



Overwatch: First Strike[2] (previously titled Overwatch: The Omnic Crisis[3]) was to be an Overwatch graphic novel. Written by Micky Neilson, penciled and inked by Ludo Lullabi, and colored by Ryan Odagawa, it would have detailed the formation of the Overwatch strike team.[4]

First Strike was expected to be released digitally in November 2016, with a physical release to follow in April 2017.[5] However, on November 18, 2016, it was announced that the project had been cancelled due to the decision to take the story in a different direction, a result of the continued development and expansion of the Overwatch setting in the years since the comic's conception.[6] In May 2017, Jeff Kaplan further elaborated on the decision to cancel the novel, that it was "a very specific, self-contained story," and "would have limited us." Specifically, this is in reference to fan theories concerning the Omnic Crisis, and it was decided that part of the 'magic' of Overwatch was keeping certain canon less defined. According to Kaplan, "there’s a lot going on in Overwatch right now where I think that the story in players’ heads is often even cooler than what we can deliver to them."[7]