[Meeting…] Turok

Some of you may relate the name Turok to the video games released in the late 90s (Turok Dinosaur Hunter, Turok 2 Seeds of Evil, Turok Rage Wars and Turok 3 Shadow of Oblivion) but the truth is that the character is well before those video games, as he appeared for the first time in 1954.

Although it is true that The Turok that we saw in the video games was not exactly the same as the one created in the 50s, the basic concepts of the original character were maintained for decades, despite the changes introduced by different publishers when trying to update the character.

Two Indians in the lost valley

In the first adventure of this character (published by Dell Comics and Western Printing and Publishing), we were shown two Indians, one more adult (Turok) and the other a teenager (Andar), who in one end arrive at the Lost Valley, an area where terrifying beings exist, such as monsters and dinosaurs (an idea that was also developed in Gwangi Valley).

From that moment on, the adventures of Turok and Andar will be summarized in traveling through the Lost Valley looking for a way out and helping the innocent people who cross their path. Survival in such a hostile environment is not easy, but Turok is a tremendously intelligent guy and consider that nature always gives you the necessary resources to find a solution, something that could define the way this character acts, very ingenious when it comes to developing plans that are based on traps made with vines, logs or more drastic methods (such as using the eruption of a volcano to destroy a group of enemies).

This first stage, started in Four Color Comics and continued in the collection Turok Son of Stone gave the character enough popularity to be remembered despite being inactive for many years.

Turok in new times

In the 1990s, Valiant Comics published Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1993) where Turok escaped from the Lost Valley (now called Lost Land) and returned to his world, but at a later time.

In this new stage the character had changed a lot and the stories focused on his adaptation to the new era he had to live in. Additionally, in this series we were given some information about the tribe to which Turok belonged (Kiowa-Apache). As enemies, we had some who came from the Lost Land and had made a time trip like Turok, and others who were from the present day. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter It had 47 issues and lasted about 3 years. At this stage it would also appear in some special comics from the publisher.

At the same time as developing this new stage, Valiant Comics decided to republish the old Turok stories, launching in 1994. The Original Turok: Son of Stone.

The Turok of video games

In September 1997, thanks to Acclaim Comics, the third stage of Turok appeared, where the entire history of the character was ignored giving it a new focus. To begin with, “Turok” is a kind of power that is conferred on certain people generation after generation, and this time it has been the turn of a 20-year-old university student, who will have to face dangerous enemies and walk through the Lost Land.

The modernization of the character continued and the fact of turning Turok into a kind of destiny that different people would inherit moved this stage too far from the original. Although it is also true that it is a way to break with the past while keeping what made it alive, since if the Lost Land exists, we can also think that the original Turok did it, and it became the legend that today rests on different characters.

After this stage Turok made the leap to video games, thanks to that we were able to put ourselves in the shoes of different characters who inherit Turok's "power", fight against fierce enemies, and survive the Savage Land. Said destiny was that of Tal' Set in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997) and Turok Evolution (2002) later went to Joshua Fireseed in Turok 2 Seeds of Evil (1998) Danielle and Joseph Fireseed in Turok 3 Shadow of Oblivion (2000).

Despite launching last, Turok Evolution It was a prequel to Dinosaur Hunter, so that it explained to us how Tal' Set came to the Lost Land, when a sorcerer transported Tal' Set to it to ask the brave warrior to help his people, who were subjugated by cruel and reptilian creatures called Sleg. Unfortunately the sorcerer transporto a Tal’ Set mientras se encontraba en una guerra contra los vaqueros del capitán Brucker, de manera que Brucker tambien llegó a la Tierra Perdida, donde se terminó aliando con los Slegs, situación que complicó bastante la situación.

En 2008 se lanzó un nuevo juego llamado simplemente Turok, pero nada tenía que ver con lo visto en juegos anteriores, simplemente era otro shooter más de Xbox 360 y PlayStation 3 donde el protagonista era una especie de indio marine espacial llamado Joseph Turok.

Tras su etapa de videojuegos, Turok volvió a las páginas de cómics de la mano de diversas editoriales, pues en el año 2010 Dark Horse Comics publicó unos pocos cómics del personaje y unos años más tarde fue Dynamite Comics quien empezó una nueva colección donde Turok se enfrentaba a sus clásicos enemigos prehistóricos.

Conclusion and recommendations

Los cómics (y videojuegos) de Turok estan pensados para los amantes de la acción y los dinosaurios (o criaturas similares) y he de admitir que yo me encuentro entre ellos. El concepto de un guerrero indio tratando de derrotar a un dinosaurio usando flechas, un hacha y cuatro troncos afilados a modo de trampa me parece tan increíble como llamativo. De hecho, es ese concepto lo que hace que me guste el personaje, pues tal y como he explicado, Turok pasa de ser un personaje con ciertas cualidades definidas (bondadoso, inteligente, valiente) a convertirse en una especie de poder o destino que recae en otros, que pese a hacer el mismo papel que el original, no lo son.

Es por eso que he separado las etapas del personaje, para que sea más fácil que cada uno busque “su Turok” y pueda disfrutar de algo más clásico o moderno. Ya que puede que las aventuras originales Turok: Son of Stone sean demasiado inocentes para muchos lectores y quizás lo visto en Acclaim Comics sea un tanto insatisfactorio para los que quieran conocer al Turok original.

Además de los mencionados cómics y videojuegos, también existe una película de animación de Turok de 2008 que os recomiendo que veáis si os ha causado curiosidad el personaje y su historia.