The Four Color Media Monitor

I'd seen how the obnoxious social justice anti-sex propaganda campaigns of recent affected the once well regarded Tomb Raider franchise (on which note, the character design for Lara Croft in the recent Shadow of the Tomb Raider was startlingly ugly, a notable problem with some video game art of recent), and the same problem seems to have leaked over to the most recent comics adaptation, Inferno, which appears to have a political agenda slipped in, even as it's applied to a villainess. As this review of the second in the 4-part miniseries tells:

Most of the story sees Lara slowly being lowered into the pit while she is accompanied by the villain of the piece, Nadija Katlego; a Bosnian Muslim who I think is supposed to be cool, but is instead a bore of a windbag who narrates the entirety of the book. That is not an exaggeration either; the whole second issue is Nadija talking while Lara is lowered into the pit. Lara Croft takes a back seat for the entire issue and the spotlight shines firmly on Nadija the whole time.

If the whole idea was to make this Bosnian Muslim a sympathetic villainess - or, more specifically, a baddie to be sympathized with - yes, that can be pretty dangerous considering the elements involved. Especially since the Bosnians were the ones who began the war, savagely murdered many Serbs, and only recently have begun to pay for their barbarism. That these kind of political issues have been stuffed into a TR adaptation in such a manner is regrettable.

As if that's not bad enough, in the 3rd part, it's plagued with "daddy issues":

I was hoping that with a new run we’d get a new Lara. The comic seems intent on delving into the backstory of the character, and instead of giving us something fresh and fun, we are bogged down in old psychological traumas, daddy issues, and references to past stories that lose a casual reader. This comic is inaccessibility at its finest. The use of metaphors, strange visuals, and art that is so focused on interpretation rather than demonstration makes this small issue confusing and frustrating to read.

I get the feeling it's also fallen victim to intersectional feminist propaganda, which obviously isn't helping either.

Anyway, it looks like this 4-parter was pretty much a flop, is bound to be so even as a TPB, much like the recent movie was too. It's like a microcosm of what's happened to the video game franchise, with the recent Shadow of the Tomb Raider tanking. The character design for Lara, even if it wasn't the ugliest, would still be very alarmingly dull, and if that's how they're going to draw her, it's clear they're throwing away talent in art for the sake of the PC agendas the main designers seem to have taken up. It looks like what was once a highly regarded franchise is on the verge of collapse, all because some social justice-pushing dummies not only got their feet in the door, they just had to go miles out of their way to make a mockery of it all. Since Dark Horse first acquired the adaptation license several years ago, the comics they've produced since have varied in quality, with the worst decidedly being what Gail Simone turned out; the artwork they had was some of the crappiest I've ever seen. Far better was the story written by Corrina Bechko, Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen, which was more faithful to the vision where Croft would pack double handguns. But now we appear to be saddled with a new story that's got an overtly political angle, runs the gauntlet of making its villainess somebody to sympathize with, and even puts in silly patriarchal issues.

I think the best option would be to let the TR franchise go on hiatus for a while, and then, if the producers in charge are smart, they'll restore the original visions without resorting to grotesque political correctness they succumbed to, all to please feminists and anti-sex advocates who doubtless won't play the games even now, nor have any other associations with the franchise. On that note, what's really sad is that, as Liana Kerzner once pointed out, Lara Croft was once considered a feminist icon, and now, much like what's happened with Wonder Woman, a lot of feminists reject them altogether. That's exactly why these aren't people to pander to.

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