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[DarkRex]

Sorry for late start. But here is my issue one review:


Around a year ago, Jurassic Park fans had a dream. IDW had announced that they planned to release all new Jurassic Park comics to the public, starting with a series called Redemption. The fans dreams for Redemption were bold, they were impractical, they were....not to be. Half a year from then, though, the fans dream would come true with the release of Devils in the Desert. John Byrne’s series filled JP fans with hope for the IDW titles. So when Dangerous Games, the third title being released under the IDW JP title was announced fans were ecstatic. But could it follow the high expectations?

The issue opens up with someone being tossed onto the island of Isla Nublar, the original Jurassic Park island.
Then it… jumps back three months ago to a bar where the man who’s being tossed on to the island is meeting with a woman. They seemed to be meeting “hush hush” like and talking about how someone named Cazares have bought the island of Nublar from the Costa Rican government.
Jump back to the present and the man hits a body of water and resurfaces. Someone from the chopped tauntingly asks if Mr. Espinoza (our main guy’s name) is all right.
Flashback to three days ago and it seems like Espinoza is working undercover for this drug lord Cazares. Espinoza is an agent undercover. He gets found out and captured, and then it jumps forward once more. The agent gets thrown a knife, the only tool he is given.
Flashback to his arrival to the island. The chopper Espinoza is in lands on the helipad seen in Jurassic Park.
Flashforward to him getting out of the water and the helicopter he was dropped out of leaving. He’s informed that he has twenty-four hours before the guy who dropped him out starts hunting for him. As Espinoza starts running through the jungle we see something in the brush watching him.
Flashback again to Espinoza being taken to the Visitor Center on Nublar. It’s completely intact for the most part besides a few damages probably due to aging. We see that Cazares’ men have apparently captured a fairly large Stegosaurus and are zapping it with cattle prods. Then we finally meet Cazares. He’s built a thrown in the Visitor Center out of the bones from the display in the rotunda. He has a small Archaeopteryx like animal at his side. We quickly find out that Cazares plans to release Espinoza into the jungle to “hunt” him. If the agent doesn’t get killed by the dinosaurs in twenty-four hours then Cazares is going to send his cartel man out to find him and kill him.
That then leads us to our present time predicament. Espinoza finds refuge in a tree for the night only to be awakened in the morning by a lumbering Stegosaurus. Actually make that a herd of them. The agent climbs down and follows the stegos, with them not reacting in any way mind you, to a local watering hole where there is Triceratops and Parasaurolophus’ gathered as well.
Some creature stalks in the forest as Espinoza heads towards the water, next to a pair of feathered Gallimimus’. Suddenly the beast attacks in an array of fangs and talons. And… we have no clue what it is. But anyway, it’s big and strong enough to take down a trike while everything else, including Espinoza scatters.
Cut to Espinoza in the jungle finding a semi-wounded parasaur. He decides that he’s hungry and jumps onto the back of the beast and slits the throat of it with the knife he was given. But before he can dig in an Allosaurus appears and attacks him. Espinoza tries to run away but falls.
The allosaur is about ready to chomp down on the agent when a pack of feathery raptors leap onto the large carnivore and kill it. The raptors make like they are going to attack Espinoza and are called off…by SOMEONE.

Alright. When I was done with this first issue I couldn’t help but stare at it through squinted eyes and say “Really?” Where do we begin with the problems?
Okay. First off, in a deleted scene from The Lost World (which is still added in with the TV versions of the film mind you) they say that all establishments on Nublar have been demolished and dismantled and that all the dinosaurs have been destroyed. Well the writers of Dangerous Games apparently decided to skip that and just allowed the building to remain there nearly untouched and decided there should be a plethora of dinosaurs on the island as well. I can imagine maybe one or two of the smaller species surviving by hiding in the jungle but all these animals? I don’t think so. I guess some could say that it was a deleted scene, and because of that I can be somewhat lenient on this. I mean, what’s a Jurassic Park story without dinosaurs. But I can’t help but wonder… wouldn’t have been just as logical for them to have it on Site B then? But whatever.
Secondly… there is no way a drug lord would ever be allowed on Nublar. He might be there secretly without having told anybody. But as soon as they said that he bought off people that sends major red flags. Okay maybe Costa Rican government, but the UN is more in control of them than Costa Rica and a small pay off to one person in the UN wouldn’t do that. He’d have to pay off probably hundreds of people. And then there is the matter of InGen. What about them? We’re never told if they are a dead company or still alive in this series. If they are still around why aren’t they doing anything? It’s still their patented animals and their buildings and their equipment. I’m pretty sure they’d still monitor their islands.
Then there are the smaller details. Like Espinoza killing an adult parasaur with a knife. Really? I understand that he’s a “special agent” but if a group of grown men using tranquilizers and ropes could barely restrain an adult Parasaurolophus then I have no clue how one man kills it using a knife and his bare hands. And why are the Gallimimus’ and Velociraptors feathered? Why are the raptors killing an Allosaur when there is a perfectly good parasaur right there? And why are the raptors being seemingly controlled by someone? And why does the drug lord have a dinosaur as a pet? Why? Why? Why?
Then there is the art. It’s not horrible, not JP: Redemption horrible… but there is times were I was just in awe about how wrong some things are.
First off, dinosaurs sizes. We all know that the stegos in The Lost World were large but on page 15 we see that they are nearly the side of freaking Brachiosaurs. The trikes are puny and some of the paras are built like sauropods while others are fairly correct. All the wide shots of the animals in the comic are odd. The dinosaurs are at times misshapen, and sized wrong. The close-ups though are pretty good through. The stego head on 14 is real nice, especially in comparison to the one on page 8. But the wide shot on page 15 is almost as if the artist went to the dollar store and picked up a few of the cheap dinosaur figures and biased the dinos of the comic book off of them.
Secondly what is that creature that attacks on page 16 and 17? It looks like a feathered, carnivorous Therizinosaurus. Did the artist intended for it to be an obscure dinosaur species; was it written to be a random species? Or did someone just really mess up? I have no clue what that dinosaur is, which was a major problem with the Redemption series.
The best piece of art is the cover, which usually seems to be the case with the IDW JP books. All of the Redemption covers were great, but the art inside sucked. So far the covers for Dangerous Games are beautiful, but the art inside is hit or miss (depending on which page you’re on.)

Overall issue one is a major disappointment. At least Redemption didn’t get bad until issue three. This series has started off with a major let down. Is it possible to get any better? The series seems outlandish and like some of the wacky Topps JP titles (green flame and gorillas in South America anybody?) I can only hope that it does get better from here.

[DarkRex]

Issue two review:


In September of 2011 IDW released their new Jurassic Park series, Dangerous Games, to an anticipating fan base. What they got was a comic that contained a fairly farfetched story, and the readers were left confused about where the series could possibly go. There was a chance it could get better, right? Let’s see if it does in issue 2.

Issue two opens up with Agent Daniel Espinoza being awakened by an infant, feathery raptor. After being startled by the small dinosaur he is reassured by a woman by the name of Dr. Frances White surrounded by feathery Velociraptors. She says that he’s “safe here,” and that the raptors are “her pack.” They won’t hurt him unless she commands them to.
…
Yeah.
She explains to Espinoza that she and her pack brought him back to her den to help patch him up. The agent asks about how she got her.
Dr. White used to be one of the top animal researchers in the world. John Hammond specifically hired her to work at Jurassic Park, in the early days (so before the 1993 incident) to monitor the dinosaur’s behavior. She found out that the dinosaurs were very much like birds and had an attachment to the first thing or person that they saw once they hatched. The raptors in particular looked up to her as a mother figure. The doctor even figured out how to communicate with them. Then one night Ludlow (yep, Peter Ludlow from The Lost World: Jurassic Park) confronted her about her odd methods and said he was going to fire her. He punched her, and she let her raptors loose in order to save herself. He pulled out a gun and shot one of her raptors, and then shot at Dr. White. As she fled the raptors fled with her. She fled into the jungle where her and her raptors have now lived for the past… what, Twentyish plus years?
She asks the Agent why he’s here and he tells his short story about being captured by the drug kingpin Cazares. She explains that Cazares’ men have control of the docks and helipads and that there is really no way off the island without going past them. He wants to at least try to get off and she doesn’t understand why he’d want to leave “paradise.” After some deliberation she partially agrees to help the agent off the island, but first she needs to make some kind of preparations. She needs guidance from an “ally.”
Back at the Visitor Center the cartel starts his hunt for Espinoza at sunset. He tracks him all the way to the watering hole from issue one, and thinks he knows where the agent is going.
Jump to Dr. White and Agent Espinoza who are trekking through the jungle towards Dr. White’s mysterious “ally.” They suddenly get to a clearing were there are a bunch of bones from large dinosaurs lying around. As the doc takes Espinoza closer to the mess of bones she suddenly disappears. Daniel then turns around when he hears something and in the jungle appears a set of glowing eyes. He watches as a large Tyrannosaurus rex emerges from the jungle and moves towards him. Its maw is bloody and its head is low. It growls and charges forward and bites down on the screaming Espinoza who dies in a bloody mess. Dr. White retreats back to the jungle to her raptor pack that are waiting in ambush and they jump out. Animal instinct finally took over, and they acknowledged the fact that Dr. White was not one of their own. They tore her into bloody shreds. … Sigh. Too bad that’s not really what happened. Here is what really happened.
They tyrannosaur comes forward and stops in front of the agent and just stares at him. The agent thinks it’s like a “god of death” and as he stares into her eyes he’s always known her, and she’s always known him. The rex then departs leaving the agent untouched. Dr. White then reappears claiming that the rex has judged him worthy to live.
Back to the cartel and his men hunting Espinoza. They find an old trap that they had set and then they start unpacking mines suddenly attacked by the pack of raptors. The men and the raptors battle it out, each losing members. The cartel remains alive though as his men die.
Dr. White hears the commotion and runs to aid her companions but it captured in a net that has been set. Agent Espinoza runs to help her, but is stopped by the cartel that has a gun raised.

When I finished this issue I couldn’t help but laugh. Issue one seemed crazy, and issue two topped it in that department. I didn’t think it was possible. I have to stop and think, did the writer even actually watch the Jurassic Park films?
A human connecting with the Velociraptors, controlling them/leading them, and even communicating with them? I get the imprinting thing, because that was even explained in the films but other people would have been around during the birthing of the raptors that were in the film, so why would those raptors be so hostile towards humans then? And how exactly do you communicate with them? They naturally speak English or do you have a sophisticated voice box that can make the exact snarls and screams that the Jurassic Park raptors have? And Dr. White has been on this island how long without any mentioned before in the previous films? The Jurassic Park project would have started around 1982 and Dr. White said she was involved in the early days. Considering the possibility that it wasn’t until around 1985 or 1986 until the first dinosaurs came around that means that she has been out in the jungle of Isla Nublar for about twenty-six years. Yeah. I don’t think so.
And where did these raptors come from? In the first Jurassic Park Muldoon said that only eight raptors were bred for the park and that the Big One killed all but two. So why weren’t these mentioned? You’d think he’d tell them after that that “Hey, there is a wild group living out there in the jungle though. So do be careful.” And there is no way that they would have opened the doors to Jurassic Park with a raptor pack loose. This part at least would have been mildly feasible if these people were on Isla Sorna.
Then what in the Hell is up with the Tyrannosaur Goddess thing? Really? Is this the author’s way of trying to explain why the Tyrannosaur didn’t kill Grant and Lex in the first film?
And since when has Ludlow been in such high power of InGen and Jurassic Park this early on that he has control over who runs the show?

And then there is the art. Pretty much the same as issue one as far as the problems go. The only major change in this issue is the addition of the raptors throughout the whole thing, but the raptors keep changing. Why? In the first few panels of the comic the raptors are entirely feathered. The original raptors of Jurassic Park weren’t feathered, so why are these? To be more scientifically accurate? Right, because the logic in this book is SOOO scientifically based and accurate. But then when the reader is on page four the raptor comes out of the egg completely featherless. Okay. Even birds have downy feathers, so why wouldn’t these all feathered raptors? Then on page five the raptors are reminiscent of the Jurassic Park three male raptors with the quills. ALL of them are like this. So why does she call her pack “girls” and aren’t the dinosaurs supposed to be female to begin with? Logic is flawed, again. So are these raptors just getting more and more feathers as they grow older? What about the two infants from the first two pages? They had feathers. Well jump to page seven and now they don’t. WHAT? Where did those feathers go!? I don’t understand the feathers in this book at all with the raptors. Are they going on the theory that the raptors are evolving over this twenty year span? Or is this another species of raptor? Or like the writers of the story, to the artists just not seemingly care?
I will say the one portion of this book that does shine through is the entrance of the Tyrannosaur. In all of the previous JP comics done by IDW the JP rex has really been shafted. And in Dangerous Games, on page eleven the rex gets some of the most beautiful imagery in all of the IDW comics thus far. The hands are a tad off, but over all I think the rex looks pretty good and the entrance on page eleven is classic Jurassic Park style I think. Then the story and everything on page twelve just makes the joy I had die with the whole Goddess judging idea.
The cover looks awesome I think, just as issue ones cover was. Not much else to be said there. It’s sad that the best talent is wasted on the cover to get people to pick this story up and not actually on the story and half the art inside.

Overall issue two is even worse story wise then issue one was. Dangerous Games continues to delve deeper and deeper in to ludicrous storylines and ideas that make me cringe reading them. I can foolishly only hope that it gets better. Not holding my breath though.

[DarkRex]

Issue three review:


Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games is the third series in IDW’s Jurassic Park like, and so far with issues two and three it hasn’t been the greatest. It’s been campy and at times down right ludicrous making the readers of the original Topps Jurassic Park comics have some major flashbacks. So how does issue three stack up. Let’s see.

Issue three opens with Espinoza cornered by the leader of Cazares’ drug cartel who is ready to shoot. Dr. White makes a raptor sound distracting the assassin and Espinoza ducks for cover. After giving his cover away though the assassin goes after him.
After running a little agent Espinoza finds a hydroelectric plant and goes inside to hide from the assassin. Once inside the agent looks around for anything that can be used as a weapon, and is spooked by a single Psittacosaurus. He stays away from the small creature and continues his search to find a room with a few guns in a case. He opens the case up only to disturb a nest of psittacos and then is subsequently attacked by an angry mother psittacosaur. He makes quick getaway only to be cornered again by the assassin. The assassin shoots Espinoza in the arm. The two eventually engage in hand to hand combat with ends with the assassin going over a cliff.

My shortest summary of a Jurassic Park comic ever? I think so. But really… that’s all there is in this issue. Not much going on, and now that the assassin is gone… what’s gonna happen next?
The annoying character of Dr. White was left in a tree at the beginning saying her raptors will come get her, but I’m kind of hoping they’ll leave her up there to rot. But judging by the cover of issue four that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.
Most of the dialogue in this issue seems forced, not that it was better in the first two by much anyway.
What’s with not naming the assassin? That’s all we can call him is an assassin because he has never been given a name.
Art is the same. So-so inside and a real good cover as always. Although… I do have to wonder. What in the Hell is up with the freaking huge claws on the psittacosaurs. Last time I checked they were not mini therizinosaurs. But whatever.

On the plus side issue three was full of action I guess, but still felt lacking in some ways. Maybe the lack of dinosaurs, or maybe just the lack of anything. By the last few pages it seemed like they were just throwing in random action images to fill in the rest of the comic.
We have two issues left in the series, so we’ll see what happens.

[DarkRex]

So far Dangerous Games, the third Jurassic Park series from IDW, has been pretty miss for most JP fans. The fan has introduced new JP mythology that’s fairly unaccepted and treated the classing JP mythos with less care than we would have hoped (especially coming off of Devils in the Desert, which was amazing.) Issue four (of five) was released this past Wednesday, so let’s get right to it.

Issue starts off with Espinoza trekking through the jungle, having just come out of his battle with the unnamed assassin alive. Eventually he runs into Dr. White again and her pack of Velociraptors. She states that her pack killed the rest of Cazares’ hunting party except for one that they kept for interrogation. With that the two head back to Dr. White’s den.
Back at the Visitor Center Cazares is demanding to know what’s going on since Tiburon (so we finally get a name for the assassin once he’s dead now) is failing to contact them.
Back at the den Espinoza interrogates the prisoner telling him he killed Tiburon. He asks the prisoner if there is a way off the island and the man says that there is a helicopter and a man named Hector has the keys to it.
Now Dr. White and Espinoza have to think of a way to get into the compound. Dr. White tells him of a back entrance to a gate that Espinoza can go through which leads to the power shed. If he can get there and turn the power off then she can cause a distraction that will allow Espinoza to get past the guards.
So Dr. White takes her raptors to the middle of a Triceratops herd and they cause a panic amongst the herd. In the panic Dr. White climbs onto the back of a trike and rides it, leading the rest of the herd with it. While this goes on Espinoza sneaks in to the power shed, which we are led to believe is the same one from the first Jurassic Park film. He goes downstairs and turns off the power just as the trike herd rams through an electric fence, destroying it. The security beyond the fence scatter; the diversion worked!
Espinoza takes a few of the raptors with him to the hotel, which is where Cazares’ men hang out. The raptors swiftly kill the men inside off one by one as Espinoza makes his way to the room where Hector is. He gets to Hector and gets the keys from him.
As the raptors kill off a few more people Espinoza escapes down an old crane left by InGen. The old crane gives way and he falls. Cazares is waiting for him… with a giant Ankylosaurus ready to kill Espinoza.

So, yeah. Just like the rest of the series this issue is a jumbled up mess of events. I will say that it probably does have the most action of the whole series, as well as the most dinosaur action (which was almost absent in issue three) so that was fairly nice. But the way it was handled always seems to be the problem. The people interact with dinosaurs in the weirdest ways, and these interactions don’t feel like they should be in a Jurassic Park title. First we had Dr. White controlling a pack of raptors and Cazares having an Archaeopteryx. Now Dr. White is able to walk into the middle of a huge trike herd and ride a trike. How? You’re going to tell me that it can’t get her off? Espinoza can control two raptors, and how did this come to be? Can he now talk raptor like White can, or can raptors understand human? I mean I understand dogs understand commands but in the series we’re told that Dr. White talks to the raptors with raptor communication. We’re never told that they follow orders given in English. And we also have Cazares controlling a massive Ankylosaurus. Out of all of them Cazares is the most likely just because the anky has a shock/training collar on. But even then it’s just like… really? Is this what drug lords do now? Instead of dog fights they hold dinosaur fights?

The art is the same, but I can’t help but notice that Dr. White seems to be having more and more of a sex appeal in the series each issue she’s in. I know that comics are known for their well-endowed women but… really? She doesn’t look like she’s been on this island for over twenty years. She looks just as ragged as the rest of the characters, except her clothes are more torn.
There’s that and the raptors. Once again the raptor infants are depicted without feathers. I wish they’d make up their mind! Are the babies not feathered or are they!?

Issue four in a whole isn’t horrible, but it’s still not great. It’s probably the most enjoyable of the series actually even with its problems. Even though I hate the fact that humans are controlling dinosaurs in the way that they are I couldn’t help but smile when the ankylosaur was seen on the last page. It did look bad ass. There was also a silhouette of raptors running on page nineteen that was great (only slightly ruined by the addition of Espinoza.) And the power shed images of Espinoza entering and turning off the power were nice winks to the first film.
Even with all that though I can’t bring myself to really enjoy the series as a whole. They have one issue left, so let’s see. The series is defiantly not cannon, but if it ends on a strong not it can still be a fun read at least.