What we fight for.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chuck Wendig
Art: Alvaro Sarraseca
Colors: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Turok’s raid on Terminal Prison has gone according to plan – but now he must face the prison’s fiercest guard – Karkaro, a terrifying war-dinosaur bred only for battle! Now the Dinosaur Hunter becomes the hunted! Also: Doc Spektor, Part 5! The story of the all-new master (and we use the term lightly) sorcerer continues… as Doc gets jumped by two of Hurgn’s goons – and meets his roommate Frankie’s new girlfriend!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of Turok introduced us to this world pretty well without giving away too much. While I’m iffy on Wendig in novels I’ve enjoyed his comics writing a good bit more and a title like Turok is a tough one to tackle, so I was definitely curious to see what they’d come up with here with it seemingly operating on its own. What helped to sell it even more was Sarraseca’s artwork as he brought some great layouts to the page, even if two-page spreads annoy me a big in digital form sometimes, with good character designs and some real fun when it comes to the giant dinosaurs running around. And who doesn’t like a good lizard in a suit working for the man kind of design.
The first issue gave us a bit of his legend and the way that it’s seeded itself throughout the human population, which helped serve him in his goal in the short-term here even if it’s not something he’s interested in. The push into the Terminal Prison is one that made for some really good material the last time around while this one comes across as a lot more personal. He’s fighting for a reason and through some decently done flashbacks scattered throughout it we see him with his young daughter from better times. This is definitely an easy to understand big motivator for why he’s doing all of this and in just a little bit of space overall it humanizes both him and his daughter very well.While I expect a bit more nuance and depth in the coming issues about it this is an easily accessible point that’s well done.
While that’s what drives Turok what drives the issue is the action. His push through what’s being thrown at him is definitely fun as we get some good set pieces with the guards and what they offer up. But it all goes to the bigger level when they bring out Karkaro, a larger “war-dinosaur” that one of them rides. Turok is the kind of opponent where they definitely want him dead but also want proof so Karkaro can’t eat all of him and Turok is facing one tough cookie with the kind of toughness of his exterior. The back and forth is fun and while the end to it is familiar the whole sequence shows off Turok very well. The follow-up to it is what works the best though as we get more on what’s going on with his daughter, and other kids, but also just the level of violence that we’ll see the book employ from time to time as we get an accidental death, of sorts.
In Summary:
Turok expands on things in the right way here without doing an information dump but giving us more of an idea of what he’s fighting for. The scale of this world is slowly expanding and I’m definitely interested in seeing what Wendig has in store for it, especially if we continue to get such fun artwork and designs from Sarraseca like we have in these first two issues. The bulk of this issue really is all about the action, and it delivers, along with a touch of heart and emotion to give it weight and meaning. It’s definitely fun and I’m looking forward to more.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 27th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
