It’s just a typical gameplay vs story problem.
But I have to say, yes it’s a shortcut, but that doesn’t bother me at all. My problem is that it doesn’t really make sense with the time skip of two years and the new skins don’t make sense, etc.
Wall of text incoming!
A quick timeline:
- Route 66 (probably quite shortly after the recall) is the start, right after the Reunion Cinematic.
- About a week or two later we met Ana in Cairo.
- A few days later meeting with Pharah. (Last page #1)
- an hour or two later we meet Ana/Pharah.
- Cassidy leaves Cairo, but Baptiste is already tailing him (Last Page #2)
- A few hours later in Bucharest there was the confrontation between Cass and Bap.
- After the skirmish with Talon, both board the train that takes Cass to Russia (last pages #3)
- Then the battles with Nullsector in Russia.
- The last page is interesting again. A news report is shown showing the current attack in Paris.
- In the next issue the Paris attack will also be in the news as “Today the Null Sector Assault in Paris” That means there are just a few hours between Russia and the appearance of the orca in Busan.
- After the skirmish in Busan we go straight to Gibraltar.
In summary, the whole story of New Blood probably takes around two weeks. The biggest time jump during the story is from Route 66 to Cairo. So far so good, but now comes the skin problem (another argument/proof that the new skins are just a marketing tool and should not be canon)
Firstly Cass, who not only got a completely new armor in OW2 but also a new revolver and cybernetic arm. At the beginning he has his original equipment, even during the whole thing with Ana and Talon. And then a few days later when he meets with Pharah he suddenly has his OW2 equipment. Why? You don’t change a cybernetic arm so easily and thoughtlessly (e.g. Cyberpunk 2077) and Cass wouldn’t just part with his revolver. In the skirmish with Talon, it looked as if both would come through completely unscathed. Hence no need for a new arm. The hypothesis that Cass got into an attack in the meantime and needed his equipment replaced is quite unbelievable, especially something like that could have been included in the comic.
Then Pharah, she can initially be seen in her original Raptorion but then in Busan (which is only a few days later) she suddenly has the new suit. Well, you could say she got the new suit just before she left Cairo.
In the third comic, Baptiste still has his original equipment (recognizable by the blue visor) and even his original hair and he goes to Russia, even if he doesn’t appear in #4. As he’s watching in the Orca, he suddenly has his new equipment. From where? and above all, he also has a new haircut. Before he had an undercut with a zigzag pattern and then suddenly it was an undercut with straight lines. Hair doesn’t work like that, it doesn’t grow that quickly and it’s also unbelievable that you would go to the hairdresser for such a small thing in this time situation.
Zarya works, as she’s already using her new equipment from the first page. You would think that thanks to her hair, but no, upon closer inspection she is using her original Particle Cannon. Well, you could say she got the new weapon just before she left Russlang. Wait what, we just had that.
And now for D-Va in the comic itself there is nothing with a new skin because she uses the original suit and mech all the time. On page 21 she has a ponytail, but that’s completely realistic. She is definitely wearing her original suit, which can be clearly seen in the pink area under her neck. On the same page you can also see how her original (Overwatch 1) mech (which is quite new, as the very first one was destroyed in the cinematic) is loaded into the Orca. Probably a few hours later we see the five in Gibraltar after the Rio mission and D.Va suddenly has her OW2 suit and mech. What, when? Did Zarya, Pharah and Baptiste find new equipment in the Orca? Somehow the Orca has to collect everyone first before heading to Busan. For D.Va everything was in Gibraltar, or what?
If that is the case, Overwatch must first have planned the whole thing, contacted the individual people in order to understand the equipment and build new versions (without knowing whether they are even necessary). With Meka, it’s unlikely that they’ll just give out the data for the 'Mechs like that.
Winston and Mercy both sounded very surprised to see Cass´s group in Gibralar. Where did Cassidy get the Orca from? Why doesn’t Cass use the Orca from the start? Why is there seemingly no contact between Cassidy and Winston? Shouldn’t Athena know that an Orca is moving? Shouldn’t Athena know that Cass is on his way to Gibraltar with his group and would inform Winston of their arrival? Winston shouldn’t be so surprised then to see them.
New Blood has several logic gaps, most of which are caused by the unnecessary skins, but it also shows that there is no real plan behind the whole narrative, that no attention is paid to details. Hell even for marketing purposes they are unnecessary. Fristly the upcoming OW2 Funko pop of Sigma uses his Orginal Skin and not his OW2 Skin. Secondly the Gentle Monster collab. Gentle monster used D.Vas original skin as the basis for the glasses instead of the OW2 Skin. I am sertain, that those are not the only ones or the last. Hell even the OWL uses only the Overwatch Logo on the team jerseys instead of the OW2 one. The .exe is still called “overwatch.exe” almost as if Blizzard them self say, that OW2 is just Overwatch.
Fun fact, PvE currently doesn’t have a canon version. I had a short conversation with the cinematic director on Twitter/X a while ago. When I asked what the 4 canonical heroes are who, for example, fight the boss fight in Rio, he replied: “Whatever 4 person team you choose for the mission is he story. The others have things to do too.” For me, this is quite worrying because it shows once again that the story/lore is only a means to an end and that it is not the goal to build a good/functioning lore.
PS: your point of why do Zarya, Pharah and D.Va leave their friend and country behind, dispite being already involved in Conflitcts there themselves was something i didn´t think about until now.
