Overwatch Anthology: Expanded Edition

by Matt Burns, Robert Brooks, Michael Chu

In this exciting comic series, explore the backstories and motivations behind Overwatch's most popular heroes—from Ana to Zarya!This updated hardcover anthology now collects all of Blizzard Entertainment's existing digital Overwatch comics from an all-star lineup of creators, including Ryan Benjamin, Matt Burns, Robert Brooks, Micky Neilson, Nesskain, Bengal, and more. Whether you’re starting in bronze or a Grandmaster, this expanded anthology adds over fifty pages of new comics and behind the scenes content, making it an essential companion to the Overwatch universe!Collects Overwatch Anthology volume 1 with seven new stories added.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Superheroes, Video Games, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

216 pages, Hardcover

Published January 11, 2022

Reviews

[Noah]

Want to hear something sad? I don’t actually know all that much about Overwatch lore anymore. I mean, I guess it’s not a travesty or anything, but it was my favorite game for a pretty long time and it’s always a little sad when you wake up one day and realize you’re indifferent to something you used to get excited about. Besides, it’s also odd because the last time I played Overwatch was… this week. You’d really think I’d know more about one of my most played games, but it’s whatever. I was really into the whole shebang a while back and I remember the story as being surprisingly deep (my code-word for inconsistent) for a multiplayer game. They even used to do these fun little cinematic short movies about the characters that would range from fun to emotional. It was all very Pixar (complimentary), but then it got a little too Pixar (derogatory). I don’t know, I fell out of love with both over time, unfortunately. It was a whole thing. I don’t like Pixar movies the way I used to and I only play Overwatch because it’s basically a reflex at this point. Wait, not to switch up on you, but that's actually not entirely true. I still play it because it’s still fun to me. So what if I’m not as invested in the story? And hey! I’ll watch WALL-E 2! Just call me Mr. Positive-Mental-Attitude! Anyway, I thought that maybe reading these comics would reignite that old spark and wow, I’ve got to say… it didn’t. Sorry comic. I think the problem is that these characters are a little one note in the game, screaming their catchphrases and quips, and it works because everything is so heightened and cartoony. But when you put them on a page, trying to make them more human and grounded, with zero music or anything else to make them seem more dynamic, the whole thing falls a little flat. So, while I still really like all the heroes from the game (except for Widowmaker), I’m happy to keep liking them the way they are; as silly superheroes. We hardly need all these think pieces about them. Well, except for Ana… she’s the coolest ever! Can you tell who I play as?

[Chad]

This collects all of the digital Overwatch comics since the game's launch. They are all short vignettes, typically introducing the characters. It does have the rest of the comics that weren't in the original collection.

[Online Eccentric Librarian]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Anthology collects all the short (4-5 page) digital comics (and not the longer series such as the recent London Calling). Most are from 2016-2017, with the last being from 2018 before the lore pretty much stopped coming out for Overwatch.

In many ways, this anthology is a sad experience: it is a reminder of all the great new events we used to get since so many of these comics were introductions or backstory for them (Archives, Junkenstein's Revenge, etc.) While the earliest digital comics were character pieces meant to give more slice-of-life history of the original heroes, later episodes were finally starting to get more into the lore. It is telling that the last comic to be released was back in early 2018 with Retribution (setting up the Archives event featuring Rialto).

Lore pretty much died after that, with only an occasional novel while eventually the head of lore at Overwatch, Michael Chu, left the company almost two years ago. The last cinematic was in 2018 and it has been dry on that front but at least we got a new comic in the form of Tracer's London Calling story. It is hard to look upon this lore item now, especially in context to how well and seamlessly studios such as Riot (with Valorant) and Respawn (Apex Legends) have done with crafting their lore. Overwatch never did try to to explain why we are fighting ourselves or why at those particular locations. In this way, this lore has not aged well in the 6 years or so since Overwatch was released.

As well, there was a time when we would get all excited with each comic, dissecting and coming up with speculation on new characters, their story and the overarching world lore. So many fun skins were either introduced in these comics or later were inspiration for fan favorites (such as Hanzo's Legendary 'Casual'). But characters have been introduced and then dropped all over with only a hope we might see some sort of connection or story flow in Overwatch 2. What happened with Torbjorn's rival Sven? How about Zarya's helpful hacker bot Lynx? And the tease of Symmetra's coworker Sanjay in the last Retribution comic... All we have are dangling edges of a dead end lore right now - with no guarantee the promises in these comics will bear any fruit in Overwatch 2.

The frustrations about lack of lore in the last three years aside, the comics are well done. The stories are short and sweet and do their job well of introducing an event (character introductions usually come through a cinematic, so we don't see comics doing that job in this book). More amusing are old school references: Symmetra and her old teleporter, Cassidy still named McCree (in this advance reader copy anyway), Torbjorn having to hit his turret to level it up, etc.

The book is full color and the digital version vivid and nicely presented. The end of the book has some character sketches for various scenes and cover versions. There are occasional short descriptive info about artistic choices but honestly mostly the subtitles for the sketches are "character sketch for Retribution" or such. In that regards, the book is sadly lacking. There is no section with any sketch to put the date and perspective of why/when the comics were released. Considering Blizzard likely doesn't want to emphasize the lore black hole of the last several years, I don't find that surprising. But it is still a mark against what is a very vanilla book with comics that can be viewed on the net for free. The extras feel tacked on and there just to 'pad' out the book.

Because this is very vanilla and feels more like an afterthought or money grab, the rating is going to be very low from me. I'm only surprised it took several years just to add the most recent comics (such as that is) from the previous publication. It is only a couple of them anyway. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Natalie]

This was so much fun. The art is gorgeous, and every time I turned a page I was more and more impressed with the inclusion of characters, the colors and the different locations found in the game. This is not just a tie-in, it's actually an extension of the game and storylines. It's really meant for someone who has played the game for years, seen the events, and enjoyed the backstories, cutscenes and origin stories. Someone who is a casual fan can certainly pick this up, but they won't get all of the nods and references. There's two Junkenstein stories, a few panels about Lunar New Year, and an adorable little snippet about the Yeti event. The only other downside besides it being so niche is that it was too short! I want more!
This was definitely the best comic I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it if you play Overwatch as it's such a treat. My favorite stories were Ana's, Torbjorn's and Bastion's.

[Eyla]

I think the best part of Overwatch is easily the lore, and the hype for the sequel got me excited to get to finally re-reading these comics now that I understand it better... Wish the game lived up to the hype but hopefully the campaign will??
The comics themselves are good character and world-building. Setting up the short campaigns from the Archives events, following up or connecting to the cinematics, and simply continuing to make me wish for a big adaptation. Arcane spoiled us and I hope one day we'll get an Overwatch adaptation made even half as lovingly.
I recommend checking out the comics to anyone wanting to learn more about the lore and events, but maybe start with the cinematics and things? Cause I definitely had pretty much all of it go over my head the first time I read all these a few years ago.

[Isaias McAllus]

Son historias muy sencillitas que acompañan al trasfondo de los personajes presentados en los cortometrajes y sus fichas de la web.
Algunos están bastante bien y otras son muy flojas.
No creo que debas acercarte si no eres fan del videojuego y conoces algo de su trasfondo.

[Kristyn]

A waste of time. If you read volume 1, you really don't need this edition. It doesn't include any of the most recent stuff, which is irritating considering that all 5 volumes of London Calling were released by 2021 and this anthology came out in early 2022. Blizzard could have definitely waited and made sure they were included before publishing because in this anthology there are only THREE additional stories that were not included in vol 1, and ZERO new extras, that I already believed were lacking at the end of vol 1. This is honestly just a complete waste of paper because like 85% of this comic was already published in vol 1. There's literally no point.

1 star, but I gave an extra for the beautiful cover art and the ridiculously adorable Mei Yeti Hunt comic that actually brought happiness to my cold dead heart.

[Ellie’s Cosy Corner]

I acquired this book quite a few years ago as a Christmas gift but never read it, and today is the day!

This book is a nice little collection of short stories in the Overwatch universe. This was a nice little read (especially since Blizzard gives us 0 lore now) that will take you less than a day. The artwork is absolutely stunning and I love learning more about the characters we enjoy.

I guess my only nitpick then is that we want more. We have want more stories, more lore, more character depth and development but unfortunately Blizzard will never give us this in a video game format so these short, very fast paced comics will have to do.

3/5 stars

[Jamie Quadrato]

A nostalgic anthology read featuring some of my favorite classic Overwatch characters! Comics started slow but got increasingly exciting as I read. There are so many layers to the lore of Overwatch; between Blackwatch to the omnic crisis and character crossovers, the story truly keeps you on your toes! Would love to find an Overwatch read that dives into the true origins of Overwatch and newer characters.

[Kole]

More lore and history on several of the overwatch heroes, and it was cool to see some more side quests that they'd been on throughout the series.
It jumps around throughout the timeline and characters, so I would recommend knowing a bit about it backstory, as this is written as if the reader knows!

[Sarah]

Beautiful artwork throughout the anthology. The stories were very short (some only a few pages long). I'd have liked them to be longer and to have a bit more continuity between the stories, but as they were, they made for an entertaining collection.

[Heaven Ashlee]

Have I ever played Overwatch? No. (Unless you count the one time I tried against AI before I realized I sucked at it.)

I have, however, watched countless hours of other people playing it. This was a really fun spread with semi-familiar characters to me, so it was a good read.

[bungle bingus]

I… shamefully love overwatch. Reading about all the characters you have gotten familiar with over the years was awesome.

Little teasers and hints to in game events was awesome and the art and character work fits so well not only for the story but gameplay as well.

Fun :)

[Kate K. F.]

I was hoping that there might have been some new comics in this edition but it turns out everything that's in here was also posted online. Its nice to have them in one place but its odd to have them in a volume and not actually put them in any kind of chronological order or anything. These are good comics but I didn't gain much from reading them in a collected format versus online.

[emily]

day 16 of my 31 comics/manga/graphic novels in 31 days. I have no idea why I was expecting this to be better than mediocre. anyways, Ana and Winston will always be the best Overwatch characters!

[Lumi]

Just had to finish the other comic in this book hehe

[Rei レイ ギャル 💛]

Both of Ana’s stories with Legacy and Old Soldiers are the best imo. Junkenstein’s were both very fun. I love seeing Merkky old concepts

[Super Saiyajin Raditz]

Reason I'm giving a 3 star is mainly because I felt the stories were a little short to have substance, HOWEVER, art is peak and I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[JestersRaven]

A collection of short stories following some of the characters from Overwatch the art is great