death and ultimately allowed Thoris to return to her own time period.
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