Creative Staff:
Story: Rhianna Pratchett
Art: Derlis Santacruz
What They Say:
While using the cover of a fake documentary about the legendary Chupacabra, Lara and her friends are drawn into a missing-child case while hunting the organization holding their friend hostage!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As this arc gets further underway, I have to admit that it’s not doing much for me. Which is fine, not all the adventure arcs are going to click for every reader, especially if the setup just feels awkward. What works for me here is just enjoying the interactions between the main characters that exist here, especially since it’s really turned into a storyline following the main trio of women as the gentlemen are nudged to the side. Lara’s still very much the star, but Sam and Kaz are definitely adding to it and watching their interactions, that don’t revolve around the discussion of men at all, is refreshing since it avoids some of the usual pitfalls. It’s unfortunate that they’re just stuck within an uninteresting story that doesn’t feel like it has enough setup.
With them all doing the film crew thing in South America now and talking with locals about their experiences as part of the cover while searching for the cult, we get some fun re-enactment moments at the start with a chupacabra and a wolf type of creature that the natives talk about. It’s all hard to believe of course, but their being open allows Lara to interact with a young woman, a mother no less, who tells her off camera about some real threats that exist here. The tale of her daughter disappearing is just one of many that populates the region, but it’s something that the police won’t get involved in because of their social/class status and a simple distrust of anything they’re told. But for Lara, the clues she gets from the woman about her missing daughter are hints to finding this mysterious organization that has their long thought dead friend.
Those clues do help eventually to get things closer to figuring out what’s going on, and part of that involves a solo adventure that Lara goes on where she finds the missing girl in a pit and finds something more expansive going on. While it has some traditional exploration elements, and some fighting with alligators, it’s more setup for what’s to come and to show that they’re not alone. What I do like though is that before this hits, we get a real shake down between Lara and Sam as Sam is stepping up for herself to be an alpha in this alongside her, calling Lara out on the way she always does these things solo. Which, well, she does. There’s some interesting character dynamics at work there, especially with Kaz as peacemaker of all things, but just having this group having these disagreements, and for it to be as forceful as it is, and to not have a man break it up, helps to show these characters in a light we don’t often get to see in a lot of comics.
In Summary:
This arc for Tomb Raider continues to be underwhelming, at least in terms of what they’re doing and going after. It makes sense that no friend is left behind and that they’ll go the distance and it’s a solid piece to launch it on, though said friend is not one that I recall, so he doesn’t mean anything to me. The mysterious organization is about to step out of the shadows in a stronger way and what we get here is more foreshadowing and tension building, which is decent but not compelling. For me, it continues to be the character material that works well and just the dynamic we get between the three main women here across the book, and their interactions with others, pushes it into some interesting and often unexplored territory in comics. So it’s definitely engaging there. It just makes me wish the main storyline was more engaging.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 22nd, 2015
MSRP: $3.99