Age of Reptiles: The Journey
Issue #2 of 4 Review
*****SPOILERS INCLUDED BELOW*****
Firstly, my apologies in procrastinating in the posting of this review. I've finally found the time to do it justice.
I'll admit, I was skeptical that this issue could outdo the first in terms of grandeur, and whether or not the series would match the ferocity of the previous AoR publications. My doubting was proven unfounded. On both counts. The issue is not only every bit as breath-taking in terms of its artwork as #1, but the primal violence of the dinosaur characters in this issue is something the likes of which I have never seen in the comic medium.
Also, one small note. See "The Fossil Record" section at the conclusion of the issue for comments from yours truly ("Jeff S.").
Most who read my postings know that I'm a strong advocate for depicting dinosaurs in a light which adequately lays bare the very real life and death struggles most assuredly intertwined with their daily existence. Ricardo Delgado found the perfect medium for that tale in his particular series. Since the beginning of issue #1, we've been following the mass exodus of herbivorous dinosaur fauna on their trek south, moving ever onward to warmer temperatures and safer grazing area. You'll recall issue #1 showcased the herd being confronted by a fierce T.rex mother who has found a way to sate the appetites of both she and her young in this traveling buffet, as it were. The stalwart Triceratops members of the herd managed to forestall the Tyrannosaur's bloodlust. For now. As we have come to see, the T.rex is following the herd with her two infants in tow, and they are waiting patiently to be availed of any opportunity...
As if a marauding T.rex with a pair of hungry mouths to feed in addition to her own wasn't enough, the herd encounters hardships in issue #2 which make the T.rex attack in the first issue seem playful and benevolent by comparison.
Many have probably seen the preview art that I posted some time ago of the drying pond situated in the middle of a narrow chasm, which the herbivore herd stumbles upon. All of these creatures have been trekking across arid land for days upon days, and haven't so much as seen a droplet of water. Finally, they have found it... though that nourishment, not surprisingly, comes at a price. The pond isn't filled with nearly as much water as it is crocodiles, crocodiles clinging desperately to borrowed time as their home continues to shrink around them. The herbivores are a welcome gift. Crocodiles are no strangers to patience, and that patience, it seems, has paid off in spades. No creature is immune. Ankylosaurs, pachycephalosaurids, and sauropod alike are all dragged into the mud to meet their ends. What I found the most striking here wasn't the seven crocodiles converging on a tumbling sauropod, rather it was Delgado's decision to show the reactions of infant dinosaurs from numerous species, forcibly exposed to this violence. It's a world that is difficult for us to contemplate save for the very worst of circumstances, where the young are stripped of their innocence by the cruelty of the world around them. A very real and touching statement conveyed with such subtlety.
On their way out of the chasm, the herbivores encounter uneven ground prior to their entrance onto the plain once again. Numerous creatures stumble, fall, and meet their ends due to happenstance, offering up meals for the T.rex family ever present in their wake.
The plains, however, offer the worst threat the group has yet to face, and for the life of me I can't imagine they'd be run through anything worse than this. In the distance we see the herbivore herd, and in the foreground a lone dromaeosaur, which turns its head and lets out a bark. That lone dromaeosaur was but a sentry, not spying for attackers but for potential prey. It signals its pack... a group of perhaps over a hundred individuals, all banding together for survival. It's the flip side of the coin for the situation in which we see the herbivores. The herbivores travel for safety in numbers, all driven to a common goal. Delgado poses the question to the viewer, what if a group of gregarious carnivores behaved similarly? All driven to a common goal, that goal to hunt, feed, and survive. Within instants the raptor pack descends stealthily and efficiently upon the herbivores, bringing down individuals of every species, young and old, large and small. They act as a group, coordinating their efforts to kill the most animals in the quickest possible manner so as to fill their gullets and not look for another meal in the foreseeable future. Sadly, this isn't an uncommon strategy for predators; numerous species will kill and eat to excess to the point of vomiting. Heck, when presented with an abundance of available prey, if the kill is relatively effortless, a lot of predators will simply continue to kill until they have exhausted their quarry. Again, this is when there is a lone predator or species of predator in the situation, a dominant individual(s) unchallenged in the territory, and the prey is both abundant and easy to obtain. This is the recipe for a feeding frenzy, and why situations like this are dangerous to any organisms unfortunate enough to stumble into them. In normal circumstances it would be common to claim one animal as a kill and feed prior to other individuals attempting to scavenge. In this situation, however, the dromaeosaurs are clearly the dominant carnivores in the area with nothing to fear. It's the bloodlust which has overrun the pack. So much available prey, the vast majority of which is weak and relatively defenseless to these well-nourished opportunists - I should note that the dromaeosaurs were depicted slumbering in and among the bones of a great number of dinosaurs prior to the attack. Their tactic to ambush those seeking refuge on the other side of the plain has been quite rewarding.
I don't believe words can begin to describe the savagery of this attack. It is quite literally a feeding frenzy. The hadrosaur infant being mobbed and shredded before the viewer's eyes was certainly shocking, but the following two pages are likely to have viewers both cheering and touched, when a bull Triceratops fights back against the raptors. He impales two of the diminutive carnivores on his horns, but under the weight of more and more slamming into his side and exsanguinating him, he eventually rolls over, allowing for a rather intimate perspective of the internal anatomy of a Triceratops. Wow. Even the fleet-footed ornithomimids, which seem for a moment to be sprinting away from the disaster unharmed, are run down and gutted.
Eventually, with a number of large kills and assuredly infinitely more small kills, the raptors concentrate on feeding It's a really fascinating take on raptor pack dynamics in a catastrophic situation like this. A very cool "What If?" on the part of Delgado. Due to the abundance of food after the attack, there is relatively little squabbling among the raptors. They feed and gorge (as mentioned earlier, even to the point of vomiting), and sleep collectively in a writhing, breathing mound of flesh on the desert floor, utilizing their collective warmth in the onset of night. The sentry is again perched separate from the others, residing atop a gruesome column - all that remains of a sauropod hind leg. There are several splash pages of the kill site. For my money, carnage has never been rendered with such beauty.
The raptors, however, are reminded that although this is their territory, they are not the dominant carnivores in the world. There's still another rung above them on the food chain. The raptor sentry is awakened by the arrival of the mother T.rex and her two infants at dusk. The mother stands between her children and the dromaeosaurs, audaciously plucking a large bone from among the corporeal rubble, and moving away for a safe place to slumber - again on an outcropping overlooking the herbivores, never allowing them to gain too much ground on her. An intriguing standoff which Delgado seemed almost obliged to make (readers like myself would have wanted to see this scene). It reminded me very much of the scene in Disney's "Dinosaur" when the Carnotaur pair disrupts the feeding of a Velociraptor trio. If one were to compare "The Journey" to "Dinosaur", there's simply no contest. The Disney film seems frightfully watered down when held against Delgado's vision. Also, a tease from the editor at the conclusion of the book, saying the herbivores have "a lot of dangerous ground (not to mention
dangerous waters!) ahead." Those who follow Delgado's work know that he wanted desperately to see a scene realized in the Disney film in which the herbivores attempt to traverse a body of water and are attacked by mosasaurs. I'm sincerely hoping such a scene is precisely what Samantha was hinting at!
We are left with a scene of the herbivores at night, a sauropod infant awakens and cries out for its mother. The mother removes her neck from the protective ring and cranes it downward to rest peacefully alongside her unhappy child. The T.rex infants tear away at the bone their mother retrieved for them, and sleep alongside her under the moon's light. I personally like that Delgado, regardless of how much carnage he may depict, leaves us with a peaceful spectacle. There seems a bit of closure with each of these issues. Our tension from the violence is eased as we await peacefully, along with the herbivores, for them to greet the dawn and adventure the following day.
At least I'll be able to carry them in the store, though.
