Turok is a Native American living in an alternate Manhattan in 1210 AD. Shunned by his tribe for something to do with his dead parents, he hides out in the forest alone. Then one day English Crusaders arrive demanding gold - and they’ve brought a surprise weapon with them: dinosaurs, or “Thunder Lizards”!
Aside from vaguely recalling a SNES game called Turok, I know nothing at all about the character. He’s Turok and he hunts dinosaurs! Writer Greg Pak shows us that there’s not a whole lot else to the character with this book. Turok’s an emo pariah in a village full of modern-day speaking Native American jocks who’s basically just sitting around waiting for Pak to get on with the story. Luckily the always-evil English arrive so the reader is treated to some unremarkable dino action.
The characters are woefully underwritten with Turok being an exception, though even he’s not that memorable a protagonist with his murky past and unconvincing motivations (why’s he saving them again?). The story is both predictable and generic (gold as the bad guy’s aim - really?), not to mention contrived – after spending a couple days in each other’s company, some characters can conveniently speak the other’s language! It doesn’t help that Mirko Colak and Cory Smith’s art renders all the Native American characters the same way so you can’t tell them apart. You know who Turok is because he’s got the punk-y haircut.
Like a lot of Pak’s comics, Turok was boring and left me indifferent towards the series. This first volume is an unexciting, forgettable venture featuring a one-dimensional character.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Volume 1: Conquest
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