You know… I’m disappointed.

When I told everyone that the various experiments at Bowne would not turn you into cyborg lizards, I was trying to trick all of you. I figured, once you heard that said experiments did not lead to cyborg lizard-hood, you’d all immediately sign up. Perhaps I wouldn’t make a great comic book villain, after all.

But come on! What would be so bad about becoming cyborg lizards? Cool cyborg lizards have pervaded American pop culture going as far back as the 90’s. Remember “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter?”

REMEMBERING TUROK: DINOSAUR HUNTER (AND THE REST OF THE VALIANT UNIVERSE.)

Turok was originally published by Gold Key during the 1920’s and 30’s. A decade of astounding creativity, much of it catalyzed by fears of a world swiftly changing through science, this Golden Age of comics produced such superhero characters as Superman and Captain Marvel. Turok was not quite a superhero. If anything, he resembled a holdover from comic books like The Lone Ranger or Blackhawk. The characters in these books got by on their wits, not super-strength or x-ray vision. Turok, that rare Native American comic book protagonist, had formidible tracking skills. He was also deadly with a bow and arrow. But the science fiction influences of the Golden Age, apparent in other comics from that era, were not reflected in the character of Turok himself. Rather, the world Turok inhabited reflected the world of sci-fi and fantasy.

Turok hunted dinosaurs in a strange “hidden world” untouched by time—the Lost Land. Back then he was known as “Turok: Son of Stone.” The dinosaurs, trapped in a world outside of time, managed to evolve to the point of intelligence. Unfortunately, the ability to speak did not make the dinosaurs any less savage. Turok constantly battled talking T-Rexes to ensure the survival of primitive human tribes.

Popular for quite a bit of time, “Turok: Son of Stone” went on hiatus after Gold Key Comics ran out of money. Writers ended the series on a cliffhanger: Turok discovers that the Lost Land is actually modern-day Arizona, and federal marshalls arrest him for poaching all those dinosaurs—a rare, and therefore, protected species. Can Turok’s lawyers successfully argue his Native American status, equivalent to a license to poach rare species? Fans would have to wait some seventy years for the answer.

Some seventy years later, Turok and other Gold Key characters were purchased by the Voyager Company. Voyager, in turn, owned Valiant Comics. Valiant, for those who blinked and missed it, exploded into the comics marketplace during the early 1990’s. For years a struggling publisher, Valiant’s leadership circle included comics veterans Jim Shooter and Bob Layton. Their strategy was to create a brand-new superhero universe, the core of which would be comprised of three Gold Key characters: Magnus: Robot Fighter, Solar: Man of the Atom, and Turok.

Magnus, a super-strong human from the future, and Solar, a doctor who becomes a veritable god after a nuclear-related mishap, came first. Throughout the first year of their respective runs, neither book crossed over into the other. While crossovers are common practice for superhero comics, in the case of Magnus and Solar, there was a problem: Magnus lived ten thousand years in the future, in a time where humans had been enslaved by machines. Solar, meanwhile, existed in modern times. Shooter, Layton, and company used 1990 and 10,000 A.D. as the two poles around which they constructed the Valiant universe. Shooter and Layton would create original characters to populate their universe. Shooter created the Harbingers, then Rai—a futuristic Japanese soldier with nano-machines in his blood. Layton created X-O Manowar, an armored hero.

After a year of stagnant sales, Shooter and Layton tied the present Valiant heroes and future ones together through “Unity,” a sprawling, epic crossover. “Unity” established Shooter’s “master plan” for the universe. Events in Valiant comics set in the present would inevitably affect comics set in the future. But this was not enough to bring in the fans of Marvel or DC.

Then Shooter, Layton, and the rest of the braintrust came up with an idea. They decided to dangle incentives for comic book stores to order their comics. They would offer, for example, a “Bloodshot” #1 with a silver-cover for every 10 regular “Bloodshot” #1’s ordered. These rare special-edition comic books soon soared in value. When Turok finally reappeared, hunting cybernetically enhanced dinos under the new moniker “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter,” his first issue became the highest-selling Valiant book ever. This is not to say several million copies of Turok #1 were purchased by comic fans. However, comic shop owners were so eager to obtain rare editions of Turok #1 that they ordered far more than they could sell.

For about six months, there was speculation that Valiant would unseat DC to obtain the #2 share of the superhero comics market. Jim Shooter had certainly created characters whom fans took a liking to. Unfortunately, he had a falling out with Layton, VP Steve Mazuchelli, and the rest of the braintrust. In effect, Layton and his cohorts stole the company out from under Shooter. Casting aside a company’s main creative force hardly inspires confidence in the lower ranks. Barely a month went by before Valiant Comics’ secondmost creative force, artist Barry Windsor-Smith, jumped ship. Dave Lapham, the company’s most popular homegrown artist, soon followed.

Current Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, a fan-favorite artist at that time, injected some spark into the Valiant line. Sales, however, continued to decline. Layton and the remaining three-quarters of the braintrust made some terrible creative decisions. They expanded the line too fast at the expense of quality. An attempted 1992 crossover with Image Comics, another rising star of a publisher, caused the fiasco of the year. Entitled “Deathmate,” the crossover was hampered by the inability of Image artists to deliver by deadline. The crossover remains memorable for how an Image-published chapter finally hit comic stands nearly a year after the Valiant-published final chapter was released. Ultimately, “Deathmate” created more guffaws than awe.

By 1994, Voyager Communications sold the Valiant line to Acclaim, the popular video game producer. Valiant Comics was relaunched, this time as Acclaim comics. Initial interest flagged, and the line was soon cancelled again.

Acclaim hired veteran Marvel writer Fabian Nicieza as the Valiant line’s new editor-in-chief. In 1996, Acclaim Comics launched yet again. Despite some of the most detailed pectoral muscles ever conceived, then drawn by artist Bart Sears on “X-O Manowar,” the line fizzled once more. After the third cancellation, there would not be another relaunch.

Turok found himself in limbo for another five years. He did get a curtain call, along with the rest of the defunct Valiant line, in “Unity II,” a four-part series written by one-time head honcho Jim Shooter. “Unity II” drew together all the loose threads of the Valiant Universe—Shooter’s loose threads. He got to present the final chapter in the lives of the heroes he created. And Turok, now a dinosaur himself in the always evolving comic landscape, got to savor one last hunt.