StarCraft (comic)

"No Rules. No Problem."

- StarCraft comic tagline

A StarCraft comic covering events prior to StarCraft II is being published by DC Comics (Wildstorm). It centers around a team of outlaws, the War Pigs.

It is a monthly ongoing series with twelve expected issues. The first issue came out in May 2009.

The first arc will last 7 issues. A character significant to the entire StarCraft universe will be introduced in Issue 4 and will become a main character in the second arc.

Development
Blizzard Entertainment employees Chris Metzen, Andy Chambers and Micky Neilson are story consultants for the series.

Blizzard has carried out at least one change in artistic style and writing. Shawn Moll was on the original team. The new team consist of Simon Furman and Federico Dallocchio.

Plot

 * Main article: List of StarCraft comic issues

The War Pigs were a band of convicted criminals forced to work as soldiers by the Terran Confederacy, under the command of bureaucrat Tamsen Cauley. They were not neurally resocialized so they could keep their unique talents. Cauley ordered them to attempt to kill Arcturus Mengsk at Atticus Minor, but they failed and he betrayed them, since Cauley believed that Mengsk would win the war unless he died, and since Mengsk was still alive, Cauley intended to switch sides without leaving behind loose ends like the War Pigs. Cauley co-opted one of their number to lead the rest into a death trap which would be carried out by his new, upgraded Cerberus Program. However, the attempt failed and the outlaws escaped and scattered.

Two years later, Cauley had become an important official in the Terran Dominion, the director of the Dominion Internal Security Division. Due to a comment from Emperor Mengsk, he became nervous of him due to the previous assassination attempt, and still wanted to eliminate the War Pigs to cover his tracks.

He visited Cole Hickson at the New Folsom Prison and convinced him to bring the team together again and do a job for him&mdash;assassinate Jim Raynor (as part of his plan of ascension), and as a reward their records would be expunged. However, they must first find Raynor. Cauley would then use the Cerberus Program, which he said did not belong to the Dominion, to follow and eliminate the War Pigs once the job was done.

Plot Notes
While the comic series focuses on terrans, it will also include the protoss and the zerg. A "particularly cool" protoss appearance will be seen in the third issue and some major characters from the games will make appearances. The re-emergence of the xel'naga will also be touched upon.

In addition to tying in with the previous games and published fiction, the series will show a lot of the StarCraft universe, lay the groundwork for the on-going story, and the comic's first arc as a transition between the first and second game. Storylines beyond the first arc are unable to be divulged at this point in time. Furman would like to link the story with his Frontline works (Heavy Armor and Creep), but not at this point in time.

Characters Yet to Appear

 * Infested Kerrigan
 * Nova
 * Jim Raynor

Issues

 * Issue 1
 * Issue 2
 * Issue 3
 * Issue 4
 * Issue 5
 * Issue 6

Previews and Excerpts
Starcraft Comic Book-Original Concept Scans StarCraft Wiki. Accessed on 2009-06-03

Medievaldragon. 2009-05-01. StarCraft # 1 Preview Scans. Blizzplanet. Accessed 2009-05-05.

2009-04-24. Exclusive "StarCraft" #1 Comic Book Preview. MTV. Accessed 2009-04-25.

A four-page promotion of the comic was present in the BlizzCon 2008 "goodie bag"; the sampler was split between the StarCraft comic and a preview of Ashbringer issue 1.

A preview can be found in the World of Warcraft comic, issue 19: The Winds of War.