"Redemption" Part 1 Jurassic Park #1 (IDW) Written by Bob Shreck Art by Nate Van Dyke Covers by A) Tom Yeates B) Frank Miller

13 years after the failure at Jurassic Park, Lex continues to fight to keep the islands isolated. Tim, meanwhile…does he have other plans?

Read a review of this issue by Patrick Hayes on PopApostle

Story Summary

The story opens "two years ago" as we see that a now adult Tim Murphy is working with an unknown person to engineer more dinosaurs, apparently for a project similar to Jurassic Park.

In the "present day", Lex Murphy is the founder and CEO of Lexxcrops, a corporation that provides organically-grown vegetables to the world. At the moment, she is making a speech to the UN to keep both Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna isolated, as they have been since the original Jurassic Park debacle.

Elsewhere, we see that Drs. Wu and Backer are heading up the dinosaur breeding project, secretly taking place underground at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX. That night, a Carnotaurus escapes from the compound. Dr. Wu believes it had to have been deliberately released by someone. The escapee chomps down a wild wolf and then attacks a truckful of cattle on the highway.

CONTINUED IN JURASSIC PARK: REDEMPTION #2

Didja Notice? 

The title page on the inside front cover tells the reader the story takes place 13 years after the first Jurassic Park motion picture. But then the first page of the story tells us the two-page prologue takes place "two years ago" before page 4 brings us to "present day". So, was the prologue 13 years after Jurassic Park or just 11? Is "present day" 13 or 15 years after Jurassic Park? Either way, the story does not take place in our present day of 2010 (when the mini-series was published). If we take the first film's release date of 1993 as the time of the events on Isla Nublar, then the "present day" of the story is either 2006 (for 13 years after) or 2008 (for 15 years after). (In "Redemption" Part 5, Lex says that Peter Ludlow has been dead for almost 12 years, his "death" having occurred at the end of The Lost World which was 4 years after Jurassic Park; this 12-year figure since the events of The Lost World seems to coincide with the current story taking place 15 years after the events of Jurassic Park.)

Throughout the story, it is implied that John Hammond is no longer living (and confirmed later in "Redemption" Part 5), but when he died is not stated.

The cityscape on page 1, panel 1 is most likely that of Washington D.C. from the presence of the tall obelisk which appears to be the Washington Monument.

On page 1, a young man is engaging in a video conference call on his laptop computer. The unseen speaker on the call is identified only as "sir", so we know it's a male. The speaker refers to the young man as "Mr. Murphy", so given that it's 11-13 years after the events on Isla Nublar in Jurassic Park, we can be fairly sure that the young man is the now adult Tim Murphy from that film.

Also on page 1, Tim asks the man on the line, "...why the Stephen Hawking routine?" Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist and author who has a motor neuron disease that has left him almost completely paralyzed and bound to using an electronic wheelchair and voice synthesizer. At this point, the meaning of Tim's question remains a mystery, as does the caller. But later in the issue we see a man in a wheelchair pulling the strings of the latest dinosaur cloning project; it's revealed in "Redemption" Part 3 that the man is the now mangled Peter Ludlow from The Lost World.

On page 2, the caller implies that Tim has some kind of influence in the government, though how is not stated. It must be more than just money, because the caller's other statements indicate he has money as well, but not the influence.

The picture Tim holds on page 2, panel 3 appears to be that of a Protoceratops.

On page 4, the emblem on the pedestal provides us an early implication that Lex is speaking before the United Nations.

The plaque in front of his microphone suggests that Ambassador Arlind is from the country of Albania. Albania is a small country in southeastern Europe.

Lex is the owner of Lexxcrops International, which is said to be the world's leading supplier of organically-grown vegetable products (carrying further the idea of Lex's vegetarianism as depicted in Jurassic Park). Possibly the name of the company is a play on Lexcorp, the company owned by Lex Luthor in the Superman comic books published by DC Comics.

On page 5, Lex expresses that she is fighting to keep the two islands, Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna, contained because she seems to fear that if dinosaurs were to spread through the modern world, mankind itself could become extinct.

On page 6, we learn that Dr. Wu, whom we first met at Hammond's hatching facility on Isla Nublar in Jurassic Park (actor B.D. Wong), is now working with the group secretly cloning new dinosaurs for Tim and Ludlow's project. 

Working with Dr. Wu is Professor Backer. His name, character background and art depiction is obviously meant to be a satirical representation of Dr. Robert Bakker, the real world paleontologist who was also the inspiration for the character of Robert Burke in The Lost World who, again, looks like Bakker! How many of these guys are there?! The mention of Backer's past in Wyoming is also reflective of Bakker.
Backer ("Redemption")	Bakker (the real guy)	Burke (The Lost World)

On pages 6-7, Dr. Wu is feeding some kind of unidentified sauropod dinosaurs.

On page 7, over the comlink, Wu's boss, presumably Ludlow again, speaks of Backer in a derogatory manner, saying, "...if he is so damn intelligent, why did we use Dr. Grant's theory to complete the DNA sequence this time?" He may be referring to the filling in of the holes in the recovered dino DNA with amphibian DNA as revealed in Jurassic Park and that maybe now they are using bird DNA for the purpose, based on Grant's belief that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Is this then meant to indicate that the amphibian DNA idea came from Backer in the first place? (In "The Depths", it was stated by Dr. Sorkin that it was Dr. Wu who came up with the idea to use frog DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps of the dino DNA that was recovered from the prehistoric insects trapped in amber.)

Page 8 reveals that Lex's actual first name is Alexa.

Page 8 suggests that the world consensus was beginning to favor reopening the infamous Jurassic Park, with Lex working to prevent that (apparently successfully, with her speech). Currently there is a multinational police force guarding the two islands to prevent intrusion of people or escape by the animals.

The drawing of the UN Building in New York on page 8 is a fairly accurate representation of the real thing.

On page 9, Lex comments, "No matter where you go...there you are!" Possibly she has borrowed this quote from the 1984 cult favorite film, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, spoken by the title character.

Page 9 reveals that Tim has lost out on his bidding to purchase his grandfather John Hammond's amber-topped cane, seen in earlier JP stories.

Much of the story takes place in and around Glen Rose, Texas. There is a real town by that name in Texas, though it's population is much less than stated on the city entrance sign on page 10, panel 1. The town has only a few thousand residents, not 27,000 as stated here.

On page 10, we see a sign advertising a country fair coming soon. This is a harbinger of the events that take place at the country fair in "Redemption" Part 4.

On page 10, Sheriff Delgado mentions San Bernardino. San Bernardino is a real world city in California.

In my copy of this issue, the word balloon on the last panel of page 10 is blank. I don't know if all copies were erroneously printed this way or not.

On page 11, a truck drives past a sign stating, "REPENT! THE END IS NIGH!" This sign is later seen on cover A of issue #3.

Page 11 reveals that the new dinosaur breeding lab is secretly located underground inside Dinosaur Valley State Park. The park actually does exist in Glen Rose, Texas! Tim's fishy conversation with a U.S. Senator on page 16 hints that he is the one responsible for the arrangement of the park's use for this clandestine activity.

On page 12, Lex mentions Lexxcrops operations in both Belize and Henan. Belize is a country in Central America, Henan is a province in China.

On page 13, Lex, aboard her corporate jet, witnesses a couple of jet fighters chasing two pterosaurs through the air. She remarks, "God-damned birds...they'll never get them." Presumably, the pterosaurs that escaped Isla Sorna at the end of Jurassic Park III (and seen in Flyers) have bred and become something of a nuisance in some parts of the world. This may suggest that the later-published series Jurassic Park: The Devils in the Desert actually takes place before Redemption; for now though, I'm leaving Redemption ahead of The Devils in the Desert in the chronology.

The grazing ceratopsians on pages 14-15 are Triceratops.

On page 15, the unnamed dino-herder ("Redemption" Part 2 reveals it is actually Dodgson, the Biosyn employee previously seen in Jurassic Park and the novel of The Lost World; although it's possible it's the son of Dodgson instead since he seems a bit young) calls one of the Triceratops both Beavis and Elsie. These are probably sarcastic references to the 1993-1997 Beavis and Butt-head cartoon (about two stupid teenage boys) and Elsie the Cow (the unofficial mascot of dairy products made under the Borden brand name).

Page 16 reveals that Tim has donated money to a zoo, at least a portion of which has been dedicated to his grandfather with the name John Hammond's Pachyderm Paddock. In "Redemption" Part 2, we learn it is the National Zoo in Washington D.C.

Lex's trip to Central America has brought her to one of Lexxcrops' facilities in Paraiso, Costa Rica. Paraiso is a real world city in that country and is known for the Finca la Flor de Paraiso organic farm located there; perhaps Lexxcrops has developed a relationship with the farm.

On page 17, Lex holds a copy of the New York Paste with the headline "DINO DILEMMA DIFFUSED!!" regarding her recent speech to the United Nations. The New York Paste appears to be a fictional tabloid newspaper, probably inspired by the New York Post. The headline's use of "diffused" is either a misuse of the word in place of "defused" or it may be an intentional play on words, as "diffused" is sometimes used to refer to a lengthy speech. The New York Post is known for occasionally engaging in this sort of wordplay.

Also on page 17, Lex comments that Dr. Grant is reluctant to get involved in any more Jurassic Park debacles having been there two too many times. Counting all the stories we've studied thus far in the films, books, and Topps Comics issues, he's been there many more times than that.

The theropod dinosaur that escapes from the breeding pens appears to be a Carnotaurus judging by the horns above its eyes. A Carnotaurus previously appeared in Prey as one of the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna. (It also appeared in the novel of The Lost World, but not the film version.)

The dinosaurs the Carnotaurus approaches on page 18, panel 3, are actually two statues that exist inside Dinosaur Valley State Park (although colored oppositely and a few of the surrounding details are different).
Artwork	Dinosaur Valley State Park (photo by srinidhilv)

On page 20, a rancher hauling some cows in a flatbed truck is trying to quiet down the animals as he stops to take a leak at the side of the country road. He says to them, "Callate! No seas tonto!" This is Spanish for "Shut up! Don't be silly!" 

The depiction of the Carnotaurus on page 21 seems larger than a real one would be in comparison to the truck it's attacking.