You really don’t want to get on that boat.
Creative Staff:
Story: Gail Simone
Pencils: Nicolas Daniel Selma
Inks: Juan Gedeon
What They Say:
Lara Croft is chased through the streets of London as she gets dangerously close to the truth! But it’s not her own safety that concerns her, but that of her friends, the surviving crew of the Endurance!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Tomb Raider felt like it started to hit its stride pretty well in the third issue with how it was presenting itself, at least for me since I’m coming into it without the game background. Lara’s being chased around Dublin had its moments, bringing in some of those from the past in both word and presence, while adding a new level of threat with Sam being taken hostage worked well. She’s had her motivation from the beginning to figure out what’s going on, but there’s a greater impetus now as the sense of responsibility has raised a few notches. If there’s one thing that she always looks out for, it’s her friends and those she cares about. And that’s doubly reinforced after losing so many people since going to that island.
With Jonah back in his right frame of mind after all that happened in the desert southwest, Lara’s putting together what she can to head back to the island and do what’s needed. Seeing Jonah ready to go is definitely heartening, though you can imagine she’s nervous about him being put in harms way again, and while there’s a reluctance – okay, an outright refusal – on Joslin’s part to go, she knows it’s the right thing to do because of the history that’s shared. Even more so since they know what’s happened to Sam and have been in their own bit of trouble with the Solarii and what they’re after. It’s not exactly the kind of crew that Lara went with before on the Endurance, but it’s good to see that there are those that will stand up and stand next to her in her time of need. It’s all nicely balanced out with the threats we see being made against Sam as well by the agent working for the Solarii, which is certainly interesting but still ends up spending most of its time teasing us with information than giving us anything to sink our teeth into.
That leaves a good chunk of the book dealing with the journey to the island itself, which is done on a rather small ship overall (which gets deceptively big at times). Crewed by a group of Malaysian’s that don’t speak any English, we get that they don’t have any first hand experience with the island, but there’s also the fact that nobody seems to really get there in one piece on their own. There’s some nice reunion stuff on the ship with Jonah back on board, but you have to kind of laugh because just as soon as Lara’s got her support side back, it’s ripped from her and she’s thrown into the seas on her own. And to make matters worse, the previous incident with the Endurance is just about literally thrown at her face as she does her best to survive and figure out what’s going on with the piece she took from the island without even knowing that she did so. The mysteries continue to pile up and you have to laugh that every time it seems like she’s making progress with those she can count on, they’re torn from her,
In Summary:
It’s not easy being Lara Croft and issues like this just reinforces it. She wants to work with others, she wants to have support because there is that need to make sure that she’s not doing things without realizing it again, but it’s just not meant to be. She has challenges to face and has to face them on her own and she thankfully has the skills and talents to do that. Not that it’s going to be easy and not that it’s going to make sense, but she continues to push forward here to unearth the mysteries that have been laid before her. This issue moves things forward a good bit since even just getting close to the island itself is a big plus as all things are funneling us there and because we get her being proactive for the first time in a big. And that continues to be her strong suit.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 28th, 2014
MSRP: $3.50
