By Mark Rodriguez Lara Croft has rocked the world in 1996 as a thrill-seeking world-traveling adventurer when Tomb Raider hit the SEGA Saturn and Sony Playstation. Garnering a huge fanbase due to the action-packed gameplay as well as Lara's looks and overall bad-assness, it's no surprise she'd eventually branch out into other forms of media or merchandising. In 1999 she got herself a comic book series from Top Cow and Image comics. Thanks to Hipcomics I was able to grab a copy, so let's check it out. 'The Medusa Mask' opens in Iran as the narrator explains how dangerous the place can be, especially towards thieves. Several Iranian soldiers are looking for 'the westerner' and start taking off the hijabs of any woman they see. One of them takes the hijab off a particular woman who turns out to be Lara Croft. One of the men sets her gun to her head and she tells him if he shoots, he'll mess up the 2200-year old necklace he's been told to recover. ...
By Mark Rodriguez We continue my look back to the actual Batman comics I purchased back during my childhood. The first Batman issue I bought was issue 444, but that was part 2 of a 2-part story. This was before the days of going to an actual comic shop and back-ordering a missed issue. This was when you just bought comics at a grocery store or pharmacy. This is my first full Batman story, a three part tale that takes the Caped Crusader to Russia. Let's check it out. "When the Earth Dies! Chapter One: Red Square! Bloody Square!" opens with narration explaining how Batman knows every bit of the city. He knows every street, every back alley, every sewer, from the business district, the parks and the ghettos. They are all part of his city to protect. Just then Batman leaps into a dark alley to stop a villain named Slasher from killing another victim. Slasher has sharp weapons attached to his arms, a blade on one hand and a spinning buzzsaw on the other. Slasher says these ...