With the festive season making its way through, the gaming industry has already been lit up with various events and giveaways themed around the Christmas holidays. However, one of the most coveted games of the year is all set to gift its fans with something other than a special events and giveaways. Blizzard has just released a new, holiday edition comics for its smash multi-player hit Overwatch which dominated The Game Awards this year, taking home four recognition to its name.
Titled Reflections, the 12 page comic introduces the first queer character of the game. The character is none other than Overwatch’s face, the time jumping adventurer, Lena ‘Tracer’ Oxton. The comic shows off how the heroes of Overwatch are going about through the holidays focusing more on Tracer, her supposed girlfriend Emily and Winston.
The comic gives a good view into the personal lives of Overwatch characters, apart from the fighting. It shows Tracer rushing around to buy a present before getting home while Winston is shown reminiscing the time spent with his friends and wondering how and where they are. Then a whole page is dedicated to give us a glimpse of what other characters like Widowmaker, Reaper, Hanzo, Genji, Zenyatta, Pharah, Reinhardt are up to.
In what can be called as a bold move by the company, the company has confirmed their first queer character, Tracer, who can be seen kissing her partner Emily in the cover. While the move was widely applauded by the fans and enthusiasts of the game, the comic was banned in Russia.
The new Overwatch comic is banned in Russia and unavailable in the language because of homophobic laws against “gay propaganda.” pic.twitter.com/u1vfCHXulG
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 20, 2016
This can be considered as a great initiative as the whole concept of Overwatch revolves around the diversity of different characters. Humans and omnics from almost every corner of the world makes up the universe of Overwatch.