Does anyone know what big Barsoom characters were turned into the giant stormtroopers? (I couldn’t even find an EU explanation/retcon on Wookieepedia.)
Correction; I did find an EU explanation of the giant stormtroopers, which in turn kind of explains who they replaced.
They were apparently T’Syriél renegades equipped with modified stormtrooper armour by Sk’ar. That makes sense, though the comic never really made this apparent. The T’Syriél, whom I assume are Green Martians re-drawn to have two arms instead of four, appear so briefly at the beginning of the first of the two issues that it’s easy to forget them all-together.