Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Phillip Sevy
Release Date: March 23, 2016
After Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft’s adventure continues with Eisner Award- winning writer Mariko Tamaki! To discover the true nature of the soul, Lara is drawn into a hunt for a rare mushroom said to grant immortality. However, she’s not the only one in pursuit–the Knights of the Spore will stop at nothing to take Lara down
Tomb Raider by Dark Horse Comics continues the story that takes place after the video game Rise of the Tomb Raider, developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. Tomb Raider #2 begins where we left off at the last issue: A standoff in a professor’s office in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Laura Croft and the Knights of the Spore – Zombie minions that will do whatever it takes to get the mushroom.
I’ve played several of the video games from the Tomb Raider franchise since its inception 20 years ago. I remember every game began with Laura Croft starting her quest in jungles and other exotic locales fending herself from animals, nature, and the environment itself. Laura would be controlled by the player to find items and weapons to help solve puzzles until the end. Flash Forward and we are in comic books, published by Dark Horse continuing her story, not in a tomb, but on a college campus! It is pretty neat for the writing and art team of Tamaki and Sevy working in-sync together with the panels. As a reader, you get to witness looking around from Laura’s perspective to have her channel her inner “McGyver” to escape the knights. They end up finding a motorcycle and feeling the scene from what made the panels seem like slow-motion clips from an action movie. The chase was short and silent for the most part. I just found it pretty strange having the professor riding piggy pack with Laura and not giving any reactions or screams from her motorcycle driving skills
The remainder of the issue took place inside of a new shopping mall that is under construction. I am a fan of video games and obscure crossovers, it seemed the creative team decided to have Laura be like Frank West from the Dead Rising games. The game look place inside of a mall and you play as the main character Frank, who uses items from all of the stores in the mall has his weapons in the craziest ways you can imagine. The art team seemed to have a blast having Laura take on the knights inside of the incomplete mall. The tables are turned when the prey, becomes the hunter.
- Story - 9/109/10
- Art - 8/108/10
The Verdict
Sometimes comic books have a story that are done well enough that they earn a video game about them. And times like this, we get a comic book based on a video game. I read the issue again thinking about the professor and odd how he didn’t react in ways I would expect him to. But once you see him finally react at the end of the issue, I realized that this story works. Tomb Raider II #2 “Spore”