Overwatch Finally Gave Fans Something They’ve Been Asking For Since 2016

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Overwatch has been in its narrative pay-off era since its soft reboot in February, and that has meant a consistent stream of lore drops for an ongoing story with real momentum for the first time in the game’s 10 years of life. While there is an actual overarching conflict as the peace-keeping Overwatch faces the new Vendetta-led incarnation of the Talon terrorist organization, Blizzard has also been taking some time to fill in some of the more mundane elements of its characters’ lives in between the firefights, and that includes finally paying off a relationship fans have supported for years.

Spoiler Warning

If you’re only catching up on the game’s story via the lore drops you find in Overwatch’s narrative reader, you might not realize that Blizzard has been collaborating with Webtoon on Overwatch: Undivided, a web comic following the cast of heroes in the wake of Vendetta’s attack on their base at Watchpoint: Gibraltar. The comic gets new drops on Wednesdays, and has primarily been delivered through the perspective of Juno, a young, green hero who was raised in a space station on Mars. She naturally has a lot of questions to ask, making her a great vehicle for helping readers learn about the events of the Overwatch universe. There are a lot of characters to juggle, so not everyone gets a ton of spotlight, but you’ll see several of your favorites throughout, whether in supporting roles or in the background of some scenes.

It is nice, after all these years, seeing characters who have been mostly separated in the lore finally coming together. I love seeing some of the younger heroes forming friendships and taking in all that it means to be part of Overwatch. These young’uns also bring fresh eyes to situations that seasoned veterans like Ana and Reinhardt may not have considered. After spotting the two chatting about the good ol’ days, Wuyang and Juno pick up on something deeper than combat camaraderie, and orchestrate an elaborate matchmaking stunt to put the two of them on a dinner date. Right now, Overwatch: Undivided’s first 13 issues are available on Webtoons’ website, but if you either buy issues early or are subscribed through the service’s app, you can read up to issue 18. In issue 15, Reinhardt and Ana’s relationship becomes a hot topic among the younger recruits, to the point where they start scheming to nudge the two old soldiers together after years of them never taking that next step.

The crew has been staying at Torbjorn’s home in Gothenburg after the attack on Gibraltar, which means that even though they’ve got a world to save, their home base is pretty cozy and with the right set dressing, it could make for a pretty lovely date. Wuyang and Juno recruit a few other helpers and manage to lure both Ana and Reinhardt into a lovely dinner date where the two reflect on their years of knowing each other, fighting together in the original Overwatch organization, and lamenting how there was never any time for something “real.” Now, they’re both single following Ana’s separation from her husband Sam, and have finally reunited and been forced to consider what they’ve been missing. Finally, after a decade of fans shipping them, Ana and Reinhardt are canon.

Overwatch ships have been around as long as the game has, though remarkably few relationships between playable heroes have manifested over the years. Back in the day, original narrative lead Michael Chu said romantic relationships were “not a particularly strong focus” for the team, and characters with established romantic relationships were often partnered with characters outside the playable roster. Tracer’s girlfriend Emily debuted in a 2016 comic, while Soldier: 76’s ex-boyfriend Vincent was first revealed in a short story in 2019 and didn’t become a fully formed person in the lore until 2025’s Pride event short story that finally fleshed out the relationship. However, it feels like Blizzard has become more open to the idea of hero ships as of late. Emre and Freja seem to have some tortured, angsty history, and there was that one time Lifeweaver and Baptiste flirted in their pre-match dialogue. Lifeweaver is getting a new Pansexual flag-themed skin for this year’s Pride event, and the Pride cosmetics have previously correlated with a new lore drop, so maybe Blizzard will finally make those two’s relationship more than just a few flirtatious interactions next month.

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