Nov
2020
Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #084: New Unities
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #26
Turok meets some old acquaintances.
On a quest to find allies in their war against the Lost Land's conqueror, the
Campaigner, Turok and pals find themselves captured by Captain Red! The time-displaced pirate takes a chance to
revel in the situation — how can the same shit happen to the same guy twice,
huh? He frees them from their net as he introduces his swarthy new crew--
-- but Andy takes the opportunity to sock him one for the near-death experience
he inflicted last time, only to get walloped by bionisaur second-mate Proto for
harming the boss. Turok joins the fray, always ready to defend his student from
harm...
... but Red diffuses the situation. No, that wasn't villainous revelry — that was
friendly revelry! Red's changed his tune after his last run-in with Turok, and
has since become the leader of the Lost Land's lake tribe. He and Keth are good
buddies, actually, and allies in their war against Campaigner.
Speaking of, guess whose forces just showed up! It's not the big man himself,
but his cronies are nothing to sneeze at. Chichak and Red relish the opportunity
to let their violent ways shine. Andy isn't too eager to take part and would
rather skedaddle... but Red gives the kid a break and kills his assailant,
lending him a sword so he can do it himself the next time.
Next time is sooner than he'd hope — Mari's under attack! Andy saves his great
aunt, giving the scoundrel a glancing slice while Keth does the dirty part.
He'll protect whoever he can, but Andy is no more comfortable with ending lives.
After itching to play with Turok's heavy artillery in their early adventures,
it's nice to see the kid acknowledge the sanctity of life, and when and where
force should be applied. Keth plays by different rules 'cause he's got no qualms
just shooting the bastard.
They wipe out the attackers -- all but one of them, who they choose to
interrogate on their next target. Red has a somewhat forceful approach, but
Turok talks him out of it and leaves the man to crawl back to his master.
Finding shelter is still their top priority.
They journey to the village of the lake people, where Red's wife Shar provides
them all with food and shelter before the next leg of their journey to the
winged men's village. She very much embodies the virtues of the tribe, is a veritable
cornerstone of her community, and a woman whom Red cherishes to no end. After
his scalliwaggery in both the past and present, it's refreshing to see the old
sea dog put his penchant for leadership to constructive use, and life has
rewarded him with a humble but satisfying existence.
Turok and Andy are gracious for the meal, but choose not to eat the fish, due to
their dietary habit of eating snakes. This is yet another instance of Turok's
bizarre relationship with the slithery serpents, previously established in Mike
Baron's stories in #16 and the Yearbook, but I'm unaware of any real-world basis for this
blood feud between Kiowa people and snakes. I mean, unless it's nothing to do
with the culture and Turok just has an unprecedented hatred for the things, and
forces that hatred onto his students. Please introduce Turok to cute snake
pictures. Even vicious, poisonous predators deserve love.
Word gets back to Campaigner, and he renews his efforts to raze the land and rid
Mothergod's legacy of its treacherous servant. Seer lurks in the wings, being a
total drama llama.
Meanwhile, having Turok out of her hair isn't making life any easier for Regan — her assignee and his companions are runaway fugitives, have left no trace to be
found on Earth, and everyone's barking at her for answers. What's a girl to do?
The gang finally arrive in the village of the winged men, where they make an
appointment with their new leader — Archer! The same bloke who talked Turok out
of serving Mothergod all those crossovers ago! He and Armstrong were stranded in
the Lost Land after some shenanigans during the crossover event The Chaos
Effect, and this is among his last appearances in the Valiant universe, at
least in-person and in the present day — the various eon-spanning adventures
outlined in the likes of Rai #0 foretold a different fate for him, but,
you know, who cares about that.
Turok approaches him with a request to aid their war effort against the
Campaigner; more villages fall by the day, and they'll need a sizeable army to
stand against them. Archer's philosophical ways do not condone bloodshed in the
name of peace, and he respectfully declines; no amount of arguing will change
his mind.
Without the manpower they'd hoped, the group return to the lake village to take
stock and see who's next on their list of potential allies... only to find their
home a smouldering wreck, having faced the wrath of Campaigner's bombing squad.
There are no survivors -- not even Red's cherished Shar. Grief-stricken,
distraught, and enraged, Red is in no mood for lollygagging. If they're to
attack, they attack now!
Leading up to last stand against the Campaigner! Yet another mid-part story
that dabbles largely in fact-finding and character-exploring than making great
leaps in plot, but with a party like this, it's a fun crowd to have bounce off
one another.
The marauders' attack, although largely an excuse for action in an otherwise
quiet issue, does add some nice character moments, like the
contrast between Red, Turok and Chichak in their approach to violence. You knew the visit with Archer wouldn't lead anywhere — since when does Turok lead an army?
And you knew Shar wasn't long for this world from the way
Red spoke of her. One character left unspoken of is Captain Red's robotic
partner from his last foray, OU-8-2. Was the poor lug sent offline in the
interim...?
After last issue's dry run, this introduces Tribal Writes proper, with Turok and
Andy answering reader-submitted letters; Turok's replies are given in a stoic,
informative tone, while Andy's level of tact is probably a few pegs below one of
GamePro's exploding heads. Andy helpfully drops teasers for upcoming stories written by Mike Grell,
while Turok not-so-helpfully ignores all questions about his whereabouts during
Unity, potential run-ins with other strandees of the Lost Land, or information
on his upcoming Nintendo 64 game.