By Jacob Cordas — I play Overwatch. And by that I mean, once a month I log on to the game with the understanding that I’m going to throw my control across the room after I get matched with a group of fun loving middle schoolers. It might say far too much about me but I main Mei, a character built around being frustrating, a character that cannot carry a team. I sit sadly in my copper rankings convinced I could be better while I fail to freeze people and miss icicle headshots.

Even with all this frustration, I still love the game. The art style is cartoony and delightful. The character designs are fun, with each having enough unique gameplay elements to make it exciting to learn them. More than anything else though, I love the world. Blizzard will periodically release beautiful short films expanding on the universe, following characters with a surprising amount of pathos. Overwatch is a world with a wealth of interesting corners to uncover.

Even still, Overwatch: Tracer - London Calling #1 is a tie-in comic that left me nervous to start reading it. Would they be able to capture the magic of the world I fundamentally love so much. When I saw the creative team, I realized my anxieties were unfounded.This is a shocking delight from start to finish.

If team shooters have taught me anything, you’re only as good as your team. And the team here is magnificent: Mariko Tamaki (Wonder Woman, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me) writes while Babs Tarr (Batgirl, Motor Crush) does the art with drawing assistance by Heather Danforth (Loathe/Love/Lathe, Alfa Romeo 1933), layouts by Hunter Clark (FLAVOR, The Return of King Doug), colors by Rachel Cohen (Snotgirl, The Goon) and letters by Deron Bennett (The Necromancer’s Map, Resonant).

Tamaki brings her trademark soul to this miniseries imbuing Tracer with a frantically beating heart that comes through even before the character has appeared on the page. Her relationship with her partner is warm and friendly, immediately establishing a nuanced joy twinged with the haunting what-if. I especially like the way she incorporates music into the narrative.

Punk music has a special place in British history. Punk is a cultural unifier that helped various different lower class group unify under a flag of rebellion. It frames the rage against the system into a powerful collective act. Here, it serves that same benefit as well as proving the humanity of the omnics: Only the realest like The Clash.*

The art is a magnificent collaborative effort that to give credit to one person in particular would diminish the teamwork that led to this point. Instead of trying to assign credit and leaving people out, I’m just going to describe the stand out elements:

Character designs are so dynamic from the get go. A good character design should immediately let you in on the heart and soul of the character. Tracer’s ripped jeans with Doc Martins especially is great.
The intersection of coloring and line work here is so great. The lines are fun and playful, while the coloring highlights the playfulness mixing it with a British punk aesthetic that makes it a joy to turn every page.
Motion is such an integral part of Tracer, capturing it is a necessity for this comic. It does so incredibly well. It flows over panels, through panels, across panels, sometimes straight out of the page.

Much to my pleasant surprise, Overwatch: Tracer - London Calling #1 is a blast to read and a blast to look out. It captures some of my parts of the game while removing having a high school freshman calling me racial slurs for getting killed. I’m curious as to how the serious will progress forward from this opening issue and if it can maintain the momentum.

Tracer is a character that sprints, not marathons. But this reader at least is in it for every mile of the journey.

*My biggest quibble with the writing is the reference choices they went with. There’s a lot of really cool bands from that era of punk they could have gone with that would’ve worked a little better in this context. I especially thought an X-Ray Spex reference would’ve worked great here. Just listen to this song and tell me you don’t want to see Tracer travel backwards in time with this blaring.

Overall: Overwatch: Tracer - London Calling #1 is one of the most surprisingly successful tie-in comics. It works far better than it should imbuing the world of Overwatch with a whimsy on every page. 8/10

Review: Overwatch - Tracer - London Calling #1

Overwatch: Tracer - London Calling #1
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Babs Tarr
Drawing Assistance: Heather Danforth
Layouts: Hunter Clark
Colorist: Rachel Cohen
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.99
Tracer's time as an Overwatch agent is up. Five years after the ratification of the Petras Act, she now tends to small-scale crimes as a part-time hero. But when a punk-rock omnic named Iggy shows Tracer the dire living conditions that have been forced upon Londons omnics, Tracer becomes determined to help in any way possible--even if it puts her back in the crosshairs.
Release Date: December 2, 2020
Buy It Here: Overwatch - Tracer - London Calling #1

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My name is Jacob Cordas (@jacweasel) and I am starting to think I may in fact be qualified to write this.