I am Turok!
Creative Staff:
Story: Ron Marz
Art: Roberto Castro
Colors: Salvatore Aiala
Letterer: A Different World Studios’ Troy Peteri
What They Say:
Turok discovers the greatest mystery of the Lost Valley is … Turok himself?! Stunning revelations abound as Turok learns the long-buried truth about the Lost Valley, and about himself. Now he just has to live long enough to escape this time-lost land and the fate waiting for him thanks to the bounty hunter who has doggedly pursued him. Oh, and dinosaurs too! More prehistoric peril by Ron Marz and Roberto Castro!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It never helps when there’s a decent sized gap between issues, especially early in a series and mid-arc. Turok took a few months off since the previous issue in April but it’s thankfully a book that’s fairly easy to reconnect with at this point as it’s just leaning into its mysteries. Ron Marz has some good fun here and I’m curious to see where it all goes by how he gives us an ending page and it’s a delight to see Roberto Castro get to work such variety. I really like what he presents in the book in general to date when it comes to characters and locations and this installment really is no different in what it accomplishes. It has the right feel and flavor of the period while blending in what it needs to for the pieces that don’t belong.
Turok’s life has been kind of all over the place and seeing him thrust through a portal before to where he’s now dealing with Bionosaurs was pretty fun, especially after dealing with classic dinosaurs in the Lost Valley. His confusion is simple and expected but he does think quick enough to get back to where he was with Andar and the soldiers so they can try and deal with the strange being threatening Turok. It’s the usual kind of piece where everyone is outclassed by what this alien being can do but luck and Turok are on their side and they’re able to winge him just enough to wound him, forcing him to retreat. It’s not exactly cringe-worthy but for what the position of this being is supposed to be you end up expecting him to have better defenses. It’s a quick series of events that brings him down and causes him to retreat into energy signature, which of course Turok has to follow.
There was always going to be some kind of weirdness here when it involved randomly appearing portals and people transporting through them from different time periods as we saw previously. Within this structure, however, we see that it’s part of something much bigger and this strange being is set to protect the various Lost Valley’s overall across the dimensions and this one in particular. Which he’s now failed by dying and disappearing. With Andar there trying to get Turok to leave as he’s not keen on trying to understand any of this, I like that Turok is drawn to it and the words that were spoken, causing him to reach into the “machine” overall, which draws on about a dozen different Turok’s from across the timeline. Dynamite’s always played a bit loose and multiversal with how their Gold Key properties operate and that’s fine even if I wish things would run longer but this look to be a hoot if we get a Team Turok for a while.
In Summary:
The three-month gap between issues isn’t too big of a problem overall simply because we’re still early enough in the run but I can imagine it undercutting some of the energy those opening installments had. It’s definitely a fun issue that moves things forward and exposes Turok to an even bigger world and I’m very curious to see what the real intent of everything is here. The dynamic between all the characters is pretty strong for what we do get here and I like seeing the disparity in how Andar and Turok view everything while still trusting each other. Marz keeps things moving well here and Castro delivers a lot of good stuff, from the fun of Bionosaurs at the start to the big reveal at the end that has me eager for another issue.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 17th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
