“Why Video Game Comics Suck”—I practically spit taked my Cheerios across the office when this feature appeared on gamer- and geek-news megasite IGN.com one morning this summer. That was, until I read it, and realized they were absolutely right.
They explained not why all comics related to video games are destined to suck, but rather why these comics often fail to live up to the expectations of comic bookers and gamers alike—reasons that, as the editor of the upcoming series Mass Effect: Evolution, I lose a half-hour to an hour of sleep over a night.
Just because I (astonishingly) squirreled my way into getting paid to read comics all day doesn’t mean I’m not also a chronic gamer, which is why being a part of BioWare’s epic science-fiction trilogy isn’t just the greatest opportunity of my career, but also the greatest responsibility. Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 are among the most acclaimed and successful games of all time, groundbreaking masterpieces with a richly detailed universe and deeply sympathetic characters that have propelled interactive storytelling forward an entire generation. If our Mass Effect comics suck, there’s only me to blame.
As IGN points out, too often video-game comics don’t expand the mythology of the game in a meaningful way. Their stories are extraneous; the real story is in the game. That’s why our Mass Effect comics are written by Mac Walters, the Lead Writer of Mass Effect 2 and the upcoming Mass Effect 3. In an unprecedented collaboration with BioWare, these comics are not an addition to the ongoing Mass Effect saga but rather an essential part of it, integrated seamlessly into the grand story Walters and the rest of the development team are telling.
In Mass Effect: Evolution, Walters reveals the origin of the Illusive Man, the most mysterious power broker in the galaxy, and unveils humanity’s earliest forays into the Milky Way. This is no “lost tale” that “fills in the gap.” This is an ambitious sci-fi adventure in its own right that maps out a significant segment of the Mass Effect universe for the first time. For existing Mass Effect fans, Evolution is an important piece of the story they are already following. For newcomers, this is an action- and intrigue-packed introduction to the biggest thing to happen to space since Star Wars.
Another target of IGN’s video-game-comics ire is the creative teams behind them. Whether it’s because of the budget, the schedule, or such an intense focus on the game that creating a first-rate comic becomes a second priority, too often the art and the writing on these books stand a cut below the other titles filling the spinner racks. With John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) scripting Mac Walters’s story and Omar Francia (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2) drawing it, Mass Effect: Evolution has the best science-fiction creators in comics. If that isn’t enough, the inimitable Italian master Massimo Carnevale (Y: The Last Man) is providing covers.
IGN threw down the gauntlet—just because video-game comics have sucked doesn’t mean they have to. It’s up to publishers to hold ourselves to a higher standard. That’s what we’re doing with Mass Effect: Evolution, and beyond. Come see.