By Luke Abbott
Issue #3 of Tomb Raider starts off poorly, but by the end it wins you back over. The entire issue tackles what happened after the cliffhanger of the last comic. Lara and Reyes are surrounded by Matsu and his gang of Solarii worshipers. A gun is pressed to Reyes’ daughter’s head and the trigger will be pushed, unless Lara can give the location of an artifact she has no memory of taking. She has until the count of five..
When I say the issue starts off poorly, I am talking about the use of flashbacks. I despise flashbacks and Tomb Raider has used them in every issue so far. In my eyes, flashbacks should be used when the particular flashback has relevance to the story in the present. While we could argue, the first three pages of the third issue do contribute to the final page of the issue, for the most part, it is just about laying some more development for Reyes. The issue also later cuts back to another scene on the S.S Endurance, where we learn that Reyes is a grumpy woman. This fact has already been established and I felt it was a wasted space, even if it did bring a snort of laughter (see Quote of the Issue below)
However, when we do finally get grounded into the present, we have the action we are craving. The entire issue is essentially Lara and Reyes escaping shadowy agents in the streets of Dublin. As I have a touch of Dublin blood in my own veins, I was loving the Irish charm of this issue. We get the cobbled streets, the traditional pubs, the use of a pint of Guinness as a weapon. While I am still slightly struggling to get over the fact that this series needs more tombs, when Lara took on thug after thug, I was content. We felt action, we felt humor – Gail Simone knows how to handle a good, old-fashioned punch-up.
Quote of the Month:
(Lara and Sam are bitching about Reyes on the S.S Endurance)
Sam: Really? Well, I heard she used to live under a bridge and eat children.
For more comic views and reviews follow Luke on Twitter at @LukeBbtt and check out his website at www.oracleoffilm.com
Posted on April 29th, 2014
Category: ORACLE OF COMICS, REVIEWS
Tags: Comic Blog, Comic Reviews, Dark Horse Comics, Gail Somone, Luke Abbott, Tomb Raider #3 Review