New Overwatch Comic Will Address McCree Controversy
Cole Cassidy, aka the cowboy formerly known as McCree, has had an inadvertent spotlight shining on him since the revealing lawsuit was first taken to the doorstep of Activision Blizzard. The uncomfortable examples of grim workplace harassment and a "frat-boy culture" are accused of being baked into the company’s core.
Jesse McCree, a Blizzard employee who offered his name to Overwatch’s leading cowboy was found in the eye of the storm, and as such, the company made an effort to tidy up their games. McCree was a big one to take care of, and though he’s since become Cole Cassidy, there’s a lot of work to do the justify the name change in-universe. And now, a comic book series looks set to tell the tale of how Cole Cassidy came to be.
Why Is A Comic Addressing The McCree Controversy?
It has been revealed that the story behind McCree’s transformation into Cole Cassidy will be fleshed out by a new comic book from Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse has made comics in collaboration with the Overwatch team in the past, as well as a couple of series with EA’s Apex Legends characters.
The comic series is called Overwatch: New Blood and will be arriving in five issues - entirely digitally. It has been announced to coincide with the current Cassidy’s New Blood event occurring in-game right now.
The comic is written by Ray Fawkes, while the art has been taken care of courtesy of Irene Koh. Its main aim is to clear up any confusion about McCree's name being so abruptly changed, presumably without going into the darker details of the Activision Blizzard case.
How Can You Read Overwatch: New Blood?
Unfortunately, there isn’t an announced release date for the comic series, but as the announcement was made to coincide with the current event, there’s every chance that it could be coming very soon.
With the comic series being entirely digital as well, it will likely be available on the official Overwatch and Dark Horse Comics websites.
It’ll be interesting to see the in-universe reason for Cassidy’s name change and the Blizzard team navigating the character’s murky past that his name suggests. Either way, get ready for a completely different version of this sharp-shootin' cowboy.
