"The Air Pirates of Mars, Chapter 3: Requiem for a Warlord!"
Chained, starved and broken on a dank dungeon floor is the shape you'll find John Carter in, after his deadly encounter with the White Apes.
His jailer, Stara Kan looks on smugly, with the reassurance of Dejah Thoris's captive audience at his side. John threatens Kan's prospective health after he dares to lay rough hands upon his wife.
John's reward for severing his chain from the cell wall is the undesired company of an eight-legged Banth lion. Ye Gods! Why must every damnable creature on Mars have extra limbs? Those surplus legs flail wildly about without traction, as Carter chokes the life out of the beast with his length of chain.
Carter breaks free from the dungeon to an upper chamber where sits the upstart, Stara Kan. Kan had prudently placed a thought-control collar around the Earthman's neck.
As surety for Dejah's welfare, all John must do is swear fealty to the red menace of Mars. Try as he may with all his mental might, Stara Kan is unable to malleate JC to his demands.
With one final defiant display of willpower, John topples his oppressor, but it avails him naught as he still cannot guarantee Dejah's safety.