Reviews»Comic Books»Tomb Raider #18
tombraider18
Kareem Ali 2.5

Tomb Raider #18

 

  • The good

    Showing Lara's PTSD symptoms

  • The bad

    No progression regarding Lara's mentality and feels like filler until game is released. Still don't find Lara's friends to be interesting or entertaining characters

  • The ugly

    • Tomb Raider #18 has Lara trying to resume her normal life after her ordeal with the Queen of Serpents and all that was revealed to her. It’s been a few weeks since those events but Lara has had difficultly in adjusting considering she lost her job and didn’t bring Roth back. But the real reason is her mind views every situation as a dangerous one so even a man taking a picture of two children in front of a museum makes her see a man holding a gun instead. So she’s come to appreciate the bustle of the city because the noise keeps her mind distracted but only so much as there are still occasions she sees dangerous situations as part of her struggle. And her friends used to help her through these situations before but her relationship with Sam has been strained seemingly beyond repair. And even though Lara knows Sam isn’t herself there isn’t much she can do about it with her own problems. What’s next for Lara, and what can she do to move forward in life and not regress to her state after Yamatai island?

    tr18p1
    The last couple of issues were highly entertaining but I’ve been trying to figure out why this series hasn’t been engrossing to me in between the bigger story arcs and specifically when Lara isn’t adventuring or in battle with an enemy. And this issue made it even clearer to me why that’s the case. Yes, I’ve written about how Lara’s friends have been unappealing to me with Sam constantly needing to be rescued or involved in some new drama the most irritating. This issue has more of that with Sam’s behavior and attitude towards Lara, and the cover of this issue is actually reflective of some events that occur in this issue. And Jonah and Kaz aren’t particularly useful and just serve as a way for Lara to express her thoughts outwardly. But this time it was Lara that made me realize why I didn’t like this issue and why the stories tend to be better without her friends when she’s adventuring. And that’s because none of the characters have anything to do and they just feel like hobos. They don’t uncover any interesting leads for the next adventure or even feel like they bring unique talents or life experience to the group. They all fall in the role of discussing the drama between Sam and Lara or discussing Lara’s angst. And I was one that enjoyed the angle of Lara experiencing PTSD symptoms because it made her feel like a more rounded character considering her harsh introduction to a violent and inexplicable world. However, this series has explored enough flashbacks contributing to it and the only thing Lara does is surround her mind with gloom and doom with no sense of purpose. And I can appreciate character development but I think more story progression and growth would make things a bit more interesting even between these adventures. At least the conclusion of this issue gives me some hope that will finally start to happen.

     

    SUMMARY

     

    Tomb Raider #18 is a disappointing issue that doesn’t capitalize on the conclusion of the excellent Queen of Serpents storyline and instead focuses once again on Lara’s internal struggles without giving a way forward. This series is at its best when Lara is adventuring but this issue shows the lack of interesting character development as none of the characters bring anything to the table. I do find the way this series handles Lara’s PTSD symptoms at times yet this issue feels like a rehash. So I’m hoping this serves as a start to more entertaining situations and characters.

     

    Release Date: 7/29/15

    Writer: Rhianna Pratchett

    Artist: Derlis Santacruz

  • Rating ( 4.5 )
  • Total score 4.5

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: