Lara Croft (Top Cow)

Background

Lara Croft

Aliases: Tomb Raider

Nicknames: Red, Cyber Psycho Armageddon Girl, Morning Dove

Height: 5’9

Weight: 126 lbs

Occupation: Archaeologist, explorer, adventurer

First appearance: Tomb Raider/Witchblade (December 1, 1997)

Likes: Winston, Sara Pezzini, Chase Carver (sort of. It’s complicated)

Dislikes: Mosquitos, Lord Vymes, Tarsem Vox

Backstory

“I’m Lara Croft. If it’s unique or exciting, I go after it. No matter where it is. No matter what it takes to get it.”

Lara was born into the Croft family as the daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft and Andrea Croft. Raised in their manor, she was tended to by the family butler (and bodyguard) Hartford Compton and spent her childhood reading books by the famous author/adventurer Lydia Blake, often playing in the family’s garden pretending to be her. Her love of archeology would further be stoked when she discovered the Lotus of Lakshmi at 8 years old, and she’d get to indulge this growing interest when famed archaeologist Werner Von Croft took her with him to help retrieve an ancient artifact.

Technically the above details are retcons to make Top Cow’s Lara more in-line with her game counterpart. Originally she was a spoiled brat who cared more about fashion than education, and her love of adventuring and archeology came from the thrill of discovering an ancient goblet while surviving in the wilderness after a plane crash.

Upon becoming an adult, she got engaged to a wealthy nobleman named Roger. The two celebrated the occasion by going on a plane ride to the Himalayas with Lara’s parents, ready to marry as soon as they returned to England. Sadly for Lara, during their flight the plane suddenly caught fire and crashed, taking her parents and fiancée with them. As the sole survivor, Lara crawled out of the wreckage right before the plane exploded, leaving her abandoned on a snow-covered mountain.

For the next few weeks Lara would put her training to use, combining all the lessons she had learned. Every school subject, every gymnastics lesson, every camping trip she’d ever gone on was now her guide to surviving the inhospitable cold mountains. After killing a wolf and searching a cave for warmth she discovered not food or water, but an ancient goblet, the sight of which sparked something in her. As she ventured down the mountain and made her way back to England, Lara returned home a changed woman. Where she was once a pampered brat only interested in the latest fashion trends, now she was a survivor with an interest in ancient artifacts.

From there, Lara would begin a career as an archeologist and eventually become involved with treasure hunter Chase Carver. This partnership eventually grew into a full romance, only to meet an unfortunate end in Monaco. In what would later be described by both as a botched mission, Chase got drunk at a casino, used Lara’s money for gambling, then abandoned her and stole a treasure she’d been trying to find for years. This breach of trust resulted in a nasty breakup that ate at both of them, with Chase later admitting it was his biggest mistake. And despite multiple attempts to rekindle their lost romance, Lara could never overcome her feelings of betrayal.

With her partnership fractured, all she had left was Compton. But during a quest for the fabled Medusa Mask she’d learn the truth: Compton had secretly despised her family believing they never treated him fairly, and he’d organized her plane crash so he could obtain their fortune. Angered by this, Lara killed him.

She’d go on to have several team-ups with Chase, and despite the grudge she still held, she slowly regained her respect for him. Unfortunately, during one of their many adventures, they’d end up attacked by the undead and caught in a poisonous gas trap. With their time running short, Chase put Lara’s safety above his own, letting his body be ravaged by the poison to ensure her survival. Despite everything he had done to her, the loss of her old partner still hit Lara hard, and she paid her final respects by giving him a proper burial.

After dissuading Chase’s sister from resurrecting him with the demonic Lucifer Text, Lara was recruited by TV producers into investigating their actors’ disappearances. During this search, Lara wound up joining the victims as she was kidnapped by the perpetrator, an alien from the distant future known as The Beast. Though Lara quickly escaped its hold, she was then ambushed by Carrone, a shapeshifter from the Beast’s time who’d been assigned to neutralize it. In trying to investigate this mysterious woman, the two would end up accidentally traveling to Carrone’s time where they were subsequently arrested and jailed for violating the Temporal Authority. However, they’d quickly escape thanks to a combination of Carrone’s shapeshifting and the intervention of Lara’s immortal associate Samuel Quill, who used the ancient Eye of Shaherettin to send Lara home.

Lara’s next mission would be under the employ of the asura Vayamasa, aka Lord Vymes, who tasked her with obtaining his lost artifacts, but she quit when she discovered his true nature. An enraged Vymes then sent monsters to kill her, only for Tsang (the monk who exposed him) to take them out in a self-sacrifice.

During a trip to America, Lara would cross paths with Sara Pezzini, a NYPD detective who she’d teamed up with in the past. At Sara’s request, Lara began investigating the existence of the Weave, a mysterious supernatural power tied to Sara’s current case. During her search she’d discover its ability to resurrect the dead and its creator Tarsem Vox, whose awakening infected Lara and brainwashed her into becoming his servant. But upon learning his true nature, Lara overcame the brainwashing and used the power of the Witchblade to absorb Vox and his minions, sacrificing herself to safely disperse the overflowing energy.

When she died, Lara’s soul wound up in the Egyptian afterlife and battled the undead pharaoh Amenhotep, who wanted revenge for her stealing his belongings. After tricking him into trusting her, she discovered that the undead “pharaoh” was merely a doll made to serve the real Amenhotep, and destroyed it. With the false pharaoh’s death, Lara was judged by the underworld’s guardian Nehebkau and deemed worthy of life. However, her joy at being resurrected was short-lived.

In the brief time of her death, Lara’s estate was sued and all of the artifacts she’d collected were seized by Lord Vymes. Hoping to let bygones be bygones and gain a new body to replace his rotting one, Vymes convinced Lara to obtain the water of death and the water of life, using Tsang’s life as a bargaining chip. Given a two week deadline, Lara traveled to the Vatican and freed one of their captives: the immortal teenage werewolf Valya, whose transformation drove him mad and eventually caused him to attack her in Tunguska.

After killing Valya, she used his blood to trick Vymes, reanimating the corpses of his past victims and watching as they tore him apart. Following some miscellaneous adventures, an old figure from Lara’s past would emerge: Werner Von Croy. Seeking the power of the legendary Obscura paintings and knowing she’d get in his way, Von Croy tried to have her assassinated by a group of mercenaries in Morocco, and when that failed, he tried again while meeting her face to face. Unfortunately for Von Croy, his life would be taken instead after his assassin was intercepted by a third party called the Cabal, causing him to miss his shot.

Now unintentionally framed for murder, Lara found herself teaming up with Kurtis Trevor of the Lux Veratatis, a group dedicated to battling Von Croy’s benefactor: Pieter Eckhardt, the Black Alchemist. With Kurtis’ help, Lara went on a mission to track down the stolen Obscura paintings and prevent Eckhardt from using them to resurrect a Nephilim called the Sleeper, eventually killing it using shards of the amulet that killed it before.

After a few miscellaneous adventures, Lara wound up back on the place where Chase had died, now pursued by a sentient fireball and aided by a mysteriously resurrected Chase Carver. Though she soon learned this was merely an old sage who’d taken his shape, she’d get the chance to properly say goodbye to Chase’s ghost.

During a trip to an eastern Malaysian temple, she’d discover an old enemy had returned: J. Bradley Aulgood. After her informant was killed over the phone, Lara decided to prepare for her fight with Aulgood, seeking out the legendary martial artist Zinn. During their three days of training, Zinn used his ability to explore others’ subconscious and deliberately prodded Lara to make her more aggressive until they reached the final trial. With crossbows attached to their wrists, both student and master attempted to kill each other, and in the end Lara emerged the victor.

As Lara prepared for her battle with Aulgood, she wound up getting roped into one of Sara’s investigations surrounding an ancient artifact called the Rapture. In the hopes of learning more, she booked a flight to Italy to talk with people specializing in ancient artifacts, first with the Sanctum Archives, then with her history teacher Robert Drew. Unfortunately, her investigation by interference from other parties searching for the Rapture, like Carlos Delarch and the catholic assassin Patience, aka the Magdalena. After realizing Lara’s heart contained no evil and being saved by her, Patience helped Lara track down and kill Delarch to stop him from opening a portal to Hell, and the two parted ways as friends.

Later on she was once again contacted by Kurtis, who was in need of help studying a lost Aztec temple. However, this turned out to be a trap made by Aulgood and another of Lara’s old enemies Lady Jasmine. Now trapped in Aulgood’s custom made temple of doom, Lara overcame numerous traps and battled Jasmine, who’d go on to team up with Lara after Aulgood betrayed her. Aulgood would soon fall victim to one of his own traps, and Lara wound up punching Jasmine out when she tried to double cross her.

In her later adventures, Lara would end up scratched by a Yeti’s claw said to doom one to live out their life in interesting times, and she’d go on to discover and drink from the fountain of youth. At one point she teamed up with Dr. Jekyll to help the Magdalena after she was bitten by Dracula. To help synthesize a cure, Lara traveled to the Carpathian Mountains and retrieved a plant called the necrotic orchid, but not before killing the two-headed werewolf guarding it. After meeting up with Sara, they, together with Jekyll and Jackie, teamed up to stop Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Mr. Hyde from creating a race of vampires made from the severed evil consciences of man.

After Jekyll healed Patience of her vampirism, and she joined the battle against Dracula and his forces, ending with Sara ripping the Witchblade piece from Hyde. Jekyll then reclaimed his other half and sacrificed himself, saving the day in exchange for finally ending his nightmare.

From this point on, Lara continued her lifetime of adventure, her exploits making her the subject of numerous movies, video games, and comics even 500 years later, to the point of receiving her own museum and inspiring generations of archeologists. While the museum was eventually forced to close down following a government mandate, this didn’t stop Lara from helping her descendant break in and steal the more dangerous artifacts, ensuring they’d never fall into the wrong hands and just because she thought it was fun.

Personality

Lara is a thrill-seeker who regularly ventures the world in search of ancient artifacts and civilizations. Despite having “more money than she can spend in a hundred lifetimes,” she’s an adrenaline junkie who prefers to live life on the edge and enjoys the feeling of danger, which is speculated and later confirmed to be motivated by the loss of her family. Though she enjoys her job, she has occasionally expressed regret over how her friends die when they get involved with her. While she’s been accused of raiding tombs to defile final resting places, she admits it’s for the thrill of knowing she’s the first one to view the tombs since they were sealed. She has occasionally taken what’s inside, but she rarely keeps them, preferring to donate them to museums, rightful owners, or descendants. She’ll also return artifacts to their temples if their curses affect other people.

She has an intense resolve, is always looking for solutions, and refuses to immediately trust others. Her accomplishments have made her extremely confident in her abilities, and she almost always keeps a cool head in times of stress. She’s regularly shown a coy sense of humor, occasionally making jokes, jokingly dismissing the dangers she faces, or bantering with others. She’s also admitted she isn’t scared of snakes, spiders, boars, bats, beasts, or bandicoots. The only thing that does scare her is boredom.

While she doesn’t like killing, she will cross that line if she has to. This difference of opinion has occasionally left her and Sara Pezzini at odds, but it hasn’t stopped them from regularly working together and becoming friends. And despite having blood on her hands, the Magdalena- a woman with the ability to view the hearts of others- admitted she couldn’t find any evil in Lara’s.

In terms of personal relationships, she originally viewed Compton as an invaluable friend of the family, her only family left after the plane crash, and didn’t tolerate others insulting him. This changed when she learned he was responsible for the crash, causing her to murder him without any remorse. However, she’s still willing to do anything for her friends or those she views as surrogate parents, even if it means sacrificing her humanity or life to save them.

She can be somewhat frosty when others try flirting with her, which is most prominent in her relationship with Chase. After he betrayed her trust by using her to steal a treasure she’d spent years searching for, she gained a habit of making jokes and remarks at his expense, criticizing him, and being frustrated at his recklessness and attempts at flirting. While she was unable to let go of her grudge toward him, they still managed to get along and she still respected him somewhat. Though she tried to act like it didn’t affect her, the loss still ate at her and left her more alone than ever.

She prefers tea over coffee and wine instead of beer.

Experience

As an archeologist, Lara is knowledgeable in various cultures, artifacts, and traditions. She’s fluent in Iranian, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish, and has studied ancient hieroglyphs, the Lucifer Text, the legends of the waters of life and death, and Sinbad’s astrolabe.

Her time as a tomb raider has led to her discovering or uncovering many artifacts and legends that have been lost to the world. This includes the existence of Shangri-La, a golden dragon artifact from the Shang-Ti dynasty, the treasure of Sinbad, and the fountain of youth.

She’s been to the future, other dimensions, the astral plane, and the Egyptian afterlife; swam the English Channel once or twice, and continued her adventures even 500 years later, saying she intends to do it forever.

She claims to have fought dead things more than she can count, has encountered at least thirteen snake goddesses in ten years, and has battled other foes like expert martial artists, Egyptian gods, secutors, werewolves, and yetis.

She isn’t afraid to steal from others, whether it’s enemy weapons or motorcycles, and she has no problem hitting opponents in the balls or throwing sand in eyes. She’s even tricked men into bondage sessions so it would be easier to interrogate them.

Strength

Speed

Durability

Tomb Raider/Witchblade:

Backhanded twice by Moralto.

Tomb Raider: The Series #1 & 2:

An underwater explosion knocks her back while she’s 120 ft underwater. This appears to knock her out, but the next issue shows she’s faking it.

Tomb Raider: The Series #4:

Backhanded by Compton.

Tomb Raider: The Series #6:

Takes a blast from Chase’s staff.

Bitch slapped by Morgan Le Fay.

Tomb Raider/The Darkness:

Tossed across a room and smothered by Jackie.

Tomb Raider: The Series ½:

Survives a plane crash and the plane exploding.

Tomb Raider: The Series #11:

Lands on a mountainside doing a fast 120.

Tomb Raider: The Series #12:

Gets crushed under the palm of one of Shangri-La’s watchdogs.

Tomb Raider: The Series #0:

Hit by a tiger.

Tomb Raider: The Series #14:

Punched by a knight.

Tomb Raider: The Greatest Treasure of All:

Survives a plane crash.

Tomb Raider: The Series #18:

Survives being shot in the back.

Tomb Raider: The Series #19:

Smacked by Carrone.

Tomb Raider: The Series #28:

Slashed by a Ba’s talons.

Tomb Raider: The Series #30:

Valya backhands her, but she gets back up.

Tomb Raider: Sphere of Influence:

Thrown by a giant statue.

Tomb Raider: The Series #38:

Gets back up after she’s blasted by the Crystal Dagger, which can shatter concrete.

Tomb Raider: The Series #39:

Blasted again by the Crystal Dagger after it had grown stronger from more sacrifices, though it knocks her out.

Tomb Raider: The Series #41:

Takes an elbow strike to the arm, being kicked in the jaw, and repeatedly slams against the cliffside onto solid rock, only to get back up.

Tomb Raider: The Series #43:

Smashed through a door by the Elemental.

Tomb Raider: The Series #44:

Backhanded into a bookshelf, though she gets knocked out.

Endures being in a rack.

Tomb Raider: Arabian Nights:

A snake goddess bites her and rips open a vein. Lara lets it bleed as a show of bravery.

Takes a beating from Shahryar, who hits her in ways she never thought possible, then survives being choked.

Tomb Raider: The Series #45:

Scratched by a crossbow bolt.

Tomb Raider: The Series #46:

Hit by an energy blast from Delarch.

Tomb Raider: The Series #47:

The Magdalena kicks her in the head and sweep kicks her.

Cut by the Spear of Destiny.

Tomb Raider: The Series #49:

Smacked by a tiger.

Kicked by Lady Jasmine hard enough to spit blood.

Intelligence

Abilities

Martial Arts

Lara has hired many of the top instructors in several martial arts to train her extensively. Most famous among them was Zinn, a martial arts master who she eventually killed in their final session.

Marksmanship

Lara has an expert skill in firearms and has been training from a young age, which she later honed by sneaking onto military training grounds. She can land headshots and kill shots from a distance even if her target’s in a plane or underwater, threw a shuriken into a man’s hand, shot a man through the heart, killed armed guards while remaining hidden, shot through a Ba’s wings. She’s managed to precisely land shots while falling through the air or on a motorcycle.

Swordsmanship

Defeated Master Zinn in a duel.

Stealth

Lara is no stranger to using stealth, as even in her early journey she could sneak into Moralto’s mansion undetected. She regularly uses disguises when traveling abroad to not draw too much attention, and she’s occasionally donned them in her adventures. Among her notable disguises are a Muslim woman, a nun, a jet pilot, a security guard, an Arabian man, a soldier, and others.

Motorcycling

Won a professional motorcycle race despite earthquakes and being attacked by another cyclist. She can also pull off sick stunts while riding.

Powers

Immortality

As a result of drinking from the fountain of youth, Lara was granted eternal youth and an undying body, letting her remain in her prime even 500 years later. Those who drank from the fountain also gain minor healing factors that allow them to instantly heal bullet wounds, though they can still die by slitting their throats.

Arsenal

Catsuit

A black latex suit Lara wears when she wants to go for a stealthier approach.

Ingram M-10 Submachine Gun

Before getting her iconic dual pistols, Lara used these as her weapons of choice.

Dual Pistols

Lara’s signature weapons. Dual handguns with seemingly no limit to their ammo. They’re filled with hollow bullets that can tear a person apart, break apart stone statues within 26 shots, and rip through armor like nothing. They even work underwater. Alternatively, she can fill them with silver bullets against monsters.

Revolver

A six shot handgun Lara pickpocketed off one of Lady Jasmine’s dead men.

Grapple Gun

A pistol that fires a steel rope attached to a metal hook. Lara can use it to cross long gaps.

Knife

Used occasionally on her adventures, with one strapped to her side and the other hidden in her boot. It can be used to stab others, cut through foliage, free captives, or pry artifacts from statues.

Flashlight

Useful for illuminating dark areas.

Electric Torch

For when you don’t want to use a flashlight. She can also use it to gouge out someone’s eye.

Binoculars

Can view events from afar. Some are bigger than others.

Rope

Forty feet of it. She can use it to lower herself into deeper locations or swing across wide spaces.

First Aid Kit

A small kit hidden in her backpack that she can use to patch up injuries. She used on a bullet wound during her earlier adventures.

Extendable Poles

Metal poles that can be connected to let Lara traverse between skyscrapers. Their edges are able to carve through windows.

Crowbar

Useful for breaking into places or opening things

Crossbow

A weapon gained from the greater vault of her old family friends at Sparrow & Sons. Its bolts can pierce stone, and it can be used as a zip line.

Grenade

Used to kill a two-headed werewolf.

Scorpion Staff

An artifact Lara was originally searching for with Von Croy. Its gem creates energy blasts that blow holes through people and fry them to death.

Grishkin

Lara’s mutant pet tiger who was bred to fight war elephants. Her mutated body is durable enough that a shot from a 9mm will only enrage her.

Jeep

A red Jeep Lara uses during chases. It comes with bulletproof glass.

Motorcycle

Lara’s preferred mode of transportation when traveling abroad.

Forms

The Sleeper

After the time traveler Vox infected Lara with the otherworldly power of the Weave, her body and mind were transformed into his perfect sleeper agent.

This transformation sharpens her fingers into claws and gives her the following abilities:

Flight

Enhanced durability: Is only annoyed after being shot by machine guns

Extrasensory Perception: Can sense the “life” inside inorganic matter

Nanomachines: As a result of Vox’s infection, Lara’s body is imbued with techno-organic nanomachines that can merge with matter at a subatomic level. They can even resurrect the dead, though the process leaves them in intense pain

Barriers: Creates a barrier that melted automatic fire before it hits her

Shapeshifting: Creates tendrils to ensnare the Witchblade and save a crashing helicopter

Telekinesis: Throws rocks at a group of SWAT officers and telekinetically lifts Sara

Transmutation: Converts herself and Sara into a ball of light that flies across New York

Resistances

Fate Manipulation (possibly also Plot Manipulation?):

When the demon Shahryar attempted to alter the story he trapped her in, Lara forced the story to end prematurely and fought back

Feats

Helped Sara Pezzini remove an ancient talisman from the elderly gangster Lucas Moralto
With Sara’s help, she retrieved an idol of Bastet, resealed the goddess, and adopted her pet tiger Maranes
Recovered the lost necklace of Sharaham
Recovered the Medusa Mask for Paris D’Arseine
Discovered Shangri-La and saved her dying childhood nanny by placing her there
Recovered the Aquil from ancient Rome
Met and kissed Indiana Jones
Saved Sarah Constantine after she was trapped in a temple
Killed The Beast, an alien that was kidnapping and eating young actors on an island
Uncovered Scarface’s lost treasure, which turned out to be a vault full of beer barrels
Helped Kurtis Trevor stop Pieter Eckhardt from improving his immortality and killed the Sleeper (the Nephilim, not her transformation)
Killed the expert martial artist Zinn
Survived Aulgood’s temple of doom and defeated Lady Jasmine in a fight
Obtained immortality by drinking from the fountain of youth
Helped Dr. Jekyll create a cure for vampirism
Became a celebrity and inspiration even 500 years later
Raided her own memorial museum

Weaknesses

Despite her status as a renowned archeologist and treasure hunter, Lara is still human at the end of the day and has all the weaknesses that come with it. It’s been shown that falling from a tall height, a strong energy blast, or enough blunt force will knock her out.

While her guns are powerful, they’re useless against an opponent with a tough enough hide (such as a T-Rex) and can eventually run out of ammo, though this is extremely rare and she has several spare cartridges just in case.

Conclusion

It took a long time, but I finally managed to conquer the next step in my plan to cover every Lara Croft. And after 50 issues, several crossovers, and a brief collection of one-shots, I’d say that Top Cow’s run on Lara Croft was an excellent journey from the 90s to the mid 2000s.

I was hooked from the first issue, and the constant danger only got me more interested in seeing how things turned out. Chase’s introduction was funny, and his constant flirting and interactions with Lara were a real highlight. In fact, I’d argue Chase is easily one of the best recurring characters in Tomb Raider. His suave, flirty personality and rivalry with Lara made him endearing, and the fact that he died before he and Lara could patch things up kinda bummed me out.

Compton, while a predictable choice for betraying Lara, was entertaining enough as a villain that I could let it slide. Unfortunately, the writers did so good with him that they barely gave anything to Winston. For someone who was the Croft family butler and Lara’s support in the games, the comic version of Winston is completely irrelevant. This is the only time he shows up in the comic’s entire run.

Still, the different adventures Lara went through were mostly interesting, even if some of them were more on the mediocre side and stayed out their welcome by stretching into parts, like Lara helping those executives and getting captured by the Beast.

Around the middle of the series is where things took a turn and got weird. Issue 24 was advertised as the prelude to the Endgame crossover, but the comic itself doesn’t tie into the story in any way beyond the final page announcing it.

Endgame itself was kind of a mixed bag. The setup with Lara being brainwashed into an insane acolyte was cool, though I wish they’d done a bit more to establish that she’s resisting the effects of the brainwashing. We see her constantly fighting and resisting the Weave’s control when it’s implanted, only for her to suddenly go full throttle into being under its control. There’s only one brief moment where she snaps out of it, and then it’s right back to being a crazed villain. It’s especially weird since the recap in EVO says Lara’s fighting with everything she has:

Speaking of EVO, it’s really bizarre for a finale. Marc Silvestri’s artwork is really good, and these robot designs look stellar. The only gripe I have is the swallowable combat suits look ridiculous:

The aftermath in Tomb Raider 26-28 was interesting and had some great art and fight scenes. The storyline afterward with Vymes and Tsang kept my interest and had a really brutal ending, but I feel like Vayla was kind of a pointless character. If it weren’t for the fact his blood contributes to Vymes’ death, his role in the story would’ve been “Lara frees him from captivity and he threatens to eat her. Then he expositions for a bit, transforms, and dies.” The change in artstyle midway to Tony Daniel also would’ve been noticeable even if they hadn’t advertised it, but I feel like his art held up really well.

The Angel of Darkness arc was great, if a bit too short. I like how it fleshed out some of the more interesting concepts from the game, but they also cut out a ton of stuff to streamline the story. Von Croy makes his first appearance in this comic just so he can die, and his death is basically an afterthought. Lara isn’t even suspected of his murder by the police, so that plot line’s completely gone. Ditto with the experiments that Eckhardt had going on in the game or the twist that he’s a nephilim. The one good thing about cutting most of the story is that the ending is way more satisfying, mainly because it doesn’t end by planting seeds for a nonexistent sequel. The only big complaint I have besides the cut story is that while the art was really solid sometimes the faces looked noticeably long:

The story afterward with Joe Notafraid and Lady Jasmine was fun, but that’s all I can say about it. I actually forgot to include it in the Backstory section because of how minor it was. The Crystal Dagger arc was much the same. The only unique thing I can say is Lara wearing a green top was an odd change but still looked good. Edwin David’s art in issue 40 was awesome, and it was cool to see Chase come back and Lara get some closure, even if it wasn’t actually him for most of the comic.

The last 6 issues had a strong start with some gorgeous artwork and thrilling fight scenes with Zinn. The “Gathering Storm” arc kinda surprised me with how involved it became with the greater Top Cow universe. I was used to seeing Lara crossover with Witchblade and The Darkness by this point, but now she was getting involved with the Magdalena and plot points from the Universe comic, neither of which I’m as familiar with. The good news was everything received decent enough explanations that I could follow, even if it got a bit weird seeing Lara repeat how the Rapture works back to back. The showdown against Aulgood was a bit anticlimactic, but the fight scene between Lara and Jasmine was entertaining.

When I saw the solicitation at the end of issue 49 that 50 was written by Dan Slott, I was expecting to to be terrible, but surprisingly enough, it was a really good finale. Having an anthology issue show how Lara’s exploits are viewed in the future was an interesting concept, and the flashbacks to her past gave some great showings for Lara’s intelligence. I also got a chuckle at the reference to the nude code.

As for the ending where it was revealed Lara was immortal, I actually got spoiled on that years ago by a guy that was helping me with a composite Lara blog, but that just made me more interested in looking through the comic. Combine this with my decision to start researching Witchblade and its crossovers for an upcoming blog, and I finally decided to go through this after getting distracted by a few other projects. And in the end, it was worth it. It’s nowhere near as long as some of the other series I’ve researched, and the main series was excellent despite my few complaints.

In terms of one-shots, their short length doesn’t give me enough to dedicate entire paragraphs for, so I’ll just go through them rapidfire. The Greatest Treasure of All and Scarface’s Treasure were both really good stories with some amazing art, though the latter’s ending was jarringly abrupt. Epiphany was a great prelude to the Angel of Darkness arc, and Takeover had a decent story with some great art (aside from the occasional weird face). I’m also 90% sure this comic has Lara’s boobs at their largest.

Sphere of Influence was alright. The only interesting thing about it being it’s the first Tomb Raider comic done in sketches. Arabian Nights had some great art, but I felt it rushed through the 1001 Nights story a bit too quickly. The ending was cool, though.

And for the final story we have Monster War, a completely insane story that was a lot of fun. The stuff with Hyde creating a serum that splits man’s good and evil halves, Dracula fighting the Magdalena, and Jackie vs Hyde was awesome. Lara unfortunately felt like more of a side piece in the overall plot, which is a shame since this was the last storyline she appeared in, but her fight with the two-headed werewolf was cool enough to mitigate that.

But the real highlight here was the artwork. This is the first time I’ve seen Joyce Chin’s work, but I have to say she draws some beautiful women.