Background

Lara Croft

Aliases: Tomb Raider

Occupation: Archaeologist, adventurer

First appearance: Tomb Raider: Journeys #1 (November 28, 2000)

Likes: Archeology, archery, Myles, Jonathan Kagan

Dislikes: Leeches, killing

Backstory

Lara Croft is an archeologist who spends her days traveling the world, encountering ancient civilizations and doing what she can to keep legendary artifacts out of the wrong hands.

From what little we’re given about her past, Journeys version of Lara was trained by an archeologist named Myles. During a run-in with the crime lord Charles Carlton, Myles was killed in the crossfire, and as his dying wish, he made Lara swear to never take a human life.

Several years later, during a cruise across the seas, Lara encountered a pirate ship filled with 16th century pirates. Intrigued by her advanced technology, Captain Jonathan Kagan offered her an ultimatum: she could join his crew, or he could turn his ship’s cannons on her. Left with no other choice, Lara agreed, and during her time with the ship, she soon realized it was cursed, seemingly doomed to repeat the same failed raid over and over again. Upon recognizing this, Lara took charge and ensured the raid was successful, causing the heretofore unknown ghost ship to finally pass on from its doomed voyage from El Dorado.

After the ghost ship’s disappearance, Lara washed ashore in Peru, where she was found by a fisherman named Jose. With help from one of the boys in his village, Eduardo, Lara discovered El Dorado, but this discovery had also caught the attention of a local mercenary group who wound up destroying it after they activated a trap. But even with the city of gold destroyed, Lara was still able to provide Jose with a gold medallion for his village.

Upon returning home, Lara was contacted by two representatives of the Endowment for Preservation of Authentic Sites, who convinced her to help them preserve the recently uncovered remains of Gomorrah and prevent it from being purchased by the mysterious businessman Mr. Kagan. With only 48 hours to secure the property from its current owner, Lara snuck into the ancient ruins and accidentally woke the undead, the sight of which convinced Kagan to let the Endowment have the property. But despite their beliefs, Kagan had abandoned the deal out of fear of the undead; rather, it was because he recognized that someone else had obtained the artifact within Gomorrah.

Knowing it could only be one person, Kagan and his men ambushed Lara while she was investigating a chariot burial, only for his men to declare a mutiny midway through. Now forced to work together, Lara and Kagan (both suffering intense cases of deja vu) repaired the skeletal corpse at the burial ground and defeated his men, but Lara would ultimately leave him behind and receive credit for their discovery.

Upon arriving back in England, Lara attended a high school reunion at Chesterfield Private Academy, but before the event could start, everyone there was affected by King Arthur’s crown, changing them to how they looked in their school days. Even with this change, it didn’t stop Lara from battling the knight guarding the crown and retrieving it, turning things back to normal.

During the reunion, Lara would end up meeting her old friend (and current Prime Minister) Tony Adler, who- alongside Winston Churchill’s ghost- hired her to retrieve an ancient Māori spear from New Zealand that was stolen from the British Museum and trapped in their underworld.

After traveling to Australia winning a shootout with her informant, Lara got directions to the tribe that owned the spear. With their help, she discovered Kagan was the one who stole the spear and journeyed into the underworld with their strongest member, Akio. During this trek, Lara encountered Myles and battled Kagan, learning of their involvements in each other’s past lives and emerging victorious.

Kagan would go on to become Lara’s ally and helped research the whereabouts of Myles’ killer Charles Carlton, leading them to attend his dinner party. But even with all the help he’d provided for months, Lara still didn’t trust Kagan and refused to tell him her plans with Carlton. For good reason, as it turned out Lara was planning to avenge Myles’ death by killing Carlton. While an assassin stopped her initial attempt, a leftover mystical tattoo (and imprint of Myles) from her time with the Māori finished the job. After Kagan saved her from Carlton’s assassin, Lara returned to Myles’ gravesite, where she learned the true nature of what had killed Carlton.

Personality

Lara has an avid interest in archeology and history, often spending her spare time researching them. She usually prefers to study a temple or ancient city extensively before traveling there, though she will put this aside if she’s hired for a quick job. This cautious attitude also makes her weary of people who’ve tried to kill her in the past.

Despite her love of archeology, she puts the safety of others first, and will go out of her way to protect animals. This selfless attitude is further compounded by her pacifistic nature. Unlike her other counterparts who have high body counts, this Lara has sworn never to take a life in memory of her dead mentor, to the point where she actively refuses to shoot people or fight to the death. But that hasn’t stopped her from issuing warning shots or fantasizing about killing Carlton, even if she did hesitate to pull the trigger when they were finally face to face.

Experience

As an archaeologist, Lara is naturally well-versed in history, especially with regards to ancient artifacts and civilizations. She’s discovered El Dorado and the first woman chariot burial, battled a medieval knight using a table leg, beat Kagan in CQC, and defeated the Māori tribe’s strongest warrior Akio in a fight. The same Akio who was strong enough to defeat multiple knife-wielding men at once.

Strength

Tomb Raider: Journeys #3:

Pulls herself up a ledge.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #4:

Throws a wheel at a group of men.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #5:

Flips a table and rips one of its legs off.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #7:

Dropkicks Stan Woodroof.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #9:

Beats Akio in a fight.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #10:

Throws a monster into a group of monsters.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #11:

Knocks Kagan out with a punch that makes him spit blood, and carries his unconscious body.

Speed

Durability

Tomb Raider: Journeys #5:

Knocked back by a charging knight.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #6:

Punched by ghosts.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #9:

Kicked by a Māori tribesman.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #11:

Takes a blast from the dream spear that shatters her sword.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #12:

Shot in the arm, but quickly recovers.

Intelligence

Tomb Raider: Journeys #1:

Took Spanish in grade school.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #2:

Can tell that the traps around her and Jose were already disabled.

Can read Incan inscriptions.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #3:

Fully researches Sodom and Gomorrah in four hours.

Prefers studying areas for traps.

Figures out how the undead Gommorans operate.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #4:

Sets up the perimeter for a burial ground and reads the Latin message inscribed on a woman’s shield.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #5:

Uses a table leg as a makeshift sword.

Tomb Raider: Journeys #7:

Tricks some gunmen into getting into a fight with a group of loggers by destroying their stacks.

Abilities

Agility

Has used flips to dodge a knight’s attacks and steal King Arthur’s crown, recover in midair after being backhanded, and avoid bolas.

Marksmanship

Thanks to practicing archery in her spare time, Lara’s become an expert at hitting targets from a long range, even landing a bullseye and splitting another archer’s arrow while distracted.

Swordsmanship

Battled a medieval knight while using a table leg as a makeshift sword.

Arsenal

Dual Pistols

Lara’s go-to weapons during combat, one of which originally belonged to Myles and is more accurate than hers. They’re useful for intimidating perverts and returning fire when attacked.

Bow and Arrows

Used on occasions when her pistols are unavailable. It can fire regular arrows or ones with ropes.

Mallet and Chisel

Used to break through rock-solid clay.

Electric Torch

Illuminates dark areas.

Flare

Strapped to her thighs, Lara can use them to light up dark places and harm ghosts.

Moko

Also called the “mark of the dreaming,” these elaborate Māori tattoos allow for safe passage into the underworld. They’re only temporary and fade over time, but even in the physical world they still have their uses, like detaching from her and firing her gun when she was disarmed.

Invisible Sword

Gained while traveling through the Māori underworld, this sword was specifically created for Lara. She used it to sever songlines while in the underworld, but it was later broken by the dream spear.

Feats

Discovered El Dorado
Obtained the sun amulet from Gomorrah and convinced Kagan to abandon his plans to purchase the city
Discovered the first woman chariot burial alongside Kagan
Retrieved King Arthur’s crown from a knight
Became an honorary member of the Māori tribe after defeating Akio, their strongest member
Defeated Kagan and returned the dream spear
Infiltrated Kagan’s mansion and nearly killed him

Weaknesses

Lara may be an experienced archeologist, but she’s not perfect. Unlike other versions of the character, she’s noticeably lacking in any impressive or superhuman feats, and her refusal to kill prevents her from actively using her guns on people. Her guns can also be disabled if they’re submerged in salt water.

Conclusion

After covering so many long series, it was nice to research something short that was actually good for once. No lengthy story arc that drags the quality down and makes me annoyed with the main protagonist, no middling story with irritating characters and inconsistent writing, just a 12 issue series of briefly connected adventures with a unique take on an existing character. The way Lara was written here was enjoyable, and I appreciated the concept of having her as more of a kindhearted pacifist, even if I’m honestly more a fan of the Core Design and Top Cow personalities.

However, that doesn’t stop me from having a few minor complaints. Issue 8 was a confusing mess full of trippy deja vu sequences where Lara or one of the Maori’s inhabitants says or does something, talks about how they’ve done this before, haven’t done this before, how they’re doing it now, and then they move on. Then at the end it’s revealed everything in the issue was pointless because Lara screwed up near the start, and it’s all a dream. Granted, its events are said to occur during the penultimate comic, so it’s not completely irrelevant, but even in that context, it’s still a total clusterfuck. And it’s especially annoying to learn the comic with her best strength feat was unusable.

Issue 11 also felt kinda weird near the end with the reveal that Lara and Kagan meet during every reincarnation. I figured Kagan could reincarnate early on when he got flashbacks to being a pirate, but this was the first time Lara had been implied to be capable of reincarnating, so it felt like a strange turn. It also doesn't have any relevance in the final issue, so what’s the point of bringing it up?

The finale was pretty good for the most part, and it was interesting to see this version of Lara actually considering killing someone. But like most examples of this, it commits the rather annoying sin of having the character point the gun at their target, then pussy out at the last second. It’s especially bad considering Myles, the guy she made that vow of pacifism to, wanted revenge on Carlton for killing him and told Lara he wanted her to kill Carlton. But at least Carlton actually dies, even if the explanation for the circumstances surrounding it was kinda weird.

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Lara Croft (Tomb Raider: Journeys)