Note on Top Cow continuity
This iteration of Lara Croft is exclusively placed in the Top Cow shared universe, with Lara having multiple crossovers with other characters and being shown to be best friends with Sara Pezzini, holder of the Witchblade. The Top Cow comics were part of Image comics shared universe, which has a unique approach to continuity. According to Erik Larsen, each series takes place in its own sub-continuity, with a version of the crossover taking place in each sub-continuity. This means that, "Witchblade" has its own version of Lara Croft, while "Tomb Raider" has its own version of Witchblade. The advantage of this approach is that it allows the crossovers to happen but also means that other series aren't tied to whatever continuity happens in other series (for example, if Witchblade blows up planet Earth and Tomb Raider doesn't acknowledge this, we can just assume it doesnt happen in the Tomb Raider sub-continuity).
Regardless, a full timeline of the Top Cow and/or Image shared universe is outside the scope of this project. But if this interests you
this series is a good start
Note on continuity with Journeys
"Journeys" was a miniseries that was published during the run of the main series. Both were published by Top Cow, and Journeys references events from issue 0 of the main series (including
the same comic frames even).
This would imply they are the same continuity, but it appears that they are not. Notably, Lara is portrayed as different in these series, with the main series Lara shown as a ruthless killer and "Journeys" Lara is shown to have an aversion to killing. Also, dating in both of these series show they both take place around 2002/2003, and the events couldn't happen at the same time.
However, given that the two are shown to have similar timelines, I am going to assume that the birth date in "Journeys" is accurate for the main series as well.
Note on continuity with games
It is possible that the first three games happened within the Top Cow series, as they mostly happen before the series begins. However, Last Revelation/Chronicles likely couldnt happen as the plot would overlap with the events of the series. There is also an adaption of "Angel of Darkness" in the series as well.
In issue 50, it is mentioned that fictional games of Lara's adventures were made, but it is unclear how closely they adapted Lara's life.
Lara's childhood
most of Lara's childhood flashbacks she was given an age, making them easy to place. However in Tomb Raider 1/2 we see some undated flashbacks to her in school and her receiving a gun from an unseen man. Given that "Epiphany" shows us that Lara's training as an adventurer began with Von Croy I am assuming that is who gave her the gun. I decided to keep alignment with the games and have the "Von Croy" flashback take place when she is 16 and have the other flashbacks placed around it.
Chase Carver's betrayal.
Issue 13 & 14 tell us the backstory about how Chase Carver originally betrayed Lara. There is no dating aside from saying its early in Lara's career. At one point Lara comments that it looks like he hasnt cleaned up "since 1997" which I am choosing to read as the year of their break up, so I placed it accordingly.
Dating Lara's adventures
There is not much evidence of dating in the Top Cow series, the EVO crossover issue takes place in 2003 and issue 38-39 take place on June 20th, but thats about it.
It is likely that Lara's adventures take place in
comic book time, with the events taking place in an ambiguous "Present". For simplicity, I have decided to set the series in roughly real time, with stories being placed in the month of the first issues publication, unless in-text references suggest otherwise. I have done the same with the specials.
some exceptions to this rule are the 0 and the 1/2 issue, which felt like they had to be before the rest of the series. Origins/Greatest Treasure of All feature Lara and Chase working together with references to Chase's earlier betrayal, so I placed them early in the series just after Chase's first appearance. "Fathom" states that its the sixth time that Sara and Lara have worked together, so the majority of crossovers have to happen before that. Finally, "Monster War" is a cross-company crossover and Lara's last appearance with Top Cow. Given it takes place on long, cold nights and features fights with classic horror monsters, I had to place in October.
Tomb Raider issue 50
Issue 50 is the final issue, and acts like a form of "celebration" of the series. However, it does also retcon a few things. Lara's parents are shown to be archeologists themselves, which we didnt see before. Lara is shown to be doing quite active adventuring as a teenager, which doesn't really match up with her previously shown backstory but oh well. The later flashbacks have no clear dating, so I have left them with no indication. The framing story takes place 7 generations ahead of current day, so if we assume each generation is about 20 years we get a date of about 2145, which seemed as good as any.
