Discover Juno's Martian Origins: Overwatch 2 Unveils 'The Red Promise' Comic

Overwatch 2 recently unveiled "The Red Promise," a narrated comic that explores the backstory of Juno, the game's newest hero. This captivating tale delves into the origins of the Martian hero and the events that brought her back to Earth to join the Overwatch 2 roster.

During BlizzCon 2023, Overwatch 2 introduced the first two heroes slated for 2024: Venture and Juno. Originally known by the codename "Space Ranger," Juno was described as a high-mobility support hero. Venture made her debut in Season 10, and now, Juno is set to join the game in Season 12, which launches on August 20.

In anticipation of her arrival, Overwatch 2 has shared Juno's backstory through "The Red Promise," a short comic narrated by Xanthe Huynh, Juno's voice actor. The comic reveals that Juno is the first and only person born on Mars, where she was raised on a base established to terraform the planet and make it habitable. However, when contact with Earth's benefactors was abruptly cut off, the scientists on Mars realized their survival was in jeopardy. They constructed a ship for Juno to escape, but she vowed to return to Earth to find help to save her family and her planet.

Overwatch 2 Juno Backstory Comic – "The Red Promise"

Overwatch 2 first teased Juno with the appearance of her crashed ship on the Dorado map, where players discovered a photo of Mei and her former astrophysicist colleague Jiayi, along with a Morse code signal transmitting the initial "J." This led many players to mistakenly believe that Space Ranger was Jiayi, but it turns out that the new Martian hero is actually Jiayi's daughter, Juno.

Fans of Overwatch 2 have praised the comic, finding Juno's story both heartfelt and compelling. However, many expressed a desire to see it animated. Blizzard is known for its high-quality motion stories and cinematics, and many of the new heroes in Overwatch and its sequel have received such treatments in the past.

Unfortunately, recent heroes in Overwatch 2 have seen a decline in the number of animations related to their backstories. While Lifeweaver, Mauga, and Illari each received animated motion stories, and both Mauga and Venture had short animations (with Venture's being less than a minute long), the trend seems to be shifting. Venture also had a narrated comic similar to Juno's, but there haven't been any new character cinematics since Overwatch 2's release. With many of the game's story team reportedly affected by Blizzard's layoffs earlier this year, it seems likely that narrated comics like "The Red Promise" could become the new standard.