Title: Quake Champions
Writer(s): Ram V
Art: Alan Quah & Dave Ross
Colors: Komikai Studio & Sean Lee
Lettering: Rob Steen
Publisher: Titan Comics
My verdict: Merchandizing tool as expected. Writing is surprisingly not bad, but is ultimately about the artwork.
This collection of four stories, first published in 2018, is the first volume in what is clearly a merchandising tool for the well-known first-person shooter of the same name initially released in 2017.
I normally wouldn’t bother with something like this—after all, as much as I appreciate the graphics and the technical aspects of such a game, it is basically senseless killing—but since I was given a copy I may as well make a few comments.
One may expect totally cheesy stories since it’s merely a merchandising tool. Whilst the writing isn’t particularly great, it surprisingly is not horrible despite relying on tropes.
Given their length of around 20 pages each, these stories are more like vignettes. As expected, like the booklets that accompanied games in the old days, these comics provide the backstory of the characters that otherwise one would not care about in a game that essentially does not require a story.
Three of these do show the main character in the other dimension (which is the premise of the game). But since nothing much other than killing happens there, the plotting relies on flashbacks for background exposition so the audience sees how the characters entered this dimension and their motivations.
Ultimately, these comics are about the art, which is generally excellent. The rendering is refined with really nice highlighting and texturing. I would even go as far as saying that the artwork is worthy of studying.
Below are the four stories:
“Survivalism” – Ranger, a marine, tries to hang onto his humanity and make it back home even though he can’t remember his name. The writing takes a noir-like approach. It would be better if the visuals did the same.
“The Perfect Drug” – A story about how Anarki’s obsession with cybernetic implants and Slash’s devotion to him. Despite the obsession/addiction theme that has been seen before, this piece is probably the best of the four in both the writing and its corresponding visual tone.
“The Great Destroyer” – Nyx is a Melem operative sent to retrieve some orb thing which her world needs from a Greiss warrior named Scalebearer. Basically, it’s the “warrior from a peaceful world going after a bully”.
“In This Twilight” – This story is about how a clone engineered to be the perfect soldier became Visor.
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