Tomb Raider #4 Review

Can this series continue its tale without blemishing the video game? Read on to find out.

The official description from Dark Horse:

Gail Simone’s thrilling addition to the Tomb Raider saga kicks into high gear!

Lara Croft is chased through the streets of London as she gets dangerously close to the truth! But it’s not her own safety that concerns her, but that of her friends, the surviving crew of the Endurance!

I’ve been a fan of this property since I sat down with my Sega Saturn and plowed through the original outing featuring the now famed heroine. Right from the start there was something compelling about her and the fact that we finally got to play a character that had enough awesomeness to be an adventurer in epics with a supernatural twist. Smash cut to the stellar reboot and the franchise has never been more vibrant as this creative team seeks to extend and take full advantage of that fact.

Gail Simone instantly crafts a smart script that knows our heroine and her experiences well enough to offer up a sequel featuring her and the companions she cares about. The biggest negative is that a lot of it carries an air of familiarity that feels like s retread of covered territory. Despite that fact it manages to act as a refresher of sorts for those that are unfamiliar with the events of the game while building up to a compelling cliffhanger.

When it comes to the visual component Nicolás Daniel Selma captures and translates the essence of what fans have experienced from this reborn property. Each pencil stroke informs and maintains the quality of the text, but there is a lack of gritty details to fully cement this journey from the console to the comic book page. That said the colors done by Michael Atiyeh help smooth that transition, as the entire package feels more than passable.

Tomb Raider #4 is a rock solid release that may be a bit familiar, but it still manages to entertain from London to the one place Lara Croft doesn’t want to go. Recommended.