Tomb Raider Volume 1 : Season of the Witch

Tomb Raider #1-6

by Gail Simone (Writer)

Superstar writer Gail Simone picks up Lara Croft's story where the smash hit "Tomb Raider" game left off in this collection of "Tomb Raider #1-#6"!

Lara and the other survivors of the Endurance are experiencing horrific visions after their ordeal in the Lost Kingdom of Yamatai. But the visions lead to a darker fate... can Lara survive the calamities that await her as she struggles to piece this new mystery, and her life, back together?

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Adventure, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Video Games

152 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Gail Simone is a comic book writer well-known for her work on Birds of Prey (DC), Wonder Woman (DC), and Deadpool (Marvel), among others, and has also written humorous and critical commentary on comics and the comics industry such as the original "Women in Refrigerators" website and a regular column called "You'll All Be Sorry".

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spinning off from the enormously successful 2013 Tomb Raider reboot is a comic sequel of sorts, Season of the Witch, which is set after the events of the game. It also continues the trend of crap comics based on brilliant games!

Lara Croft and a small group of her surviving buddies have made it off of the cursed island Yamatai with some valuable booty. But the trinkets are acting as beacons to the evil island cult and each of her friends is being targeted. When her best pal Sam is kidnapped, Lara has to grab her bow and arrows and trusty pickaxe and head back to Yamatai to once more save the world!

This is probably some of Gail Simone’s laziest writing I’ve read in some time. To be fair, this is obviously a cash-grab because of the game’s popularity and I don’t think Simone would say this was a passion project knocking around in her head for some time; rather, it’s the work-for-hire opportunity it is, like all comics based on games, to make some scratch. As a result, not a lot of effort is put into it and it’s not a very compelling read.

Season of the Witch is an international-spanning mystery involving ancient artefacts, which is very Tomb Raider, but seeing Lara go through the adventure without controlling her yourself is much less fun especially as a lot of the adventure is pretty generic: run away from the bad guys, leap across obstacle, fight, find the missing piece of the puzzle, etc. It’s pretty unimaginative if you’ve played the game and seen her do all those things before.

Lara remains the only fully-realised character with the supporting cast appearing as more or less blanks. The bad guys – literally men in black – couldn’t be more stereotypically bad guy-y if they tried and the new character introduced is very weakly written. His twist reveal at the end is shocking in how corny it is.

The comic is let down visually by the very bland artwork of Nicolas Daniel Selma, in stark contrast to the lush and highly detailed graphics from the game. It all looks hurriedly sketched with the bare minimum of effort – looooots of blank space everywhere! That said, the characters all resemble their models in the game very closely.

Season of the Witch is lazy in how its researched too. In one scene set in Dublin, Lara takes advantage of the rivalry between Celtic and Aberdeen football clubs by mentioning to some Celtic fans that her attacker is an Aberdeen fan – anyone spot the problem here? Celtic (who are incorrectly referred to as Celtics, plural!) and Aberdeen are SCOTTISH football clubs, not Irish! Why would whole gaggles of them be in Dublin for a match!? Scotland and Ireland are both Gaelic nations but they’re not interchangeable – the simplest google would’ve solved that stupid error!

I just followed my own advice and googled Celtic and Aberdeen rivalry – and there isn’t one! Hearts and Celtic maybe, Aberdeen and Rangers yes, but a Celtic and Aberdeen rivalry? Nope! I understand with all the supernatural stuff in the comic that realism shouldn’t be an issue but that scene felt deliberately included to add a specific grounded element to the story and it fell flat on its face. Sloppy work, Gail Simone!

Season of the Witch is an uninspired, uninteresting cash-grab comic that fans of both the recent Tomb Raider game and Gail Simone will be bored with. The good news is the true game sequel is expected later this year!

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually not bad for a video game series. Great art. The story picks up after the end of the video game reboot. The Solarii are back and are going after Lara's friends.

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Gail Simone, but I could not get into this one really... So I just finished the 2013 Tomb Raider game, finally taking it out of my PS3 backlog, so I thought I'd give the comics a try since I really like this new iteration of Lara Croft! The comic is....well its better then that 'The Beginning' one shot I read a while back, in that Lara plays a big role In the story. but that's about it! The story is a bit confusing and uninteresting, I feel mean for saying that, but that's just really how I felt! Artwork is by the same artist from the one shot but I never really like the art... In the end I'm disappointed in this one

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never got into Tomb Raider as a kid — though it helps I didn’t have any games consoles until I was a teen — but I recently played the reboot and loved it. The survival aspects were great, and I needed to think tactically about taking out enemies, etc, etc. Season of the Witch doesn’t, in my opinion, bring anything really new to the story. It deepens the stories around some of the relationships, but in many ways the actual plot is a re-run in miniature of the game — without such high stakes, it seemed; there weren’t many characters to lose anymore.

You’ve got to love, though, the tension between Reyes and Lara, and the way that plays out; but especially the deep friendship between Lara and Sam. I hope that remains an essential part of the series.

Originally reviewed on my blog here.

[Harry Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly average series which whilst it was good, did not live up to the expectations set by the game.

[Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

What makes Lara tick? A piece of the puzzle is deliciously revealed here. Action, mystery, mayhem, treachery, exotic locales are all nicely pieced together in a Gail Simone production.Artist Selma does a great job visually too.

[Irene (mercurybooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Por una parte, pienso que este cómic es el comienzo muy comienzo de una trama mucho mayor. En este cómic se nos presenta y sitúa el principio del arco argumental de estos cómics. Si os gusta mucho Lara Croft y los videojuegos que han sacado estos últimos años, como es mi caso, os gustará este cómic porque es entretenido, sencillo y no es difícil de seguir. Tiene un lenguaje narrativo que hace que no te pierdas entre los flashbacks y el presente.

Por otra parte, creo que el gran fallo de este cómic es el dibujo. Me compré este cómic pensando que el dibujo era como el de la portada y me encontré con uno más plano, simple y demasiado sencillo para lo que creo que requiere Tomb Raider. Para mi gusto un dibujo más complejo, rico en detalles, oscuro, profundo, más realista y adulto hubiese hecho de TR un muy buen cómic quizá el dibujo tan sencillo sea bueno para meterse más en la historia y pasar rápido las páginas. Eso va a gustos.

En cuanto a los personajes, no tengo nada malo que decir sobre ellos. Creo que todos cumplen, e incluso algunos nos ofrecen algún que otro plot twist. Lara Croft está en su tonalidad: valiente, fuerte y atrevida. Es de mis personajes favoritos en videojuegos, y en general.

Reseña completa https://mercury-books.blogspot.com/20...

[Vojtěch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nehrál jsem tu hru, takže jsem se ze začátku trochu ztrácel, ale po chvilce jsem se chytil.. Kresba dost připomíná Archera, což je zvláštní a moc se to k příběhu imo nehodí.. slabší průměr, ale na 2* to asi není..

[N Parkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

#1 - 3 stars
#2 - 4 stars
#3 - 3 stars
#4 - 4 stars
#5 - 4 stars
#6 - 4.5 stars

As someone that loves the “newer” tomb raider games. This was amazing…

[Jesse A · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how the story fits with the game but it was pretty dull. The art was also atrocious.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. It's a sequel to the 2013 reboot game and picks up right at the end. The survivors are all facing some form of PTSD from the island and cope with it in their own way. But it becomes apparent the Soltarii aren't done with them. Sam is still seen as the reincarnation of their goddess and apparently four sacred artifacts were taken and need to be returned for all to be at peace. Each chapter of this graphic novel felt like a level of the video game. I just wish we could have had more instead of a one-off adventure.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Lara and Gail Simone did a good job at keeping her tone and character consistent with that of the remake game that this is a direct sequel to...but for the me plot was pretty weak and it was accompanied by a pretty bland art style. I was hoping for a more original adventure for Lara whereas this pretty much treads grounds already covered in the game. Yamatai had a great story to share and was a fun environment to explore...but I don't see the necessity of having the characters get dragged back into that story when it was tied up quite well already.

[Alex G · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a preface, I should say I loved Tomb Raider 2013 and that was the only reason I tried reading this comic.

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood but this whole story felt really dreary. I usually love Gail Simone's work so I was a bit upset to see that this plot was going where it was. The art was also very, very flat. It felt like a powerpoint presentation. The action sequences weren't exciting, I found them really boring. And while there were attempts at humour, I couldn't find myself attached enough to any of the characters to really bring myself to care. Over all, I was disappointed.

Light Spoilers
REALLY? We're going BACK to the island?? As interesting as Yamatai was in the game I've seen enough of it by now. I especially hate the amnesia Lara seems to go through every now and again. The events prior to the comics were traumatising, I understand that, but by then end of the game Lara had grown. And then there are references to the fact that she killed ALL the solarii. All of them??? Lara has more plot armour than a half-assed author self insert but i find it very hard to believe she killed all of them. And Sam, for whatever reason, is such an uninteresting and really stale character compared to her in-game counterpart.

[Patience Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow bland and entertaining at the same time.

[Ashlight Grayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out my review on The Storygraph:

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews...

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never thought I could get into Tomb Raider tales. It's either a video game or a flagpole movie. But Gail Simone's and Nicolas Selma's book brought me in. Very good!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been on my to-read list since I finished the game last year. The reboot of the franchise was completely fantastic and a ton of fun, so I was hoping to find the same feel with this comic…unfortunately it didn’t quite hit that mark but it was still a great read.

Gail Simone’s script writing is definitely strong and I enjoyed seeing what Lara was up to after her return from the island of Yamatai. It’s an action packed set of issues and plenty of twists, but my one complaint is how short this storyline was. Just when we’re getting into the thick of it, the problem is “fixed” and this story arc is over. Typically volumes are only one story arc and only contain about 6 issues, so I’m not sure the issue length was the problem…maybe it was just too much for one complete volume and needed to be set up as a part 1 and part 2. However I did think that all of the characters read perfectly in comparison to their video game personas, and I really liked that Simone went into Lara’s change in morality and how she struggles to come to terms with what happened on Yamatai. It was also pretty interesting to see just how the island affected her friends as well…though it honestly isn’t all that positive.

I also wasn’t too fond of the super simplistic art style. There were some panels that were gorgeous (mostly zoomed out photos of a wider scene), but I just craved details that were not included. The colors were not a mix of blended hues, but just one set color in each section of lines. It left a bit to be desired on that forefront.

I will be continuing this series despite the few complaints. I really love Lara and the strange storylines that she finds herself in, especially with this new series of games coming out.

[Thomas Salerno · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very exciting action-adventure comic that takes place after the events of the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider video game franchise. Full disclosure: I have not played any of the Tomb Raider games, but my brother really enjoyed the latest entry. So, when I heard there was a Tomb Raider title from Dark Horse Comics based on the new game, and that it was penned by the incomparable Gail Simone, I had to go out and buy it. Plus, I'm a huge fan of action stories that feature female main protagonists.

If, like myself, you haven't played the 2013 game I would strongly advise reading a detailed synopsis of its plot before diving into this comic.

Like the game that inspired it, this comic has everything: Intrigue, mysticism, and white-knuckle action. Archaeologist and adventurer Lara Croft is still dealing with the events that transpired on the island of Yamatai and soon finds herself inexorably drawn back to its deadly shores. There's plot twists galore. Unfortunately, not all of them make a whole lot of sense, and sometimes the villains' motivations came across as nonsensical. Granted, they are apocalyptic cultists and all, but at times I was left scratching my head wondering what exactly they were trying to accomplish and why they even cared.

Aside from a few inconsistencies, Tomb Raider Vol. 1 is a solid action-adventure title with likable characters, great art, and pulse-pounding action. If you read as many superhero comics as I do, it can be a refreshing change of pace to delve into different genres. Dark Horse Comics continues to provide a wealth of options in that regard.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had no intention of playing the new Tomb Raider game after its initial shitty marketing campaign. Gail Simone felt the same way at first and turned down Dark Horse's request to write this series. She was later convinced to try the game and discovered that their marketing department is full of idiots who thought showing sexual assault was great advertising. On Simone's recommendation, I tried it too and am glad I did, especially since it allowed me to better appreciate the particular scene within the intended context.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain that Simon played the game before writing this series because it might as well have been DLC. The return to Yamatai isn't unexpected, plot-wise, since the island did have such a hold on Lara and the crew of the Endurance, but the story could have taken a more inspired direction rather than rehashing the kidnapping and resurrection process players endured in the game, complete with the re-kidnapping of Lara's friend Sam. The game took the time to explain how Lara becomes the killer that she is, doing what she has to do to survive and protect her friends. This starts off with Lara dealing with the psychological and emotional aftermath of that. An important road to explore for the character, but it might have been more interesting if told on an adventure that wasn't so similar to her last one.

www.bibliosanctum.com

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a nice read for someone who played the game. It does not really add anything to the story, but you get to remember the crucial game moments. The Jaffa Cake jokes were hilarious!

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong: I'm a huge fan of Tomb Raider. I've loved it even before I hit the double digits. But this Tomb Raider graphic novel, along with the new game, lack what was featured in the previous Tomb Raider games. I have to admit, I preferred it when Lara went on adventures to Tombs for her own pleasure, with only adversaries to worry about. In the second reboot, she acts upon desperation and to save her friend, Sam. In the sequel to it, she's trying to find something to save Sam's life, or so I read. And I don't really like that pathway. I also don't like how they are making sound like it is her destiny to become a tomb raider rather than her own choice. But that's just me; you can agree and disagree. But overall, this graphic novel wasn't bad.

[Nessie McInness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the issues, not the TPB

I only bought the comics because I love the game. And I only started playing the game because my boyfriend pretty much forced me to. I'm glad he did, because it was a pleasant surprise.

Lara Croft from my teenage years wasn't my cup of tea. Maybe it was the feminist in my teenage self starting to bud, but I found it revolting. That's the reason why I resisted the game so much.

But Lara is a completely different character in this reboot. She is fierce, determined, strong, beautiful and has boobs within the normal range. HOORAY!!! A female character I can actually like!

And Gail Simone's run hasn't disappointed. Lara is still awesome and she teams up with her friends in a really nice tie in after the game plot.

[Marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I've not read the TPB, but I've read the comics issues that comprise it.

This was a nice little continuation of the latest Tomb Raider game, telling a story of the aftermath of the events that took in it and revisiting some of the characters. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the extent of it: nothing new is introduced and Lara's growth as a character is kept to a minimum - probably because of the upcoming sequel to the game that will take the lead in this regard.

Still, this is a nice little story. Worth a read if you are a fan.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not gonna lie, I really zoned out and just skimmed the last half of this. I'm really not sure why, because it was really well done. I mean, it's Gail Simone, so of course it is.
This kind of occult thing isn't my jam, maybe that's why. IDK.
It did its thing really well, it was pretty, it was strong and cohesive. But it didn't do it for me.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Picks up after the horrors of Yamatai (from the 2013 game), after everyone is back home. However, the island isn't done with them just yet. Gail Simone is fantastic, as always, at bringing characters & stories to life. Bonus: having played the game, I read all of Lara's dialogue in the voice of Camilla Luddington.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as single issues and it was great fun. Simone is awesome.

[Jasmine]

I have no idea what was going on here but it was awesome. I sat down to look at the art before giving it to my roommate and then I read it all. LARA IS FANTASTIC.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately this really felt like a lazy cash-in.

Perhaps one day there will be good Tomb Raider comics. But it is not today.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Solarii, right. I remember them. Unlike you, they actually were scary. Until Lara killed them all, I mean."

Fuck. Yes.

[Nienke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge fan of the games so when I got this as a gift, i was like YAAAAASS