Advance Review: ‘G.I. Joe/Tomb Raider’ #1 Hits All The Notes You’d Want To See
by Tony Thornley
When it comes to licensed comics, the G.I. Joe team is one of the golden standards, both in terms of longevity and overall quality. This week, the Joes encounter one of the younger licensed icons, and it’s a crossover that works much more than you’d realize: G.I. Joe/Tomb Raider #1.
Kyle Higgins, Elena Casagrande, Alex Guimares, and Pat Brosseau bring Lara Croft face-to-face with the Joes and Cobra.
Decades ago, the Dial of Aion disappeared alongside one of Lara Croft’s friends and mentors. When signs of it resurfacing start to appear, it catches Lara’s attention. However, it’s on one very dangerous place in the Gulf of Mexico: Cobra Island. To have any chance of finding, Lara is going to have to call in favors from her contacts in G.I. Joe and bring a whole team to race Destro and Baroness to the dial…
The best kinds of crossovers come from creatives that know what they are. Higgins steps into this set-up and gives fans a plausible connection, interesting existing relationships and a threat that is equally from each world. Lara is the main character, but she doesn’t overshadow the Joes one bit. Shipwreck is the main Joe in the picture, but Higgins does a great job of writing the ensemble as an ensemble and not just window dressing. It comes together as a very natural feeling storyline that just happens to come from two different properties.
Casagrande and Guimares both do a fantastic job on the art. Her work on the scenes in which the Joes infiltrate the island are just as action-packed as the actual fights, and that’s all thanks to her layouts and framing. She creates a book that the team is very aware could be much more than it needs, and balances all of the different parts out to a cohesive whole.
Guimares’s colors strike a balance really well between setting and the actual designs of the Joes. Most of the story takes place at night, but his color art never loses sight of the fact that these are still brightly colored heroes. Brosseau does a great job of making sure the information in the set-up gets across without being a flood, which is a great balance to strike for a letterer.
The adventure is getting started for the Joes and Lara and I’m pretty excited to see how it goes.
G.I. Joe/Tomb Raider #1 is available on Wednesday, October 7th, from Skybound Entertainment/Image Comics.
Overview
This crossover hits all the right notes, giving fans of both properties just the right story we’d want.
