Overwatch: Tracer- London Calling
I want to start by saying that I am a huge, huge Overwatch fan. When the kids on my team look at the number of hours I’ve spent on this game, they are generally flabbergasted. That doesn’t mean I’m good at the game, of course. It simply means I play it a lot. To the point where I need an intervention.
So, when I heard there was a comic being released by Dark Horse, I was genuinely excited. Blizzard recently released a 25-page short story with two of the characters and I was completely underwhelmed by it. I haven’t even picked it back up to finish it. But this comic was being done by Dark Horse, the company that published some amazing Star Wars stories. They were surely going to do a good job.
Oh well, so much for that idea. After reading it, I came to the bitter conclusion that all hope is lost here. Then I looked at the credits and my eyes opened wide in shock when I saw the name of the writer. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised at all. I have now decided that when I see Mariko Tamaki’s name on anything, I will immediately put it back down on the shelf. In my personal opinion, she is a horrid writer and I have no idea how she came to be writing comics in the first place. In all fairness, I have not read anything other than comics that she’s written. Perhaps she’s a better novelist or whatever it is she’s written prior to starting down this career path. She ruined Wonder Woman for me and now Tracer. I really wish the publishers would stop hiring her. I don’t know what the draw is exactly. Perhaps it’s supposed to be written for kids – without minds.
If you’ve seen any of the short videos based on the Overwatch characters, they are extremely well-written with character development and plenty of action. This issue had absolutely none of that and on top of the writing being bad, the art is atrocious. For a big publisher like Dark Horse, this artwork is cringeworthy. To sum it all up, there was absolutely no redeeming factors to this issue of Overwatch, and I am quite sad about it. I was looking forward to collecting a series based around my favorite game and I turned the page on a complete piece of trash from cover-to-cover.
I usually go in depth in my reviews about the plot points of comic issues, but that would take into account that there was a plot to talk about. Tracer stops a bandit from stealing someone’s purse. She tells her roommate/girlfriend (I can’t tell which, but it does allude to Tracer being gay. I guess it wasn’t meant for kids after all.) that she isn’t really happy since Overwatch closed down. She chases an Omnic (robot) who just stole something. She follows the Omnic to an underground lair where they find that they have similar tastes in music. So, Tracer and the rest of the Omnics lay on the floor listening to music. And by the way, don’t worry about stealing someone’s property – it was for a good cause. Not sure what kind of hero would say that, but okay. Tracer decides to help the oppressed robots, but when she exits, she’s immediately attacked by another faction of Omnics. At this point, who really cares? Not me, that’s for sure.
I don’t recommend this to anyone, and I won’t be adding this to my collection, or purchasing number 2. Thanks, Mariko, for continuing to underwhelm me with your mediocre talents. I really hope Dark Horse loses this license, so another publisher can do it justice.
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