The blending is beginning.
Creative Staff:
Story: Phil Hester
Art: Brent Peeples
Colors: Morgan Hickman
Letters: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Magnus fights for his life against a horde of killer robots. Samson confronts a terrifying beast beneath New York. Dr. Solar unleashes her power. Turok suffers a devastating loss. And all four heroes discover the walls of their reality crumbling under the attack of a specter from their past.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Gold Key Alliance has been an interesting book from the start with the new interpretation of the characters while sticking to some of the “required” aspects of their personalities and designs. With Dynamite having done a range of books for some of these characters in the last few years that were hit or miss to be sure, they’re certainly open to more interpretation and finding what might work in the long term under new creators. Hester’s gotten me interested in just about everyone here at this stage, which is a surprise since I never liked Turok, while Brent Peeples has done a great job in handling all the variety being thrown at him – even more so this time around – while handling both the dialogue scenes and action scenes with seeming ease in terms of layouts and flow.
With this installment, we’re still working through the same range of characters as they get their batch of pages to move their individual stories forward while the connections are starting to surface more. Each of their tales are a bit drawn out simply because of the nature of multiple separate stories being told, but it’s how things are happening at the same time that works well. While each of them are discovering new things or encountering new threats, the blending of something different is coming in as some of the primary characters, such as Magnus and Turok, are seeing alternate versions of the world – similar to how Samson has, though Samson’s views are a different kind of blending. For the other two, they’re experiencing other reality versions of themselves and it’s pretty striking. And highly disconcerting for both men as they’re dealing with their own immediate problems as well.
While there are things to like with Solar as she struggles with helping the oppressed where she is and seeing Samson becoming a hero in New York with the rise of dinosaurs there, Magnus’ piece is the one that intrigued me. While he and 1-A are getting closer to who is behind everything in their story with the Mekmen, his view of another reality has him as a literal robot fighter that reminded me of the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em toys. Seeing him as a robot alone definitely is unnerving as that potential has been explored before. Turok’s vision isn’t quite as personal in a way but he ends up seeing a timeline where the world has fallen to ruin and instead of riding his motorcycle he’s riding a dinosaur and fighting the good fight. Both realities for each of these men is as interesting as the ones we’ve gotten so far in this book, which makes me hopeful that the end result of this miniseries might be that Phil Hester has unlocked how these characters can move forward in some way that’s engaging.
In Summary:
While I’m sure of where Gold Key Alliance is intending to go, especially with the two seeming villains/manipulators in the mix, there’s definitely a lot to like here. I’m typically not a fan of these kinds of split stories within an issue angle, especially for this many characters, but Hester and Peeples are just nailing it in making each of them feel worthwhile and engaging, expanding some over others as necessary to make it work. There are a few more reveals here overall and figuring which reality is which is part of the fun, and seeing which one you’re more interested in as well. The problem I have, of course, is that I think each of them are interesting and want to see more of all of them and all their possibilities.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 8th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
