Writer: Corinna Bechko
Artist: Randy Green

The tagline that I have been hearing for Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen is the classic Lara Croft returns. And thus it did. In a new miniseries set to release on October 7^th 2015, Bechko and Green takes Lara Croft on an adventure that will send her up against cultists aimed at destroying the world!!!   Wait…we did that one awhile back in the last Tomb Raider game. New Cultists, New Danger, Same Objective!!!!!     Off we go!

The book starts off as Lara is doing what she does best by putting herself in danger and all the while feeling the exhilaration it brings her. She is doing this to bring back a wayward hawk for a friend. Afterwards, she hears about a mysterious piece of ancient reindeer ivory that has disappeared, which in the wrong hands could have consequences on a global scale.  Thus off she goes to track it down which leads her to a colleague named Jon who has it and not all is as it seems. Along with that we get a brief car chase to fill in some of the adventure and we get to meet our villain Mr. Green. The book closes out with Lara confronting Jon and something evil taking root.

On the plus side, it was a good set up book that reads like the opening act of any adventure story where the hero gets all that they need to know to go off on their journey. The book does indeed close with a cliffhanger and gives us a nice start to the series. All in all it’s a by the numbers affair that in some ways ended too soon. To be honest, I felt like more could have been added to the story if the beginning was much shorter. The best part is that the story’s approach didn’t get bogged down in unnecessary and pretentious mythology and folklore. Corrina Bechko did a good job getting this underway by setting the opening arc’s flow by giving us readers everything that we needed in a concise and easy to follow manner.

Randy Green’s artwork was very good. A lot of it reminded me in some ways of J. Scott Campbell’s work on Danger Girl except Lara was still drawn proportionately and not overdone. If I had one minor quibble about the art is that Lara goes to 3 different places in the book and doesn’t change clothes, (except when she is at the British Museum when she is in pants) and also in many cases seemingly has the same facial expression unless something is going on. Asides from the facial expression, I think the clothing issue got me because as of late, there have been artists that have been able to render Lara in many adventurous outfits besides the standard Playstation costume. But then, this IS advertised as “classic” Lara Croft, right?

This miniseries is a pretty decent start and I am hoping that we get a good story that fleshes out especially with the new game release coming in November. This book was easy to get into and keeps with the spirit of the globetrotting, treasure hunting Lara Croft and with the cliffhanger ending, I can only imagine how she escapes.

If you are looking for a good Tomb Raider book to get into, I would recommend this one as it hits the shelves on October 7^th.

3 spelunkers out of 5