I've always viewed Top Cow books as ones that focus the reader's attention on two specific elements: the left breast and the right breast. The heroines are impossibly curvy, and the challenges they face are always over the top. I found it difficult to find anything to relate to in most of the stories, and in this much ballyhooed issue of Tomb Raider, the trend continues. We're faced with an ordinary super-hero plot with annoyingly perfect but one-dimensional characters, and on top of that, it's not the most accessible of stories.
New York homicide detective Sara Pezzini calls upon her friend -- world-famous archeologist and adventurer Lara Croft -- to help investigate a mystery. Some kind of ghostly energy field swallowed an elderly couple hole, and Sara believes Lara's expertise can help get to the bottom of the mystery. Lara soon witnesses the destructive power of the energy field for herself, and she pursues it across the city where she finds its master. Lara underestimates the lure of the supernatural power that lurks beneath the city, though, and when she and Sara meet again, Lara is a changed woman.
The colors on this book are rich. I love the orange of sunset bathes the opening scene, and the colors also reinforce the energy and supernatural quality of the catalyst of the plot. That's about where my interest in the visuals ends, though. The ridiculously impossible and perfect physique and clinging attire of the two confident women who serve as the story's protagonists rob the story of any hope of credibility. And that long ponytail? How can a woman who spends her life fighting have a whiplash-like extension flailing about like that? It's a distracting visual element in Turner's interpretation of the character.
Let's see... a cop who's been permanently bonded with an ancient, sentient, supernatural weapon turns to an archaeologist friend for help with a case of weirdness. Makes sense, I suppose; there are stone artifacts she hopes Lara can explain and/or interpret. But what the plot realy comes down to is a lengthy chase scene. In other words, there seems to be little reason for Lara Croft to be involved in this rather ordinary, cliched story at all.
What I find most puzzling about this story is its nature as a crossover. I thought "Endgame" -- which begins in this issue -- was to be about the supposed death of Lara Croft, if I remember the promotional material correctly. But it's criss-crossing into Witchblade, and even worse, into the first issue of a new series (Evo)? We're only one chapter into the story, and it's already on the confusing side.
Note: This comic book was not among this week's new releases.
