‘Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen #2’ Review: An Improvement

“Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen #2” continues the pace that finally began picking up in the last few pages of issue 1. And unlike its predecessor, it got us hooked.

Our heroine was left in a pretty crappy situation after issue 1. Issue 2 wastes no time getting to the action: There are killer plants, a paranormal entity, a murder and even a crocodile — or maybe it was an alligator.

Corinna Bechko’s script and Carmen Carnero’s illustrations complement each other well. You can tell Green enjoyed the more action-packed issue. From the stalkers in spooky allies to the possessed people with guns, the drawings are intense and add a nice flare to the equally intense story progression.

Lara and her buddy Dr. Carter Bell spend some time trying to figure out the mystery behind relics that, for some reason, someone, or something, is trying to get a hold of. Carter has been researching the origins of the relics and feels something weird is going on, and he doesn’t trust anyone but Lara.

Bechko seems to have a thing for chase sequences. So far, we haven’t seen Lara get in full-on badass mode. She’s mostly running after or from someone. There is a moment toward the end where she drop kicks a possessed woman off a moped. She was rewarded with a right jab, but yeah.

The story has a strong flow, and while it can’t be helped that things will jump around a bit — seeing as how this is a five-issue series — the way it all unfolds doesn’t make you feel like you’re being jipped.

Oh yeah, there’s also a bit of a revelation about the weird guy with horns briefly seen in the first issue. There’s still not enough to begin piecing things together, unless you’re one of those conspiracy-driven folk who really want Jon Snow to come back to life. Still, we know something is coming … and we’re not talking about winter.

OK, we’ll cool it with the “Game of Thrones” references.

Seriously, though, the end of this issue sets up a nice playing field for issue 3. It looks like we’ll finally have an actual villain instead of unlucky passersby.

“Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen #2” is an improvement from the series’ last issue. The story unfolds a lot more smoothly, and it’s just more interesting in general. Readers will be satisfied this time around.