Lara Weller
No girls 'n' guns tribute would be complete without "Tomb Raider's" Lara Croft, seen here in the form of model Lara Weller. "Tomb Raider" (1996) was the video game I always wanted to see, and its incredible success has paved the way for other female action heroes to follow (and they are, slowly). What sets apart the Lara Croft phenomenon from so much other popular culture is that she was probably the first experience Americans had with a virtual idol. Lara is a completely artificial fictional being who has no physical form in the real world, and yet she's treated like a real flesh and blood celebrity. The collective admiration and devotion of her fan base actually gives rise to a singular consciousness and persona - Lara's "soul", as it were. In essence, Lara lives because we believe in her. (okay, Alex is getting a little philosophical in his anthropological ramblings - not to mention just a little weird...) While this notion is familiar in Japan (the land of virtual idols), I think it's still a fairly new concept in the U.S.