Carl and the eponymous Dinocorps.
Dinocorps is a comic book published by AAM-Markosia and written by Andy Briggs and Steve Horvath, with Bob Molesworth as the illustrator.
While working on a science project for high school, Carl Vega discovers a cave buried beneath a mine near his home town. As he investigates the surroundings, he finds a series of strange devices and cryogenic chambers, which all contain talking combat dinosaurs who used to be part of an ancient civilization that has been extinct for millions of years.
Carl decides to keep the dinosaurs, known as the Dinocorps, hidden from sight, unaware that the nefarious Saurons and their leader, Jarek, have also awaken.
Once Jarek and the Saurons make their presence known, the Dinocorps realizes they plan on deploying a weapon that will cause The End of the World as We Know It. It's up to Carl and his new reptilian friends to stop Jarek before the human race is driven to extinction.
Dinocorps provides examples of:
- Abandoned Mine: Carl finds the dinosaurs' cryogenic chambers inside a mine outside town while he's working on his science project.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: While in Nevada, the Saurons are confronted by a biker gang known as the Angels. A massive shootout erupts moments later.
- And This Is for...: Kayla after she kills Icks or Blix.Kayla: "That's for Buzz!"
- Artificial Limbs: Professor Theodore's arms are both made of metal and designed to look like they belong on a robot, not a dinosaur.
- Big Bad: Jarek, the leader of the Saurons who wants to kill off all the humans. He's also responsible for destroying the race of dinosaurs Rex and his team used to be a part of.
- Butt-Monkey: Winston. He's kidnapped by the Saurons, almost killed by them on multiple occasions, almost inadvertently destroyed the world by activating the Annihilation Trigger, and some bullies give him a swirlie.
- Disney Death: Rex. After his first encounter with the Saurons, he's crushed by a falling building, but is later found alive beneath all the rubble.
- Disney Villain Death: Either Icks or Blix was kicked off a skyscraper to his death by Dirk.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Buzz, who's suddenly shot to death halfway into the comic and only mentioned a few times afterwards.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Carl is first seen daydreaming about dinosaurs in the middle of geology class, and he later forgoes attending a party with his best friend so he can work on his science project.
- Winston is first seen getting excited about how he and Carl were finally invited to a party, before he nonchalantly allows some bullies to give him a swirlie off-screen.
- Fantastic Racism: Jarek. He and the other Saurons consider themselves to be "True-Bloods," and that the other dinosaurs are not worthy and deserve to be eradicated. He feels the same way about mammals in general; Jarek wastes no time plotting to destroy the world a second time just to kill every human being on the planet.
- Gory Discretion Shot: After the Saurons kidnap Winston, they stop at a diner and are seen munching on a human corpse. The body isn't shown, but one of the Saurons isn't shy to brandish a severed arm in Winston's face.
- Last of His Kind: Subverted. Jarek is the sole survivor of the battle in Las Vegas. But the last page reveals that there are other Saurons in cryogenic sleep...
- Leave No Witnesses: When Jarek orders his team to look for the Annihilation Trigger as stealthily as possible, a police car shows up. He doesn't hesitate to kill the cops inside to conceal his identity from the humans.
- Left Hanging: The comic ends with Jarek still alive, and the revelation that there are more Saurons in cryogenic sleep.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Jarek. He's drove an entire species into extinction by blowing up the planet just because they weren't Saurons like him.
- So Much for Stealth: After Jarek tells his troops to look for the Annihilation Trigger stealthily, he's immediately spotted by some police officers. Jarek kills them by blowing up their car with a rocket. Somehow no one else noticed this.
- Symbol Swearing: After Carl says that the Saurons waking up is bad, this happens.Dirk: "Bad?! You S#A*! humans!"
- Tempting Fate: After Rex explains his backstory to Carl, he tells him he can afford to wait to find a place to fit in with his world, since there aren't any threats for the Dinocorps to worry about. Jarek must've heard him, because he wakes up from cryogenic sleep on the very next page.
- Uplifted Animal: All the dinosaurs in the comic are a race of intelligent, sentient creatures who can talk, wear armor, and use futuristic weapons such as blasters and beam swords.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Buzz gets the least amount of screen time and lines out of any of the dinosaurs in the Dinocorps before he's abruptly killed.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Jarek doesn't care about Winston, but keeps him alive because he needs him until the Extinction protocol for the weapon engages. After it does, Jarek throws Winston off a building.
