Jul
2020
Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #052: Killing Time
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #13
Arrr! Pirates take over Turok's pagecount!
Dr. Regan Howell has been taken Turok to the Port Cynthia hall of anthropology
for a scientific study, and it's confirmed he clearly is a man from
before their time — his vitals clearly line up with his old-school diet and life
in the wild, and there's no trace carcinogens in his body like most folks in the
modern day.
While it's good to have this cleared up, Regan is insistent this remain under
wraps. Apparently some of Turok's notoriety has gotten out, as a journalist
snoops on them through the window, though Turok smashes his camera and sends him
packing. The journalist hits the bricks, only to fall down an open manhole...
... and land at the feet of a sordid crew of beasts and undesirables. Who on
earth are these guys?
This is Esau Vestment, or better known by his self-given title, Captain Red.
A former slave from 1752, who soon rebranded himself as a ruthless, self-serving
scourge of the seas, out to murder and plunder as was the style at the time.
While burying his latest stash of treasure in a cave in the Americas, he found
himself whisked through a portal to lands unknown — the Lost Land! Although
saved from a tyrannosaurus rex by the robotic natives, they hadn't necessarily
saved his skin.
This was during the time of Mothergod's reign over the Lost Lands — the events
of Unity, if you recall! — and she hardly had use for slaves. After all,
she already had Turok, who was a perfectly good scout and attack dog (until he
wasn't).
Instead, Red found himself a test subject for the rainbow rower's bio-mechanics
lab, with his body subjected to experiments of flesh and steel. For five months
he served as their lab rat, replacing his missing eye with a digital optical,
and his left arm with one of serrated gold-chrome. Good trade? Probably not.
Of course, the heroes of the Valiant universe eventually brought their fight to
the rainbow tower, sowing chaos throughout Mothergod's forces. In the confusion,
Red made good his escape... but made sure to grant freedom to the poor souls who
also suffered his same fate.
He instead found the rejected specimens — bionisaurs, boasting more than just
metallic brain implants, but many left mutated or stunted by their variety of
alleged enhancements. Two of the bionisaurs, Proto and Misfire (a triceratops
and unspecified theropod respectively) knew a saviour when they saw one, and Red
saw the making of a new crew. With the help of the service robot OU-8-2, the
fearsome foursome finally escaped the wretched tower.
On the way out, Red witnessed Turok laying waste to the forces he was once allied
with. "Just my kind of scum," Red muses, "not that I felt
inclined to help him any." However, Red and his crew were not to enjoy their
freedom — before they'd even cleared the base, Unity had occurred, seemingly
destroying the Lost Land, and Red, along with all the other denizens, were
whisked away by Solar's power, to land wherever it was believed they originated
in time and space.
Thus, Captain Red and his men have found themselves in the sewers of
Port Cynthia. With OU-8-2's data banks, they've worked out they are, indeed,
back on Earth... but not in Red's own time. They've spent a few weeks lying low
and learning whatever they can, but despite the hullabaloo, Red's agenda remains
unchanged: to reclaim his lost treasure!
Tim Truman takes the reins, and gives us this quirky change of pace. Seeing Mothergod's reign explored some more and how it effects the unluckier refugees of time is an interesting little throwback, a chance to show that Turok wasn't just a one-off, she snapped up whoever she could get her hands on!
Captain Red's a funny one; the fact the bulk of the story is told through his recounting makes this issue stand out, and apparently the only reason he came to be was because Rags Morales really wanted to draw a pirate (according to trivia in Comics Scene #41). He's an odd duck in the context of Turok, but Rags clearly relishes it, delivering an exquisitely detailed sequence of his time before the Lost Land, and having a blast drawing Red's disjointed, flowy get-up.