New Overwatch comic confirms Tracer as queer

Blizzard sure surprised their fans today, and in more ways than one!

Firstly by releasing Reflections, a holiday themed Overwatch comic (although it was expected after the Junkensteins revenge comic for the Halloween event) and secondly was the canonical confirmation of Reflections cover hero, Tracer, being gay.

Blizzard confirmed over a year ago now Overwatch would feature LGBTIQ characters, and the company reiterated these comments again during its BlizzCon panel in November. In response to an audience question at the panel, Micheal Chu said “Blizzard hadn’t forgotten about LGBTIQ representation and would reveal something soon, and not Blizzard soon”. This understandably sent a lot of fans into a ravenous frenzy trying to figure out who the characters in question were/would be, and the internet being the wonderland it is wasted no time in the creation of fanfics and headcanons. Turns out that one of those many speculated about characters was none other than Lena “Tracer” Oxton!

Personally I love this! The simple fact they choose Tracer, who is a more accessible and relatable character to a lot of people as opposed to a more sexual and somewhat unobtainable character like Widowmaker, is brilliant. And I also respect that they didn’t try to put her in a relationship with another in-game character, which to me would have seemed like forcing the agenda and may have rubbed people the wrong way, as opposed to giving positive representation which is what we so desperately need. What has been truly wonderful and a spectacular sight to see, has been watching Twitter explode once the news of Tracer’s coming out had got out. Not only were fan’s praising Blizzard for the canonisation of an LGBTIQ character, they’re also elated the character is not only one of their favourites but was one of the faces, in fact pretty much ‘the’ face of Overwatch. To give you an idea of how hot this news is, “Tracer” is currently showing as a worldwide trending topic across various social media platforms.

Unfortunately a lot of this trending conversation seems to be directed towards the comic not being released in Russia, due to  the country’s LGBT propaganda law.

Naturally there’s more to the comic than just Tracers big reveal, and Blizzard are notorious for hiding hints in all kinds of places; so if you’re an Overwatch fan do give it a good read. And if you want a bit of pizzazz, there’s also an animated version with sound effects which really bring the whole thing to life!