Tomb Raider: The Beginning

Tomb Raider: The Beginning is a prelude comic, which tells the story of the Endurance Crew and Dr. James Whitman as they come together and sail to the mysterious island of Yamatai, home to the powerful Sun Queen - Himiko and her guardians, the fearsome Stormguard.

Storyline
The comic opens up with James Whitman being prepped by his assistant - Shelby. They are interrupted as the doctor's manager - Thomas Goldman brings Whitman chai latte and discusses with him the third season of his show "Whitman's World" and the cast in it - them being the Endurance crew. Then the comic cuts to Shelby, Whitman and an unnamed cameraman as they meet the crew of the ship known as "Endurance". As they prep, Samantha Nishimura fangirls over the camera that they have, because she is a photography major.

After that, the cameras start rolling as Conrad Roth and Angus "Grim" Grimaldi recollect their memories of a mission, that took place a few years ago in Somalia. After they finish, a smoke appears behind the crew and Shelby asks if that should be happening. They are told that the repair would take weeks, which they don't have and Roth calls Joslin Reyes, saying that he needs her. Later she appears with her daughter - Alisha Reyes.

Reyes goes down to fix the ship and Whitman follows her as he asks her :"''Why an ex-cop would end up as a mechanic?" ''and she tells him a story of how she lost her partner in a gang shooting. She tells them that she quit being a cop, but got revenge on the people that murdered him as she had made a promise to his family and later became a mechanic, because "machines are less complicated than people". After that she tells the story of how she met Roth - by punching him square in the jaw as he demanded more drinks at a local bar.

They are interrupted by Lara, who tells them that someone is calling Whitman. It's his agent, who tells him that his show's ratings are going down and that the network are pulling their funding for season 3. They say their goodbyes to Shelby and the camera man, pretending that they will see each other in a few days. He calls his agent in secret, begging him to talk with the network to reconsider. Thomas says that he'll try.

Then we cut to Whitman's home as his ex-wife tells him that he keeps the house and she keeps the bank account and everything else. He is forced to leave and goes to meet with Thomas who is in possession of some artifacts borrowed from the museum in London. He takes them to a secret location where he tries to sell them to Mr. Hong. He denies and says that he will take them for further inspection, telling his bodyguard - Cheng to beat Whitman up. Thankfully for him Jonah Maiava comes to the rescue and after a shooting takes the doctor to the Endurance, revealing that he is the cook of the ship.

Jonah, Whitman and Lara contemplate on how to get funding and Whitman says that he will put his own money into it. They are joined by Alex Weiss who tells them that he is on the run, after hacking into a government website. He tells Lara and Whitman in secret that he is hacking gambling websites and that he has over 2.000 saved up for a few hours, reassuring them that it's 99.9% safe. Just a few moments later he throws his laptop in the ocean, saying simply "''That was... the 0.01%." ''

Then we cut to Lara talking to Sam on the phone asking her if her uncle could sponsor them. The very next day Sam tells the crew that her uncle had agreed, asking for 60% of what they find on the island. Sam also tells Whitman that she will be the person behind the camera for this expedition. At the end of the book, Sam and Lara watch the sunset as the converse about the future.

Trivia

 * The book is written by Rhianna Pratchett, who is also one of the writers of the Tomb Raider game.
 * This comic marks the first time we have seen the following characters: Shelby, Thomas Goldman, Alisha Reyes, Mr. Hong, Cheng and Sheila.
 * This book is also the first time a comic/book has been canon to the games, which are set in the Survivor Timeline.
 * This comic is the indication needed to conclude that Alisha Reyes isn't Reyes' only living family. She also has her sister - Una Reyes and an unnamed brother.

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