

Found this great article explaining all this...
http://movies.ign.com/articles/121/1219006p1.html
Without John Carter There Would Be No Star Wars
Just how much of a debt do today's sci-fi heroes owe to JC?
February 17, 2012
Star Wars. Avatar. Star Trek. These are some of the titans when it comes to popular science fiction franchises. But 100 years ago, science fiction was still in its infancy, and a hero named John Carter enjoyed the sort of popularity that characters like Luke Skywalker and Captain Kirk do today.
Carter is the hero of many of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom novels, which explore life on a dying version of Mars. Burroughs (who also created Tarzan) may not have invented the science fiction genre, but his books played a monumental role in building and shaping what fans expect from it. It's rare to see a sci-fi story that isn't influenced in some way by the Barsoom novels. And with a John Carter movie hitting theaters early next month, we figured now was the perfect time to explore how various sci-fi films have been influenced by and continued the legacy of John Carter.
Interstellar Romance
Love knows no bounds for science fiction heroes, even across the cold depths of space. A major focus of the first Barsoom novel, A Princess of Mars (and the upcoming movie adaptation), is the growing bond between Earthman John Carter and Martian princess Dejah Thoris.
Many sci-fi adventures provide the hero with a woman to fight for, or at least focus plenty of attention on Earthmen wooing pretty ladies with unusual skin tones. That's pretty much Captain Kirk's secondary mission in Star Trek.
However, the John Carter/Dejah Thoris relationship most reminds us of the romance in James Cameron's Avatar. As in Avatar, it's a relationship that builds from two strangers (one of them a soldier from another world) attempting to understand one another, and it grows during the looming threat of war. Various physical and existential divides threaten to keep the two apart, but in the end, love prevails.
The Space Western
Even as Burroughs was doing his part to build the science fiction genre, he was also becoming the first author to merge science fiction and Western elements. John Carter is a hero who wouldn't be out of place in a Wild West movie. He's an ex-Confederate soldier who headed west after the Civil War to seek his fortune as a gold prospector. He even battles a tribe of Apache warriors before his fateful journey to Barsoom.
Well, shit... this is a hell of a long article. Not going to paste it all, but the link is above. Educate thyselves!
