Tomb Raider (Top Cow 1999 series) # 4

 By Mark Rodriguez

Tomb Raider, Lara Croft was hired by the devious Paris D'Arseine to find the legendary Medusa Mask. This dangerous mission led to the death of her butler Compton. She ran into another treasure hunter she was once involved with named Chase Carver. After surviving a fight in a burning warehouse, their quest led them to the mountains in Tibet. While finding a particular area on the side of the mountain, it gives way, making Lara and Chase fall through a hidden area. They fall hurtling through total darkness not knowing what to expect.

Lara and Chase continue to fall, expecting to splatter onto a hard surface, but instead they hit the water. They're surprised but lucky to be alive and in one piece. They swim to shore. Lara asks Carver his flashlight still works. Chase assures her that 'everything on him works' and Lara tells him to stop and just use the flashlight. 

The pair find themselves in a large cavern. As the venture through, Lara finds that wicks are still wet with oil despite the place being hidden for hundreds of years. They walk past several skeletons of old pirates and Mongolian warriors. Lara assumes if the other made it this far, so can they. Chase is more concerned about leaving alive. Lara is only concerned about finding the Medusa Mask. Chase continues to hit on Lara, and Lara shuts him up as they both found the mask.

The Medusa Mask is on a skeleton, as it sitting on a huge chunk of rock suspended with four chains on opposing sides, hanging over a pit of fire. Chase says the mask reeks of evil but Lara is impressed by the design and workmanship. Lara does wonder how the previous people died. Lara decides to try climbing onto one of the chains to get to the mask and tells Chase to watch her back. Chase remarks that watching her back is one of his favorite hobbies.

As Lara climbs along the chains, she says she can feel the oil in the air which probably keeps the wicks lit. She says there has to be a supply somewhere to keep the fire going. As she makes it to the mask, she feels sadness over Compton's death. She then realizes that one she got with Chase the attacks stopped. Just then she hears a voice call her name.

Compton is still alive, and punches Chase out. He tells her to get the mask since Chase's men are on his way. Lara is surprised to hear that Chase had men working with him. Lara removed the mask from the skeleton and says she should have known that Chase was using her.

Lara climbs along the chain, back towards the ground, wanting to tear Chase apart. Compton tells her to be careful so she doesn't fall into the fire. Lara asks why he didn't tell her that he survived. Compton says it takes more than an arrow to take him out. Men in black cloaks arrive, and Lara recognizes that group as the ones that blew up her boat and also attacked her in the alley. She is surprised that Chase wanted to kill her. Compton says he stayed in the shadows, protecting Lara without them knowing. He tells her to give him the mask so they can chase after him which would allow Lara to escape. Lara refuses, saying they will leave together. She doesn't want to lose him again.

Compton angrily takes the mask and slaps Lara across the face. He says her elitist family lost him years ago. Lara is confused and says she always thought of him as family. Compton says he was treated like a slave. Lara's father never gave him any of the business opportunities he gave his other friends. All he got was a lousy wage while expecting to take a bullet for him. Lara is shocked to hear this and says she never knew he was so angry. Compton says her father was also shocked when he caught him embezzling funds. This is why their plane had to go down.

Lara is surprised that Compton caused the plane crash that killed her parents. Compton said he had a fake will written up that would have granted him the Croft family fortune, but Lara survived and ruined his plans. Lara calls him a monster. Compton says Lara will die, and the fortune will be passed onto him, and he even gets to keep the mask as consolation prize. Lara tells Compton to go to hell and punches him in the face, as Chase trips him up from behind. Compton says the mask is supposed to grant the user great powers, so he puts it on to see if it's true.

The cloaked men grab Lara and Chase as the Tomb Raider warns that the mask's powers are evil. The mask attaches itself to Compton's face and his body is covered in flames. The mask speaks and says it has finally found a body so it can live once more. The flames burn Compton's men alive. Lara takes out her gun and says Compton is gone, and this creature is twisted and must be stopped. She open fires and shoots the mask off of Compton, who has now been reduced to being a skeleton.

As everything around them starts to cave in, Lara dives after the mask as it falls into the fire pit and tells Chase to follow. This is their only way out and Lara says they could either be diving into burning oil, or there could be water under the oil. Luckily there was water beneath the raging inferno.

Later on, Lara and Chase wait for D'Arseine and his men to arrive and pick up the mask. D'Arseine notices that Compton is missing and asks if Lara finally got smart and discharged him. Lara says 'more or less' and asks if he has her fee. Chase asks how much money he got for this job, and D'Arseine says that Lara wasn't interested in his money.

Years before, Lara's mother would marry Lara's father, D'Arseine was interested in her. During that time, he had the finest music box maker in Europe to create a music box with a ballerina that looks exactly like Lara's mother. When Lara's mother married Mr. Croft, D'Arseine put the music box away and vowed to never open it again. Lara is amazed by how accurate the music box is, and D'Arseine demands the mask. Lara hands it over and tells him that it's evil and to never wear it. D'Arseine says he wouldn't dream of doing that, and he leaves with his men in their helicopter.

Chase is surprised Lara's mother was ever with someone like D'Arseine. Lara says he only admired her from afar, but never actually got with her. Her mother despised him and hated that she had that box. Chase asks if the music box was worth the Medusa Mask. Lara says she knows D'Arseine, and he'll never be able to resist putting on that mask. She says when he does so, it'll be the second thing that he'll never have. D'Arseine's helicopter explodes in the background.

My thoughts-

So concludes the first story arc to Lara Croft's story and it was a pretty thrilling story. Lara got to explore several parts of the world in search for the Medusa Mask, while we learned a bit of her past. There was a bit of irony in the fact that Lara can barely stand, let alone trust Chase Carver, but it was her longtime trusted butler that ended up betraying her. I am curious how things will work going forward, in regards to Lara having a butler. Will she now seek out a new one to replace Compton?

The artwork was awesome, like in the previous issues. Every page is pin-up worthy, which made it very difficult to decide which pics to take for this review. Lots of action and dramatic poses as well as impressive backdrops. 

Chase Carver is... a character. While he knows when it's time to get serious, every other line from his mouth is him trying to get into Lara's shorts. I wonder if his character serves as the mouthpiece for a lot of Lara's fanbase back then, where Chase gets to say all of the things they wish they could say to Lara without getting their teeth kicked in.

The Medusa Mask is pretty odd and I guess, too powerful for its own good. It's some sort of ancient evil that wants a new body, presumably to wreak havoc upon the world... but it seems to uncontrollably burn the wearer alive so fast, it would never have time to even leave the cave where Lara found it. While all the other skeletons lying made sense, I am curious how the one with the mask made all the way up that to that structure suspended by those chains. Also with D'Arseine's helicopter blown up, I assume the mask fell back into the ocean until some other fool will try to find it.

The comic included a letter column and some of the letters had some interesting points I didn't consider since I wasn't big on the games. One reader enjoyed the globe-trotting we have see so far, but they haven't seen any puzzle-solving that it seen in the games. Another mentioned that Lara was using comments such as 'like' and 'y'all' (which slipped past me) that clashes with the English manner of speaking she is known for. 

One thing I didn't know, was that Lara first appeared in Witchblade crossovers before Top Cow decided to just give the Tomb Raider her own comic series. While digging around, I also discovered that both Witchblade and Lara appeared in the last four issues of Fathom, but I didn't know that the issues came out around this time. One of the readers pointed out that Top Cow looks more like she's in her mid-20's while she was portrayed more as being in her early 30's in the games as well as in the Witchblade crossovers. I'm going to have to track those down.

Hey, I got to this one before the year ended. You didn't have to wait until 2025 for me to review this one.