New 'Overwatch' Bastion Comic: How Did The Beeping Omnic Join The Team?

The eleventh Overwatch comic has just been released, starring everyone’s favorite beeping omnic, Bastion. Don’t let the cover for “Binary” fool you, Ganymede and his robot perch haven’t gone all evil, Pacific Rim monster on us. I don’t want to spoil the comic, but let’s just say that when villagers find out that a robotic murder machine that used to slaughter thousands in a war is hanging out near their town, they aren’t too happy about it.

Spoilers Below:

The comic ends with Torbjorn taking Bastion away from the woods, hopefully to meet the other members of Overwatch and join the team. It’s a bridging point between “The Last Bastion” cinematic and the actual game. Bastion has been roaming around the woods, collecting twigs and helping beavers, without a desire to kill.

I find it fascinating how Torbjorn reacts to the news that not all of his evil killer robots turned out so evil. It adds a layer to Overwatch ’s omnics: if they can change their programming and be whoever they want, how are they different than people? The main reason everyone hates omnics and believes they can’t live peacefully with humans is because robots can’t change their programming. Humans are still scarred from the horrors of the omnic war and only remember those bots. What if Zenyatta, Bastion and the other good omnics of the world just want to do good based on their own free will?

There’s no way the comic about Torbjorn and Bastion becoming buddies is that philosophical, but that’s how I choose to interpret it. The main message of Overwatch’s story IMO isn’t bad guys versus good guys, it’s about how will humanity react when technology evolves consciousness. Or, it could just be about shooting rockets and exploding tires.