Overwatch is one of the most popular FPS franchises to come out in recent years. Fans have enjoyed the heroes that they can control, as well as pieces of lore that can be discovered through temporary PvE events, animated shorts, and comics. While a campaign will come to Overwatch 2 in 2023, players have had to learn more about the characters' stories and universe through a series of comics.
Overwatch's comic series began in April 2016, telling short stories of adventures that some of the game's heroes had gone on. While a lot of these comics aren't too relevant to the game, there are a few of them that fans should read, especially if they want to have a better understanding of the characters' interactions with each other and the most important pieces of Overwatch's lore.
Ana: Old Soldiers
"Ana: Old Soldiers" is one of the comics that can be found in Overwatch: Anthology, the original comic series based on the FPS. In this story, Soldier 76 discovered a wanted poster of Ana near the Temple of Anubis map. When trying to track her down, he ran into Reaper, who attacked him. While it initially seemed that Reaper would achieve his goal of killing Soldier 76, Ana came to Jack's rescue.
Soldier 76 and Ana teamed up in order to fight Reaper, only for the latter to discover that Reaper was another one of her former comrades, Gabriel Reyes. Shocked to learn who was underneath the mask, Ana hesitated to defeat Reaper, giving him an opportunity to escape. With him gone, Jack proposed that he and Ana work together again, which she accepted. This story is important to the overall franchise as it reveals one of the latest interactions between founding members of the titular organization.
Uprising
"Uprising" is a comic that takes place directly prior to the Uprising mission in the Archives mode from the video game. At the time, the Overwatch organization was still around, with Ana, Jack, and Gabriel all working together. In the beginning of "Uprising," Cassidy called them from King's Row to let them know of a devastating Null Sector attack. Because the prime minister didn't want Overwatch to get involved in the conflict, Jack wasn't sure how to proceed.
At the time, Tracer was Overwatch's newest member, and after seeing her train, Jack spoke with her about the attack on King's Row. She convinced him to ignore the prime minister's wishes and do their jobs. At the end of the comic, Tracer is welcomed by Reinhardt, Mercy, and Torbjorn on her first mission, with Torbjorn saying "the cavalry is here," which would become one of her most iconic catchphrases.
New Blood
"New Blood" is a five issue comic series that tells how some of the heroes banded together, leading up to the campaign that Blizzard plans to add to Overwatch 2. The story began with Ana asking Cassidy to lead the newest recruits of Overwatch, thinking that he could be a better leader than her and the other founding members. While it took some convincing, he decided to bring together some of the heroes: Pharah, Baptiste, Zarya, and D.Va.
Each issue except for the first one focused on Cassidy helping out one of these heroes and convincing them to join his team. In the final issue of "New Blood," Cassidy, Pharah, Zarya, and Baptiste all worked together to help D.Va in an epic battle, which led her to be the final hero among them to be brought into Overwatch. With the five of them all together, they head to Gibraltar, which could potentially be where Overwatch 2's campaign begins.
Overwatch 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.