Blizzard has published a new comic in their Overwatch series, promising an installment a month for the foreseeable future. Sadly, the Overwatch comic series never were particularly good, reaching their nadir with some truly embarrasing short stories.
That said, if Blizzard actually manages to squeak out an issue a month and actually keep up that schedule I will read them out of pure schadenfreude.
To speak of what works in the comic, I gotta say that the actual story of the comic is really interesting. The writers of the comic at least realized that one of the few missions in Overwatch that has some actual pathos is the one taking place in King's Row in London, where a robot ghetto has been created after the Omnic crisis.
Tracer meets up with another robot and is invited to the robot's home, where they bond over music. However, Tracer learns that fixing such a deep-rooted problem as a ghetto in the middle of a prospering city is not something that is easily solved by being all jumpy, happy and saying a catchphrase like she usually does.
Dare I say the writing in Overwatch actually cares to be subtle for once? This scene is really good, where Tracer has just entered the ghetto and everybody gives her the stink-eye. Up to now Tracer has solved every problem with a smile, but for once it doesn´t work. And why would it? She used to be part of the very organization that defeated the robots and created this whole situation to start with. The aftermath with some of the robots outright telling Tracer that they don't want her help and should stay out of the ghetto is pretty good too. Unfortunately it turns into a shoot-out so that Tracer can have a moment of awesomeness and beat up some bad guys.
While I really liked the comic overall it does highlight one of the biggest problems with the Overwatch universe. So Overwatch is supposed to take place a hundred years from now, right? So when Overwatch released in 2016 it was year 2116 in the Overwatch world and now in 2020 it is supposed to be year 2120 in the Overwatch world. Pretty cool idea, but it leads to this weird cultural vacuum where nothing really happened for a hundred years, except for a robot war. People still reference things like The Ramones, Hasselhoff and cowboy movies that should be well before their time. This is expecially weird when it comes to the robots appropriating human culture. The scene where Tracer hangs out in the robot gang's house and listens to music is pretty sweet but the way the robots deny their own culture and only listen to old human music is very weird.
WARNING, EXTREMELY DUMB COMPARISON BELOW
It would be as if the jews in the old Vienna ghettos were simping for British culture.
"Oh, the works of Shakespear is my favorite"
"Yeah, the merchant of Venice is soooo good"
How I feel this scene should have played out is this:
Tracer is invited to the robot ghetto, where she listens to some robot music. She recognices The Ramones influences and marvels at how a robotic band can be influenced by other artists and create their own thing, just like human artists always have. This gives her and the reader a deeper understanding of the omnics and that they are now sentient beings instead of murderous weapons of destructions. But I still have high hopes for this new comic series and look forward to the next installment.
In conclusion:
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