Edgar Rice Burroughs is most famous for Tarzan, but the work that launched his delightful pulpy career is often cited when people talk about the origins of Superman's powers. That's why for this #SupermanAnalogue we're talking about John Carter of Mars! 
Reminder: when he first appeared on the scene, Superman's powers were explained as being from a higher gravity world. Hence muscles built to handle so much more force could propel him into the air with mighty leaps and allow him to easily deal with vast weights.
Well, it was the same but in reverse for John Carter. He was an ordinary man from Earth that was teleported to Mars, where he found a steam punk society full of monsters and swashbucklers. However, Mars is much smaller than Earth, so he was a leaping, super strong champion there.
The series began with "A Princess of Mars", establishing John and his companions: Deja Thoris (the titular princess), Tars Tarkas (his barbaric lancer), and Woola (HIS SPACE DOG)! Later books would introduce his son Cathoris and continue to flesh out the world of Barsoom (Mars).
Burroughs was VERY prolific, so the series has many entries and the world is thus extremely fleshed out (sadly Burroughs goes broad, rather than a Tolkein style super detailed world). It's very early science fiction fantasy, so the originality contained has been aped a lot.
The series had it's share of successes, but none really took hold like it's sibling series.
It had a few movies that I want to reference however. Asylum (the "Transmorphers" guys) made a rush job in the wake of James Cameron's #Avatar (which I said was the closest we'd ever get to a John Carter movie at the time). I mention this because it was rough, but stood out
Of course there's the Disney live action attempt, which was also rough. I was so disappointed with this movie, especially because I wanted an animated film in the style of Tarzan, but it's also just a lot of surface details without depth. Still, fun to see the material adapted.
While I wish I had been a part of covering it for @AnotherPass, @ihoardlibraries and @DJ_Stormageddon did a great job when they took over my show during last year's Round Robin: certainpov.com/another-pass-p…
Anyway, John Carter was a super powered swords and sandals adventure story. He popularized the idea of gravity based super powers and that fed into the swirl of pop culture that produced Superman.
It's a fun franchise that I recommend for people looking for imaginative tales, though definitely a simpler prose than modern sci fi fantasy. But where else are you going to find a leaping former Confederate soldier turned warlord and his space dog battling six limbed barbarians?
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