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"Redemption" Part 4
Jurassic Park #4 (IDW)
Written by Bob Shreck
Art by Nate Van Dyke
Covers by
A) Tom Yeates B) Bernie Wrightson |
Dinosaurs stampede through the town of Glen
Rose.
Read a review of this
issue by Patrick Hayes on PopApostle
Story Summary
Sheriff Delgado gathers up his deputies, plus Lex, Jaamise, and a
number of townsfolk to begin a sweep of the area to round up the
loose dinosaurs. Just as they're about to begin, Drs. Alan Grant
and Ellie Sattler join the parade as well, bringing along the
U.S. Army.
Meanwhile, at the breeding pens, most of the dinosaurs are
turned loose, while Tim is shocked to learn that his business
partner is really good ol' Uncle Pete. The disfigured Ludlow
informs his nephew how he survived the mauling by the rexes in
San Diego all those years ago: After being rescued by his men,
he allowed the world to believe he had been eaten that night and
used his knowledge and contacts to begin a systematic search
through InGen files for information on the dino breeding
program. He learned that, on that fatal night on Isla Nublar,
Hammond had sent Dr. Wu away from the storm with a duplicate set
of the dino embryos. Ludlow then made contact with Wu and they began
to recreate the breeding program, soon bringing in Dodgson and
Tim as well. Unknown to Wu, the insane Ludlow's real plan was to
disgrace the Hammond name by allowing dinosaurs to escape from
Tim's breeding program so his family would take the world's
blame for the havoc.
Upon hearing the story direct from the man himself, Tim suddenly
yanks his grandfather's oval of amber from the control stick of
Ludlow's wheelchair and throws it at Ludlow's bodyguard,
striking him on the head and knocking him out, while Ludlow's
chair begins spinning out of control. Tim locks the two men in
the office.
Tim heads out into Glen Rose to try to help clean up his mess
and is reunited with Lex and Ellie. During the stampede of dinos
through town, Dodgson is run through on the point of a
Triceratops' horn.
And back at the breeding pens, Dr. Backer awakens from being
knocked out in the previous issue. He hears Ludlow shouting to
be let out of the office, but instead of freeing him, the angry
paleontologist shove's a crate-sized cage of unrevealed
dinosaurs up against the office door, unlocking the cage
afterwards.
On the streets, Grant finds himself about to become dinner for a
carnosaur when Dr. Backer suddenly
shows up on horseback and lassos the rampaging beast!
CONTINUED IN
JURASSIC PARK: REDEMPTION #5
Didja Notice?
On cover A, notice that, in the background, a dinosaur is
pulling a woman out of the window of a building!

On page 2, Drs. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler arrive in Glen Rose
in a Jeep to assist with the dino round-up. In panel 3, Grant
says, "Damn seat belts!" struggling to get free from his; this
is a callback to the scene in Jurassic Park
aboard Hammond's helicopter where he's trying to get belted in.
Grant and Ellie have brought U.S. Army troops in trucks and
choppers to aid in the round-up. Perhaps the two researchers
have an in with the Army ever since their dealings with them
during the events of the Topps Comics series of JP comic books?
There is also the fact that Ellie's husband, Mark, was said to
work for the State Department in
Jurassic Park III.
In telling the story of how he survived the attack by the rexes
on the boat in San Diego, Ludlow mentions "Malcolm and his
whore". By "whore", he is referring to Dr. Sarah Harding.
Referring back to his fate at the end of
The Lost World,
Ludlow explains that after the adult rex was finally tranqed, he
was able to crawl to a place of safety from the juvenile and,
soon after, some of his men were able to pull him out and get him
to medical care.
On page 5, we see various portions of a wall map in the
Sheriff's office that is presumably meant to be a map of Glen
Rose, TX. Looking closely at it under a magnifying glass, I've
been able to identify the map as actually being of San Francisco,
by such identifiers as Civic Center BART station and Golden Gate
Avenue.
Page 5 hints that it was Tim's idea to set up the breeding
operation at
Dinosaur Valley State Park, using his pull with the
Washington elite to secure permission.
Also on page 5, the deputy reports a dinosaur attack on Windsor
Street. As far as I can tell, there is no Windsor Street in Glen
Rose.
On page 6, Ludlow explains that being presumed dead all these
years allowed him
to be the ghost in the machine within InGen, and he scoured the
company files for information about dinosaurs and Jurassic Park.
He learned that besides Site B (Isla Sorna), Hammond had also
had Dr. Wu entrusted with a duplicate set of dino DNA that he
took with him when he fled the storm on Isla Nublar on the boat
(in
Jurassic Park).
On page 12, panel 3, the young sauropod appears to be licking
the driver's side window on the car Lex is driving.
On page 14, we're left with the impression that Ludlow's stooge
has been knocked unconscious after being hit in the head by the
amber ball thrown by Tim. It's hard to believe that such a
small, lightweight object could knock someone out.
On page 16, panel, 1, the country fair workers are, ironically,
running towards the House of Horrors to escape from the
Carnotaurus.
On page 17, Sergeant Schmidt is referred to by the helicopter
pilot as Bravo 1, while the choppers are Tweetybird 6 and 4.
Also on page 17, one of the pilots comments that the dinosaurs
are "moving like there's a 50% off sale at Walmart's..."
Walmart,
of course, is a chain of discount department stores in the U.S.
and around the world.
On the double-page spread of pages 18-19, panels 1, 3 and 8,
several unidentified carnosaurs are seen. The absence of horned
eye-ridges informs us that none of these is the
Carnotaurus. In panel 2, the horn on the carnosaur's
nose suggests it is a Ceratosaurus, a species
previously seen in Jurassic Park III.
On page 20, panel 1, a ranch hand is seen riding the back of a
young sauropod. This may be a bit of an homage to the original
Land of the Lost TV series, in which Holly Marshall was
shown riding on the back of the baby brontosaur called Dopey.
On the last panel of page 20, Dodgson gets stabbed through the
shoulder by an angry Triceratops.
The last page of the issue shows Dr. Backer riding in on
horseback and lassoing a carnosaur. This may be an homage to the
1969 film, The Valley of Gwangi, about cowboys who
discover a lost valley filled with dinosaurs. A scene of the
cowboys lassoing an Allosaurus occurs in the film.
Unanswered Questions
This issue reveals that
Hammond had sent Dr. Wu away from the storm on Isla Nublar (in
Jurassic Park) on the ship with a
duplicate set of the dino embryos. So, why didn't Wu return them
to InGen after the incident? Wouldn't Hammond have demanded
there return? We're left with the impression that Wu still had
them several years later when he was contacted by Ludlow.
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