A new alliance is forged.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chuck Wendig
Art: Alvaro Sarraseca
Colors: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Captured by cultists and recruited by rebels! The mystery of Turok’s past is illuminated as he, Nettle and Marak escape into the darkness of the tunnels beneath the Storm Lands – and their rebel guide attempts to convince Turok to kill a living god – the leader of the Varanid Empire, Imperator Vex! Also: Doc Spektor, Part 10! The story of the all-new master (and we use the term lightly) sorcerer continues… Doc tries to win back his beloved ex-girlfriend Sophie – and faces an uncertain future!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Turok has definitely kept me entertained as it’s gone on, though the last issue felt a bit wonky in what it had to do in the first part to explain the Storm Lands. Chuck Wendig is definitely enjoying playing in this world and I like what he’s doing with the cast, though it has a lighter touch to the character part of them for the most part outside of our title character. And he’s well paired with Alvaro Sarraseca as the designs for this are just a blast, kind of reminding me of old 70’s science fiction but without budgetary constraints when it comes to settings and creature design, which gives it a kind of fresh feeling in a weird way. The book has been clicking for me a lot better than I expected even with the little issues toi t.
Turok and his group got picked up by the mutants the last time around and Turok’s approach to most things is to just bash his way past as he tries to get to his daughter. We do get some good flashback material this time around showing where he and his daughter were a year ago as everything went south with the storm that came through that swept them here and I both like and dislike how Wendig has handled this aspect of the story. Part of me wanted it done earlier in the run so that the focus could be in the present, but by doing it this way we got spaced out connections to both father and daughter along the way. I’m still not a huge fan of regular use of flashbacks as it really kills story flow for me but it worked in this instance, grudgingly. All of it served to make me understand more of why he’s fighting as hard as he is, even as a father myself and knowing the why. It’s shown well through dialogue and artwork.
The bulk of the book focuses on the woman running things with these mutants as part of a rebellion. Known as Vigilant Cross, she provides some of the backstory as to how Imperator Vex came to power by destroying the Seventy-Seven religious side of society and forcing himself into a position of power. There are a lot of little details to it but the reveal to Turok that he’s hunting up children to drink their blood and eat their flesh to increase his libido so he can procreate is what really sets him off. Vex hasn’t been able to produce an heir in thirteen years but with the important number of thirteen in play with the same name of children being brought to him, he’s convinced it’s time and that will cement his position. Suffice to say, Turok and the others are now even more motivated and have some help, which means we’ll be barreling fast toward a conclusion I suspect.
In Summary:
Turok continues to be a book that surprises me in how much I’m enjoying it even though I wish it was spacing out its story in double to give us more downtime and more character time to understand this world. It’s moving quickly through things in a kind of cinematic action film way and it certainly works, thanks to some solid scripting from Wendig and great artwork from Sarraseca. But I wish it had the opportunity to be a bit more, to decompress some and let us really engage with the world and its characters. This issue answers a lot of questions and nudges things forward right with a new intensity coming into focus that’ll make what’s to come even more exciting to watch.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: November 22ndh, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
