Tomb Raider Archives, Volume 2

Tomb Raider Archives #2

by Dan Jurgens, John Ney Reiber, Andy Park (Illustrator)

Lara Croft fears only one thing: boredom.

In pursuit of adventure, and the world's rarest treasures, Lara circles the globe . . . and even goes off the edge of the map. Journey along on her most memorable expeditions, as she teams up with a treasure hunter from the future, faces off against Egyptian gods in the afterlife, and searches for love.

This deluxe oversized hardcover collects issues #16-#24 and #26-#34 of the 1999 Top Cow Tomb Raider series and features the art of superstar artists Adam Hughes, Michael Turner, Andy Park, Randy Green, Tony Daniel, and many more!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Video Games

464 pages, Hardcover

First published June 27, 2017

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dark Horse is reprinting Top Cow's old Tomb Raider series for some reason. It's, uh, terrible.

The Good: A few Adam Hughes covers.

The Bad: This is 90's era Image comics at its worst. Terrible art from artists just starting out. Multiple full page spreads with Lara Croft in sexy poses and limbs and necks that are too long. Awful storytelling. Multiple characters show up as mentors and "best friends" to never be heard from ever again. I expected better from Dan Jurgens and John Ney Reiber.

The Ugly: Even the job Dark Horse did collecting it is terrible. Solo stories appear in the middle of multi-issue stories. Issue 25 is missing where Lara apparently dies. My guess is it's because I think Witchblade and the Darkness appear in it. All of a sudden she's in the Egyptian underworld fighting a dead pharaoh.

Received an advanced copy from Dark Horse and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another massive tome of Top Cow Tomb Raider comics. Definitely not as good as the first volume with not as consistent stories. The editing did a poor job compiling these too; there's an issue missing, a random one-shot in the middle of a series...and just some ugly artwork as it goes. But it's 90's/early 00's Lara so she's a sex-symbol with lots of partially or even fully nude Lara's and even when she was fully clothed she was often awkwardly contorted to emphasize her ass. Weird. Uncomfortable. I'm so glad the community rewrote Lara in a new light with modern comics.

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

Podivný slepenec dobrých a špatných věcí plný fanservisu (Kozy. Kozy! KOZY!!!). Velkej formát to dost zachraňuje, kresba je povětšinou super.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tento diel mi pripadal, čo sa týka dlhších príbehov, lepší ako ten predchádzajúci. No prvý mal zas podľa mňa lepšiu kresbu. :)

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Tomb Raider comics started as a fun, albeit campy, way to keep Lara Croft running about and doing over the top adventures. The first 20 or so issues achieved a good balance of comic book action and keeping in tone with the Lara from the games. Unfortunately after those issues Lara very much becomes a Top Cow Girl in the same vein as Witchblade, Magdalena etc and in becoming so the stories often revolve around Lara making stupid decisions, being thrust in relationship after relationship and often being drawn in various states of undress. A little ‘cheesecake’ never hurts but in some of the issues here Lara is drawn with laughably large breasts that are often drawn to show as much side boob as humanly possible. It’s distracting and a let down for a character that should ooze confidence and sexuality without the need to become a sex doll.

2/5.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as book design goes, these volumes are top notch -- oversized dimensions, thick paper, 450+ pages, weighs a ton. Volume 2 collects issues 16-24, 26-34. (I believe the absent issue 25 may have been a crossover with another series; however, it apparently contains a traumatic experience for Lara Croft that makes issue 26's references and characters harder to understand.)

The arcs in this volume are more standalone than Volume 1, sometimes making the stories harder to follow. This is furthered by the sporadic and unexplained entrances and exits of supporting characters. There seemed to be more variety in illustrators for this collection, and most were good or interesting, though I found "Angel of Darkness" to be particularly distracting.

Overall, I'm just happy to have been able to get mind hands on a copy of this out-of-print book to give it a try.

[Viggo Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume collects issues 16-24 and 26-34, published between September 2001 - November 2003.
Where issue 25 is and why it's not here, I can not answer!
Pieces Of Zero 1-4
Year Of The Cat
The Trap: Path Of The Tiger 1-3
Medusa's Garden
Abyss 1-3
Strange Flesh 1-2
Conquista
Angel Of Darkness
+ a cover gallery.
The art is not as good as in volume 1, and the stories were weaker as well. There are 1 or 2 stories here that seem to be part of the Whitchblade and The Darkness comics, but it's not the whole stories, so they feel confusing.

[Marcin Kowalski · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I loved the cheese from the first volume, this one had some very bad stories and the cheese was too much. The art was also not very good. There are a few gems, but not justifing the cash out required for this whole thing.

If you are a fan you will get it, but if not, definetly skip it.

[Captain Pixel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kvalita kreseb velmi kolísá, v některých případech dosahuje až komicky příšerných “kvalit”. Příběhy tradičního střihu a jako bonus dvě ukázky z fanzinu, který vycházel mezi prosincem 2003 a srpnem 2007. Dle mého soudu nedosahuje kvalit prvního svazku.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice Girl Power nostalgia, but for some issues I'm wondering what the writers and artists were smoking as I'd advise against it for the sake of their careers.

[Petr Čapek · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.schefikuvblog.eu/tomb-raid...

[Randall Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Archive finished, great reads, great art, would love to get my hands on the compendium!

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Same team, so similar review: incredible art, fun story, somewhat cringy dialogue. ;)

[Tomáš Drako · Rating 3 out of 5]

Klasická Lara. Niečo hľadá, do niečo sa zapletie ...Bájne bytosti, poklady..dokonca je tu menší crossover s Witchblade a Darkness. I keď dosť nešťastne ukázaný.
Za mňa spokojnosť. Také oddychové čítaníčko.