Gail Simone To Write Tomb Raider for Dark Horse

The most well-known female writer in comics will take on one of popular culture's best-known female action heroes, as Gail Simone will take on Dark Horse's relaunch of Tomb Raider, the publisher announced today. The title will pick up where the recently-released video game reboot left off, and will serve as a bridge to its sequel. Simone has primarily worked with DC in recent years, but hasn't been exclusive with the company for a while now. She's been working on Red Sonja for Dynamite which, taken with Tomb Raider, makes for two iconic female characters Simone will write outside of the Big Two who come with years of history and baggage--both good and bad. In either case, the characters have occasionally been pointed to in the past as emblematic of a deeply misogynistic bent running through much of popular entertainment, although they're unlikely to be criticized in that way with Simone behind the titles. Simone came into comics after having put in time as a blogger, critic and gadfly best known for her "Women In Refrigerators" website, a blog that tracked the poor treatment of female superheroes and supporting characters, which in her view was generally done as a cheap shock and to give the male characters something to react to. Simone has long since ceded control of the blog as she's become part of the professional comics-writing establishment. Earlier this year, Simone was reportedly fired from her popular Batgirl run. After she aired details of her conflict with the publisher on social media, fans spoke out on her behalf and ultimately she was selected to replace herself on the title. Tomb Raider was previously published by Image Comics's Top Cow label, but a prequel series called Tomb Raider: The Beginning (pictured) recently launched set in the days before the new game.