Dec
2020
Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #093: The Monster From The Past
Turok: Son of Stone #50
A momma dinosaurs goes ape on anyone who dares touch its eggs.
In medias res strikes again! One panel in and Turok is already in fatal peril,
ready to be munched in twain by the jaws of a man-handlin' honker! The narration
already purple proses it up, so I'm left out of a job.
Of course, that wasn't how our heroes first met the beast. traversing an
unexplored, shadowy region of Lost Valley reveals great pools shrouded in ice,
dooming its denizens to an icy grave, including the big boy above. Figuring
mother nature has already taken care of the threat for them, Turok and Andar
venture on and try not to think about it.
The beast leaves their mind entirely when a spur-of-the-moment earthquake rocks
the valley, tearing down the great mountains surrounding the path and nearly
plunging them into a fatal abyss. This is par for the course for their everyday
life, but the great quake also does a number on the frozen pools, cracking and
thawing them thanks to their first exposure to the sun in generations... and out of it emerges a monster with the
morning munchies.
LOOK OUT
TUROK!
THERE'S A BIG MONSTER BEHIND YOU!!
JUST TURN AROUND TUROK!!!
As the prehistoric predator bears down on them, now's a good time to find out
they're out of poison arrows! T & A book it into the nearest cave, prompting the
beast to bugger off in favour of easier prey. Inside the cave, our heroes
learn this isn't just any old honker — it's got LORE!
Ancient cave etchings aren't just for sweet deer-hunting illustrations anymore;
these ones depict the creature's oviparous patterns,
showing it laying eggs every two months and leaving them to hatch under the surface of the
water... until an influx of sea life gobbled the lot of them, suggesting the
terror that chased them in here might be the last of its kind.
Today's towering threat may have a tragic backstory, but don't
think it deserves pity — it's a badass mama jamba! The pair emerge to watch it
take on a triple threat of t-rexes, but even those giants aren't tough enough to
even scratch the beast. When a momma's itchin' to lay a new brood, no force on earth
can stop it, apparently!
Just as the cave painting stated, the monster marches into the river to drop a
load of eggs before looking for a fight elsewhere. Turok and Andar venture in to
ensure a new generation of ecosystem-demolishing monsters never see the light of
day, but are warded off by hungry sharks and a testy gator, which momma dino
tackles to perform a choke slam on.
Yes, sharks! We've seen a decent variety of prehistoric sea life throughout
Son of Stone, but sharks (or more specifically, "shark-like fish") are a new
one. Sharks were probably around millions of years before even the dinosaurs
started larking about, yet for some reason they're not treated with the
relic-life reverence as the good ol' croc.
For some reason we just don't see
them as evolutionarily-unchanged the same way, even though most sea life has
probably gone countless generations without the need for a refurb. Plesiosaurs,
kronosaurs and zeuglodons are just a few of the few of the beasts more commonly
associated as prehistoric sea-menaces, so it's intriguing that the story just
settled for sharks... or shark-likes, at least. Easier to find reference images,
probably.
also HOLY SHIT
SHE SPLIT THAT CROCO IN TWAIN!!
With momma on the prowl again, the pair brew up a fire to ward it off, giving
them the time to attack the eggs unhindered... until a bloody plesiosaur shows
up to give chase. Once again they hoof it into a cave for safety, only this one
is unfortunately big enough for the beast to follow them in...
... only to come a cropper courtesy of a crowd of chompy coelacanths. How much
sea life is there in this river anyway? Surely one of them's bound to eat those
eggs eventually, right? If only it were that easy.
Turok and Andar change tact: they wouldn't have to rely on the wildlife killing
each other to save their bacon if they had poison arrows. They sneak past the
mama honker and stock up on deadly arrowheads, and let 'er rip... to no avail!
At least, not immediately. After a perilous delay with its prey held to its
waiting maw, the beast finally falls, nearly crunching Turok as its final act of
defiance. Bloody hell. It doesn't half make them work for their victories, does
it.
That still leaves the eggs, though, and the river continues to dredge up more
and more new threats — this time there's a school of swordfish and a bleedin'
giant squid! The latter proves a handy deus ex machina, providing Turok a veil
of dark ink to shroud him as he shatters the eggs, the beasts below scoring
themselves a tasty snack. Our heroes rest easy knowing the beast's lineage has
been ended forever, before it does irreparable damage to the Lost Valley.
Although a simple enough yarn, its sheer variety of high-octane animal
encounters are a point in its favour!
The backup features in this issue have a heavy Native American slant.
The Keys of Knowledge featurette on Prehistoric Americans cast a spotlight on
the Aztecs and their various conquests, like the Toltecs. It's pretty light on
content, as you'd expect, but it's a fine excuse to soak up the sweet armour and
cool architecture.
The text
feature focuses on Ishi, believed to be the last survivor of the Yahi tribe,
whose insight and culture would have been lost had he not found his way into
white society... and whose people and culture wouldn't have been subjected to
genocide if the whiteys weren't so pissy.
As was the case with many of the text
features, it dramatises, romanticises, and glosses over a lot of the material,
including his later life as a live-in university project. Though hardly the spotlight of
Gold Key comics, I do value the text features for introducing me to parts of
American history I was otherwise oblivious to... and ultimately a little big
disgusted by, but so it goes, don't it.