Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Vol. #1: Conquest by Greg Pak, Mirko Colak, and Cory Smith
Series: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter vol. #1
Published by: Dynamite on September 9, 2014
Pages: 128
Source: Purchased by me
Genre: Graphic Novel, Alternate History, Fantasy, Dinosaurs
"Shunned from his tribe, a young Native American named Turok fights to survive, making a lonely life for himself in the unforgiving forest. But his hard-won cunning and survival skills face the ultimate test when man-eating Thunder Lizards attack his people! Why are dinosaurs here? How have they survived? And will Turok use his abilities to save a society that's taken everything away from him?" (Source: Goodreads description)
My Thoughts: My personal experience with the Turok franchise has only been through brief moments playing the 2008 XBOX360 video game (click here for more information on this VERY different game).. Suffice to say, I was not at all prepared for the amazing journey ahead of me. I generally pick up anything that has a dinosaur on it, is about a dinosaur, or somehow involves treating dinosaurs nicely, so when I saw the horrific display of 'manhood' on the cover of Conquest, I was intrigued, but worried. Ultimately, I should have only been worried about whoever was against Turok and his soon-to-be-friend dinosaur companions.
I have always been fascinated with Disney's Pocahontas and Mel Gibson's Apocalypto for the same reason. (SPOILER WARNING FOR APOCALYPTO, KIND OF?) Both films/concepts introduce an interpretation of native, less technologically advanced human life in a region before European settlers came into the fray. Conquest depicts an even more alternate history version in which not only are Europeans coming to take over the land and displace natives, but they have brought along DINOSAURS to help do their bidding. It's not all as bad for the dinosaurs as the cover leads you to believe, and I really enjoyed the use of dinosaurs in a way that isn't simply scientific experimentation or time warping. I also really enjoyed the use of somewhat diluted and washed out colors in this graphic novel as a way of emoting exactly how dark and hopeless most of the storyline is. The content in the images was on full display, versus using bright, flashy colors to simply display the actual artwork itself (although the artwork itself was also very impressive).
