By Mark Rodriguez
One of the characters that Lara Croft has bumped into in several occasions is none other than Sara Pezzini, the Witchblade. They both crossover into each other's books and sometimes both of them crossover into someone else's book. While Lara Croft has had several long running comic book series, her first comic book appearance was in a crossover with Witchblade. I was able to get the 'Revisited' reprint, so here we go.
"Vendetta" opens with an old woman calling the police over what she believes is a domestic dispute happening next door. Suddenly a giant winged monster smashes its way through the wall, carrying a man in its claws. The monster drops the man right next to the woman on the phone. Suddenly something breaks through the front door as well.
Lara Croft appears, aiming her dual pistols at the monster. The monster throws a punch towards what's left of the door, and Lara flips out of the way. She calls the monster ugly and slow and starts to open fire.
In the next apartment, a couple is watching X-Files as the woman complains about how difficult it is to get into the show since it's so unbelievable. Just then the monster tears through their apartment as Lara gives chase, continuing to shoot at it. The monster breaks through the apartment and flies off and out of the Tomb Raider's reach.
Later on, the old woman was taken to the emergency room over getting the hell scared out of and Lara is taken to the police station. Lara tells the police that she didn't kill anyone and this was a waste of time. This is when Detective Sara Pezzini steps in and asks Lara about the whole situation. Sara asks about the man that was killed, Mr. Scarponi, since it was clear he didn't die from gunfire.
Drex says he can represent Lara, as he has connections with people that would pay a lot for a jewel like her. Lara says if he keeps talking like that, he'll be missing his jewels. Sara tells Drex to knock it off and says this woman is Lara Croft, the multi-millionaire daughter of the now deceased Heshingly and Mary Croft. She asks Lara what brings the archeologist to visit Scarponi. Lara notices Sara's watch and asks where she got it. Sara says she bought it at Macy's and wants an answer to her question. Lara says she was trying to save Scaproni and his family.
Sara shows Lara picture of seven members of the Scarponi that have been killed over several days and says she hasn't been doing a good job. Sara says that some of the family members were kids and asks Lara to tell her what's going on. Lara asks if Sara believes in the supernatural. She says she was commissioned to find an artifact three months ago.
Lara explains that her search took her to Malta, an island in the Mediterrean Sea south of Sicily. She found the underground tomb hidden deep within the ruins of Hal Sefliene. Inside she found a talisman with a black pearl in the center cradled in a chest of a statue unlike anything she's ever seen before. She pried the talisman loose and took it to New York to the individual that commissioned this expedition.
The person that wanted the talisman was an old friend of her father named Mr. Lucas Moralto. Moralto was in his 90's and wanted the talisman because the black pearl is said to bring immortality. However, he told Lara that his true motive was to use the talisman to exact his revenge. Lara explains the people in the photos were descendants of the Scarponi crime family that has been disbanded for 50 years. The Scarponis has a rival war with the Moraltos and both sides were almost completely wiped out.
While there was a truce made, and both families moved on to form legitimate businesses, but Moralto does not want to forget. Lara wanted to take the talisman from him and split it in half, but it made matters worse. A winged demon was released from the black pearl and decided to carry out Moralto's vendetta. Since this was her fault, Lara has decided to chase it and kill it.
Sara clarifies that a demon was released from a black pearl, which plans to carry out the old man's personal vendetta and Lara is trying to kill it. Lara says she knew she wouldn't be believed, but Sara says she'll bring the car around so she can join her. Lara insists she must kill the monster on her own. Sara says she can come along or stay in custody. Drex hits on Lara again, and the Tomb Raider says she'll drive.
Later on, Lara and Sara arrive at the Bar Harbor in Maine. They are at the bottom of a large mountain with Moralto's mansion on top. Lara says there's a boathouse on the far side of the cliff and lift leading to the house. There are three bodyguards but she can easily get past them. She gives Sara a wetsuit she can wear and offers her one of her guns. Sara turns that offer down and says she got it covered. As both women hit the water, Sara thinks to herself that Lara seems to be in her element for this James Bond adventure, and she even has the accent to match.
The women make it to the top and see the bodyguards. As Sara plans how to subdue them, Lara shoots them dead. Sara is surprised, but Lara says they're hired killers and it's better that the bodyguards are dead instead of them. As they sneak inside the building, Lara tells Sara she can arrest the third bodyguard if she wants while she goes to find Moralto. Sara says he will arrest him too, and tells Lara to leave the guard to her. Lara leaves, thinking it's strange and un-American for a police detective to go around unarmed. Sara's watch activates as she sneaks up on the guard.
Lara tries to sneak into Moralto's room, but he is already expecting her. He thanks her for the talisman, and mentions that the Scarponis have murdered his parents and his brothers, and are finally getting what they deserved. Lara says those people aren't even alive anymore and their grandchildren had nothing to do with his sick vendetta. She wants the other half of the talisman so she can send both the monster and him to hell. Moralto says the monster didn't come from hell, and he also shows that he has planted the talisman into his chest.
Moralto transforms into the demon itself, saying he is now free from his wheelchair and oxygen tanks. He will kill every last Scarponi. Lara is shocked that Moralto himself was the monster and gets swatted into a bookcase by the monster's wing. Just then something blasts the monster's wing. Sara shows up, now using the Witchblade. Lara says to remind her to check the next Macy's Catalog to herself one of those watches. Witchblade asks Lara what happened to Moralto. Lara says she just blew a hole into one of his wings.
Lara shoots the demon, while Witchblade blasts it as well. The demon knocks Lara back calling her inconsequential and says his new guest seems to be more of a challenge. Witchblade sees that Lara is unconscious and sets her sights on Moralto. The monster grabs Sara, and she warns not to do that since the Witchblade if prone to blast people's hands off. The monster's hand explodes, setting Witchblade free.
The demon angrily pins Witchblade down and prepares to end her. Just then. he is stabbed from behind as Lara rips the black pearl out of him. She takes offense at being called inconsequential. Moralto turns back to his older frail human form and Lara draws her gun on him. Sara tells her to stop and says she thought they agreed to no more killing. Lara says she never agreed to that. Sara says there has been enough killing and one more act of vengeance will not bring her family back. Lara lowers her weapon and says "No".
Later on Sara explains that one of the most difficult things about justice is the burden of proof. There would be no way to explain to the station that this old man turned into a demon and was killing people. Since she couldn't kill him, she had to let Moralto go. Lara Croft took both pieces of the talisman with her and made sure the demon would never be released again. Sara was impressed with Lara and says she'll be sure to cross paths with her again.
Sara says someone as old as Moralto will be dead within a year and will spend most of that time just trying to breathe. She figures he won't be a danger to society and an old man like him is unable to cause harm.
Elsewhere, Moralto goes to visit the home of Mr. and Mrs. Antonio Scarponi. When the woman of the house asks who he is, he tells her he's 'and old friend of the family'. He has a clearly sinister look on his face.
My Thoughts-
I have to say, busting through someone's apartment door, chasing a huge winged demon monster while blasting away with her dual pistols is a heck of a way for Lara Croft to make her comic book debut. While it seems both Witchblade and the first Tomb Raider game both came out in 1996, Lara didn't make her comic debut until her third game was out. This gives Witchblade comic book seniority and might explain why the narration was from her perspective. Lara is the newcomer here, and I do like seeing what others think of her. We also get a bit of her backstory and some understanding of why she does what she does.
The story deals with unforgotten revenge, since it's pointed out that the modern-day family members have nothing to do with what happened to Moralto's family. Likewise, one contrast we see between Sara and Lara is that Lara is willing to kill at the the drop of a bat. It was funny seeing Sara planning how to subdue the guards when Lara just guns them down without a second thought. I only point this out because at the end when Lara was going to kill Moralto, Sara stopped her by pointing out that killing him won't bring her family back. While Moralto had nothing to do with the death of her parents, this might be hinting that their deaths left Lara angry at the world in some way and killing her enemies is some way to let those feelings out. That and all the death-defying thrill seeking, of course.
The no-killing lesson was left with a conflicting ending. Sara was, I believe, an officer of the law before she came in contact with the Witchblade, so her stance on justice and such makes sense. Lara pretty much does what she wants and doesn't uphold as strict a moral code. Sure, she will not kill innocents, but she is willing to kill. While Sara talked Lara down and she comments on how she had to let Moralto go since she can't just kill him..... we see that Moralto is still going around trying to kill members of the Scarponi family. I'm not sure what an old man in his 90's can do at that point, but maybe he brought a gun or something. Either way, we're left with the conflict or whether or not it was better to take his life to prevent him from taking the lives of others.
With Lara Croft being the guest star making her big debut, it made sense she got most of the action and most of the page-time. Sadly for Witchblade fans, she didn't 'suit up' until the halfway point and we didn't get to see all that much of her in action since the final battle was kind of rushed. In this case it's ok since we got plenty of interaction between Lara and Sara and I'm sure even Witchblade fans bought this book to see the Tomb Raider.
I did like seeing Lara in her official Sola Wetsuit she wore in Tomb Raider II. It's something the regular series missed out on when they had her dive underwater in the second issue. As for the overall artwork, it's fine but I do prefer the style of the Tomb Raider ongoing series.
This comic is a re-printing, and aside from updated ads and whatnot, I don't think there's anything different between this one and the original. The original was probably super-hard to find and expensive, which made the story worth re-printing since Lara was getting more and more popular in her own book.
Speaking of old ads, the comic had a cool ad regarding several Eidos games that were out at the time, including Tomb Raider III. It seems out of all the games advertised, Tomb Raider stood the test of time. I mostly remember Fighting Force because at one time it was meant to be Streets of Rage 4.
Comments
Post a Comment
Leave your thoughts on this article!