A new hero rises! Turok pursues his kidnapped brother… in the Badlands of the Old West! In the waning days of the Indian Wars, the U.S. cavalry has captured Andar, but Turok will stop at nothing to rescue him. But that quest will lead Turok, Andar and even the soldiers to a strange, lost land inhabited by creatures beyond their imaginations. This is Turok as you’ve never seen him before … and Turok as you’ve always seen him!

If you’ve been reading Graphic Policy’s reviews for some time, then it will probably come as no surprise to you that I’m a Valiant fan. I’ve also been delving into the original Valiant comics from the 1990’s, and one of those series I’ve been picking up is Turok back when Valiant still had the license. So when I saw that Dynamite had started publishing another series, I was curious. Curious to see whether it would be easy enough to pick up if you never touched the cancelled series from 2017 (because I missed that, too), and curious to see if it was even worth reading.

Turok #1 is written by Ron Marz with art by Roberto Castro and colours by Salvatore Aiala, and kicks off in the American West of 1873 as Turok hunts those who have taken his brother Andar captive. The comic’s plot is remarkably simplistic (even more so if you’re aware of Turok’s more traditional setting, whether from videogames or the old comics), but a simplistic plot doesn’t mean the writing is bad; it just mean that Ron Marz didn’t waste any time in getting Turok where he was bound to end up. Honestly, instead of a half an issue or so, I expected at least an arc to pass before we saw a change of scenery. Turok’s first issue is a well paced comic that dispenses with any extraneous plot points, and gets us right to the arrow tipped, uh, point.

Artistically, Roberto Castro and Salvatore Aiala are great. The (digital) pages leave you in no doubt what’s happening, or where, as the story progresses. A pleasure to read and look at, this comic has a really enjoyable feel to it; I went in expecting to get an action comic, and that’s exactly what I got. I have no complaints about this issue in any way shape or form.

Ultimately, a refreshingly fast paced comic with some solid art make Turok #1 a comic that’s just begging to be read by any who are curious.

Story: Ron Marz Art: Roberto Castro
Colours: Salvatore Aiala Letters: Troy Peteri
Story: 8.2 Art: 8.7 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

Dynamite provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review