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"Death Lizards"
Jurassic Park Annual #1 (Topps Comics)
Written by Neil Barrett Jr.
Pencils by Claude St. Aubin
Inks by Andrew Pepoy
Cover by
Michael Golden
1995 |
A pack of
Dilophosaurs makes themselves known in Costa Rica.
Story Summary
Some time after the events of
"No-Man's Land"
(and the subsequent IDW mini-series
Dangerous Games), all the
dinosaurs are gone from Isla Nublar and a storm strikes the
island. A tree carrying a cache of dinosaur eggs is washed out
to sea.
4 years later, a series of attacks blamed on the legendary hupia
strikes Costa Rica. Both the police and the Eagles motorcycle
gang investigate and come face-to-face with a pride of
Dilophosaurs. After some human losses, the Eagles finally trick
the carnivores into running off the edge of a cliff, where they
plummet to their doom.
The humans mourn their dead, hoping the nightmare is past. But,
in the jungle, at least one Dilophosaur survives with a new cache of
eggs.
THE END
Didja Notice?
The story opens an unknown amount of time after the events of
Jurassic Park. The narrative on
page 2 tells us that Isla Nublar used to host a dinosaur theme
park that never quite got off the ground due to some bad luck. It
also states: The dinosaurs are gone now.
And even if they weren't, they would present no problem. They
were all genetically altered so they couldn't possibly
reproduce...right? Yet, that does not explain eggs, lodged in a
tree, and set adrift to who knows where... This seems to
ignore both the original source material of the
Jurassic Park movie/novel and
Topps' own material presented as taking place shortly after the
movie. Possibly, the narrative is meant to be seen as assuming
the perspective of the official word from InGen and/or the U.S.
government that the dinosaurs were incapable of breeding.
Page 2's narrative above also brings up a second question,
namely, what happened to the dinosaurs? The dinosaurs were still
alive at the end of the film and Topps' many comic book issues
(not to mention
IDW's mini-series
Dangerous Games) establish the dinosaurs
flourishing on Isla Nublar for at least some months afterward.
The dinosaurs couldn't have been gone long at this point since
there are still viable, unhatched eggs. Perhaps an as-yet-untold
story will surface to explain the dinosaurs disappearance.
Page 1 suggests that, even though there are no longer any
dinosaurs on the island, there are still some people, as we see
a couple of men running for shelter from the storm. They may be
U.S. or UN forces stationed there to be sure the dinosaurs are
completely gone and that no person lands on the island to cause
further mischief.
The story starts off mentioning the first and second hurricanes
of the season, Avila and Bianca. There were no such-named storms
in the 1990s-2000s, so these are fictional hurricanes. The naming
scheme used here is proper though, in that after 1979 hurricanes
were named in an alphabetical manner starting anew each year with "A" and using
a male name for one followed by a female name for the next, etc.
Page 4 and on through the end of the story take place 4 years after
Hurricane Bianca. This places "Death Lizards" sometime after
The Lost World, since the
dialog between Hammond and Malcolm in the film seems to indicate
that it has been four years since the initial incident at
Jurassic Park in the film
Jurassic Park.
On page 5, Paco says, "Diablo de infierno--!", Spanish for
"devil of Hell" or "Hell's devil".
On page 6, the Costa Rican police captain
mentions the hupia,
described as "night ghosts". This is a real term and belief in the native Taino
cultures of the Caribbean. Most likely writer Barrett borrowed this
from Michael Crichton's novel of Jurassic Park in which
some of the Procompsognathus dinosaurs on Isla Nublar
have managed to escape to the mainland and are mistaken by the
Latin American natives as hupia.
Also on page 6, Sergeant Sabastian mentions the cities of Santa
Cruz and Puntarenas in Costa Rica. These are real cities. In the
Jurassic Park novel, Puntarenas is mentioned as
one of the cities suffering from attacks on children by the
hupia.
On page 7, Aguilar says, "Dios!" This is Spanish for "God!"
On page 8, Aguilar says "amigo" and "Cubano". "Amigo" is
"friend" and "Cubano" is "Cuban" in Spanish.
On page 9, we learn the nicknames of several of Aguilar's
friends: Cubano, El Raton, Tigre, Toro. These are Spanish for
Cuban, Mouse, Tiger, and Bull, respectively.
On page 10 Cantana calls Jorge "estupido". This is Spanish for
"stupid".
On page 13, one of Aguilar's friends calls a policeman "simplon".
This is Spanish for "simpleton".
On page 14, Toro says "aqui", "monstruos" and "Calle Garcia".
These are Spanish for "here", "monster" and "Garcia Street".
On page 16, a man says "vaya", Spanish for "you go".
On page 17, Aguilar says, "Que pasa?" This is Spanish for
"What's happening?"
Also on page 17, Toro says "nada", Spanish for "nothing".
On page 18, the Spanish terms "pura gasa", "companeros" and "mi
corozon" are used. They mean "baloney" (literally "pure gauze"),
"companions" and "my heart", respectively.
On page 19, the Spanish phrases "muy repugnante", "el loco" and
"Aguilas" are used. They mean "very repugnant", "crazy" and
"Eagles", respectively. This seems to indicate that Aguilar's
motorcycle gang is called the Eagles, possibly based on the
similarity to his own last name; this would also tend to imply
that he is the founder of the gang.
On
page 21, panel 1, one of the Dilophosaurs is missing the crests
on his head.
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