"Gunfights, resurrections of the dead and the life of the world to come."
Tomb Raider's tenth anniversary is this year. As such, Gametap thought they'd get in some of that action. Hence, a whole bunch of animators and comicbook writers were called to create a series of short episodes: Gail Simone, Peter Chung, Brian Pulido and Warren Ellis are the biggest names thus so far; Jim Lee's is yet to come.
Having just seen the Simone, Ellis, Pulido and Chung eps (in that order), I have to say the last is in fact the first - followed closely by the first ;)
Chung went with the standard Tomb Raider formula (mysterious supernatural artifact, opposing faction and Lara being her usual force majeure self) then souped it up with his own Gnostic-Schielian spice. The result?
Peter Chung is working with a budget well beneath him. Fortunately, his skills have grown to meet that challenge and I think he's better here than in some of his previous work (Reign: The Conqueror for one). That and he seems to have gotten over his whole "Ugly is the new Pretty" phase, thank Gods.
So, what transpired? Doctor Heinrich, Professor of somethingorother is giving a televised presentation on the nature of the afterlife. More than that, he has proof of his claims - in the form of the Ankh of Osiris - that with the right device, one can manipulate life and death. Before he can demonstrate however, a fast-moving piece of metal makes its way through his torso on the way to better things. The killer, an agent of The Cabal (which is in turn a coalition of religious leaders who suppress outbreaks of the supernatural) is surprised to find Lady Croft in da house. Zahir, an innocent bystander, takes a bullet for her, she kicks the killer's ass, grabs the Ankh (of Osiris, if you must know), then cue action scene. SWAT-like team, awakened Osiris statue ("Defend!" incidentally was a wonderful scene, brief yet action-sexy) and more supernatural shenanigans. Did I mention I love the animation on this? Well, I do.
At some point, a dove intersects a ballistic trajectory. Poor bastard, symbols of peace don't last very long in this bloody business.
There's much more but it'd take you less time to watch the three eps than to read so why bother? I will say though that:
i) Aww, I liked Zahir, Spike-haired nice guy that he is. "Too good for this world", indeed.
ii) The Curator looks an awful lot like Trevor Goodchild's Eurotrash* cousin. Fitting, since that's his role here.
iii) The Biblical Burning Bush is used as a weapon where bullets faltered, then the Justice League of Deities shows up and things get even more anecliptic ... you know what? Just go watch the fucking thing. Jeez.
... what, still here? Fine then, be that way. Apparently, Osiris is trying to do an end-run around the other gods and seal them off from the world leaving himself as the - heh - One True God. Well, either that or he wanted to eliminate religion-as-usual altogether (wouldn't that be ironic). The others seem more amused than worried about his antics.
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Simone's episode was very sufferably cute. She went for the literally "Pre-Teen Raider" approach, depicting the young Ms. Croft at boarding school. Antagonists were the headmistress and a familiar-looking security guard. Good stuff, reminiscent of Kim Possible and the like.
Pulido's was fun in an updated Scooby Doo sort of way. Beast-men, neat one-liners, tormented monks and a would-be sidekick made this a more than decent entry.
As for the Ellis two-part entry "Angel Spit", it was about three-eighths mailed-in. Starts out nice with one of Lara's innumerable contacts being a classic Ellisian cranky old bastard. The next one is also funny, although her dialogue would have worked better on the page than on the screen. The latter third though is blatant autocannibalization of "Dark Heart" (see: JLU).
I am suddenly tired with little more to say. See ya.
PS
This is where the bitching about Gendy Tartakovsky not getting a spot would have gone but hey, he's working on a sequel to The Dark Crystal (whatever that is) and pitching a Dark Tower animated series (fuck yeah to that). Good enough for me.
*I really fucking hate that word.
Having just seen the Simone, Ellis, Pulido and Chung eps (in that order), I have to say the last is in fact the first - followed closely by the first ;)
Chung went with the standard Tomb Raider formula (mysterious supernatural artifact, opposing faction and Lara being her usual force majeure self) then souped it up with his own Gnostic-Schielian spice. The result?
Peter Chung is working with a budget well beneath him. Fortunately, his skills have grown to meet that challenge and I think he's better here than in some of his previous work (Reign: The Conqueror for one). That and he seems to have gotten over his whole "Ugly is the new Pretty" phase, thank Gods.
So, what transpired? Doctor Heinrich, Professor of somethingorother is giving a televised presentation on the nature of the afterlife. More than that, he has proof of his claims - in the form of the Ankh of Osiris - that with the right device, one can manipulate life and death. Before he can demonstrate however, a fast-moving piece of metal makes its way through his torso on the way to better things. The killer, an agent of The Cabal (which is in turn a coalition of religious leaders who suppress outbreaks of the supernatural) is surprised to find Lady Croft in da house. Zahir, an innocent bystander, takes a bullet for her, she kicks the killer's ass, grabs the Ankh (of Osiris, if you must know), then cue action scene. SWAT-like team, awakened Osiris statue ("Defend!" incidentally was a wonderful scene, brief yet action-sexy) and more supernatural shenanigans. Did I mention I love the animation on this? Well, I do.
At some point, a dove intersects a ballistic trajectory. Poor bastard, symbols of peace don't last very long in this bloody business.
There's much more but it'd take you less time to watch the three eps than to read so why bother? I will say though that:
i) Aww, I liked Zahir, Spike-haired nice guy that he is. "Too good for this world", indeed.
ii) The Curator looks an awful lot like Trevor Goodchild's Eurotrash* cousin. Fitting, since that's his role here.
iii) The Biblical Burning Bush is used as a weapon where bullets faltered, then the Justice League of Deities shows up and things get even more anecliptic ... you know what? Just go watch the fucking thing. Jeez.
... what, still here? Fine then, be that way. Apparently, Osiris is trying to do an end-run around the other gods and seal them off from the world leaving himself as the - heh - One True God. Well, either that or he wanted to eliminate religion-as-usual altogether (wouldn't that be ironic). The others seem more amused than worried about his antics.
-----------------------------------------
Simone's episode was very sufferably cute. She went for the literally "Pre-Teen Raider" approach, depicting the young Ms. Croft at boarding school. Antagonists were the headmistress and a familiar-looking security guard. Good stuff, reminiscent of Kim Possible and the like.
Pulido's was fun in an updated Scooby Doo sort of way. Beast-men, neat one-liners, tormented monks and a would-be sidekick made this a more than decent entry.
As for the Ellis two-part entry "Angel Spit", it was about three-eighths mailed-in. Starts out nice with one of Lara's innumerable contacts being a classic Ellisian cranky old bastard. The next one is also funny, although her dialogue would have worked better on the page than on the screen. The latter third though is blatant autocannibalization of "Dark Heart" (see: JLU).
I am suddenly tired with little more to say. See ya.
PS
This is where the bitching about Gendy Tartakovsky not getting a spot would have gone but hey, he's working on a sequel to The Dark Crystal (whatever that is) and pitching a Dark Tower animated series (fuck yeah to that). Good enough for me.
*I really fucking hate that word.