Turok #1 Review

Written by: Ron Marz

Art by: Roberto Castro

Colors by: Salvatore Aiala

Letters by: A Different World Studios’ Troy Peteri

Published by: Dynamite

Before I start this review, I have to admit that my familiarity with Turok as a character is very much limited to the fact that I know he had a comic at multiple occasions over the years and that he was the face of a pretty popular video game series that my friends would play. That and that it involved dinosaurs. That’s it.

Having said that, it seems this new series by Ron Marz and Roberto Castro is tailor made for new readers to the character as the first issue is very light on plot but rich in character placement within the world. It seems like Marz makes sure that this issue is very new-reader friendly to allow anyone to pick up this issue and know a couple of things: 1. That Turok is a Native American warrior who demonstrates remarkable skill as he is being chased through Colorado in the mid 19th century to rescue his brother and 2. The dinosaurs will make an appearance.

Castro and company on the art do a good job of conveying the setting the story is placed in. As this is Colorado in the 19th century, it’s mostly just rough terrain and nothing to see for miles and Castro showcases this nicely. It also offers a nice contrast to a second setting that appears at the end of the book.

The character work is also really nicely done as Castro gives each character a nice, unique feel - the lawmen especially look different enough from each other even though they are somewhat interchangeable. As for Turok’s design, it’s nothing revolutionary as he resembles quite closely what he looked like in the past (after a quick Google search to confirm).

I do also have to say that Salvatore Aiala does a marvelous job on colors as it would have been easy to drown out a lot of the pencils as there is a lot of brown in the comic. However, Aiala counters that by not only making sure the pencils are showcased, but adding more vivid colors to counteract all the brown.

All in all, it was a fine debut issue for this new volume of Turok. It’s a little light on story, but the intent and set-up for the rest of the series was there.