It looks like Blizzard and friends have decided on the next subject for its series of Overwatch novels: Ashe and McCree.
An Amazon France listing for a second Overwatch novel by Gunslinger Girl author Lyndsay Ely says the book will come out on June 1 of next year, which would be about a year after the first one, Overwatch: The Hero of Numbani, launched back in June. While that book focused on Orisa, a hero who had been relatively absent in much of Overwatch’s lore, Ashe and McCree have starred in their own animated short together, and the latter has been a mainstay in comic storylines and even the small amount of story content that takes place in the actual game. However, in the animated short that both revealed Ashe as a character and as a playable hero, the two were no longer on good terms. From the look of the plot synopsis, this will be story of how Ashe and McCree went from allies to enemies.
In the years after the Omnic Crisis, the American Southwest is ruled by vultures looking to profit off the chaos. The West is ripe for the taking, and Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe intends to write her name across it.
When Ashe is arrested yet again on the morning of her high school graduation, her aloof, old-money parents decide to disinherit her from the family fortune. To steal back what’s rightfully hers, Ashe teams up with her omnic butler, B.O.B., and local ruffian Jesse McCree for a series of heists, catapulting the trio into a game of fast money and dangerous alliances. Along the way, Ashe discovers that family isn’t just about blood. It’s about the people who’ve got your back when your back’s against the wall.
Full of high-octane chases and action-packed stand-offs, the second novel for Overwatch explores the founding of the Deadlock Gang and the origins of fan-favorite heroes Ashe and McCree. Don’t miss this incredible, original story straight from the Overwatch game team and critically acclaimed author Lyndsay Ely.
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It’s not one of the Overwatch novels we suggested, but given that The Hero of Numbani was one of the best pieces of Overwatch story that Blizzard has put out, I’m excited to see if this book can do the same for Ashe and McCree that book did for Orisa. While much of Overwatch’s lore, whether that be comics, animated shorts, or the game’s story events, has been really more about character establishment, The Hero of Numbani had a great deal of development beyond that. Because of this, despite its being a smaller scale story, it kind of made the whole world of Overwatch feel a little bit bigger.
More recently, Blizzard has started rolling out a comic series starring Tracer, which started as part of an in-game event with cosmetic items for the character to coincide with the beginning of the mini-series.
Whatever the Ashe and McCree book ends up looking like, it’s probably one of the only bits of story content we’ll be getting before Overwatch 2, which we likely would have seen more of at BlizzCon had it not been cancelled due to the coronavirus. The company now plans to hold a digital alternative in February.
