Wait and See on this One.
Turok, Son of Stone has been read and found to meet the standard set by Truman, which is enough to say that this series will last for quiet a while. I had to get my hands on issue #1 by Shooter to see what he would do with it. I may not stay with it, but it will not be because it lacks substance or the art is not to par, quite the opposite; this is a well crafted comic in all respects. It’s just that how many times we need to see Turok and Andar fighting other natives and dinosaurs? Having read and collected all Valiant’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter series it seems a bit too much. I will continue thru the first story arc and this team of artists and report how This Turok has affected me.
Turok, to be a good character, needs to draw from Native American traditions to stay true. I think Shooter has mastered Truman’s knack for bringing authenticity to the character, thus allowing us to care about him and his way of doing things. Andar is too superficial yet. We will see if he grows through this series.
One issue that needs to be stated up front is that Turok’s presence in what appears to be Central America type place was not explained. Turok arrives and immediately helps two slaves that will be sacrificed. One of them he names Andar. The other dies heroically allowing them to escape. This theme of heroism occurs again with another slave sacrificing for Turok and Andar’s benefit. The cliffhanger at the end of this issue is the appearance of a white woman that will be Turok’s nemesis, like other incarnations of Turok.
He shall see how long Shooter can borrow from Truman’s Turok and when he will fly on his own to delineate a different path for what will always be Turok: Dinosaur Hunter.