Villainy, fury, and vengeance: Inside Overwatch 2’s Vendetta comic with Jude Stacey

Hero 45, also known as Vendetta, will officially join the Overwatch 2 roster as a damage hero on Dec. 9. Ahead of her release date, esports.gg received a copy of her new comic. We also sat down with senior narrative designer Jude Stacey for an exclusive interview. We talked about the new Vendetta comic in terms of her being an Overwatch 2 villain plus Vendetta's relationships, motivations, and more.

In her interview with esports.gg, Stacey revealed that what stands out to her most about Vendetta is her rage. When the Overwatch 2 team creates a new hero, they establish five key personality pillars, and that part of Vendetta was one of them. In the new comic, Vendetta is driven by righteous fury, loss, and ambition, and she chooses to fight in the Colosseo while still shaped by her high-society upbringing. What makes Vendetta a compelling villain, according to Stacey, is that she is unabashedly herself and wields her strength as she chooses.

"Having looked at the comic, there's a lot of righteous fury in her backstory," Stacey said. "So much was taken away from her, and she has so much desire and ambition to get it back. When she went into the Colosseo to prove herself, she chose violence as that route, right? But she still had her upbringing. She knew how to be in high society. And I love the way that she juggles those two worlds."

Stacey continued, "I think it really mirrors the way that sometimes women have to contain that rage, you know? But I think her intelligence and her drive [are] some things that [make] her really exciting as a villain. I think she's very clever and she's got really big plans, and it's really empowering to be able to write someone that is as unabashedly themselves as Vendetta and has the strength and power to turn down anyone that would deny her the opportunity to be who she is and wield her strength the way she wants to."

The Overwatch 2 team fully supported Stacey's vision and trusted her to develop such a bold villain, and being able to write a character who could take up space without being edited down was an exciting and rare opportunity.

"I remember speaking to Miranda Moyer, lead narrative designer, and saying, 'Hey, if I'm going to write a villain, I want to write a villain. I want her to be over the top. I want her to be really dramatic and not cut herself short. I want her to speak her mind,'" Stacey told esports.gg. "And to be able to write a hero like that and know that in her personality, she's going to take up that much space to not have to edit her words down to something smaller or more palatable, I think, is really exciting. It's a rare opportunity as a writer to really go full throttle on a character like that, especially a woman or a female villain."

Chiara Preziosi, Vendetta's voice actor, only added to the character's intensity. Stacey recalled how well Preziosi captured both Vendetta's public and private side. In just a few takes, Preziosi was also able to show multiple layers of the character. Working with Preziosi even inspired the Overwatch 2 team to write more for Vendetta.

"Chiara absolutely nailed that. She just was able to, on a dime, get both the scheming, darker, cruel side and the bombastic, fire-fueled dramatic rage," Stacey said.

In the hero trailer, Vendetta reflects on her complicated relationship with her father, Antonio Bartalotti of Talon, while duking it out in the arena. In the comic, we see how she applies his teachings in negotiations and building alliances. While Vendetta respects her father, she wants to build an empire far stronger than what Antonio could have ever imagined.

"The relationship with her father is a complicated one," Stacey said. "As we see in her hero trailer, there's definitely a lot of love for him, but I think as kind as he was to her, he wanted her to be smart and clever and figure out how to channel her emotions. But I think she was the one that had that ambition and that fire and that belief that, 'I'm going to take on this business.'"

Stacey continued, "I think she was clever enough to see him making mistakes when she was younger, and knew that would be his downfall. And then when it all came to pass, she was right. She'd done everything she could, but Vialli and Doomfist -- they stepped in and just everything she had was suddenly gone. So she had to work from nothing to take it back. And I think in that sense, that's why she has to play both sides. You can’t just rush into the battlefield wielding a sword, breathing heavily, ready to take on your enemies. You also need to be able to step off of it and speak to someone in a negotiating way, figure out how to make alliances with the right people, [and know] who to have on your side. And we see her do that in the comic with that one Talon council member."

When we asked what readers should pay attention to in the new comic, Stacey pointed out the central spread showing Vendetta’s progression as a character was inspired by Roman frescoes.

Additionally, a top-right panel with Vendetta at the end of a table shows both sides of her life. The gladiators are on one side and the high-society guests are on the other.

Stacey also pointed out a referee character going "Tweeeee" in the background. In fact, she even adopted him as her icon at work for a while!

"I think what I really want people to get from the comic is that when she is hit, she comes back twice as strong," Stacey added. "That is, in many ways, her signature move in the Colosseo -- that arc that her fights follow. It's also something she's really taken to heart from her lived experience. She was hit hard, she lost everything, and she has come back with a vengeance. And I would love for people to take that away from the comic and understand that her ambition is fueled by so much rage. And she has a real knack for figuring out how to be a presence in all the right ways."

Speaking of this theme of coming back stronger, Vendetta has a voice line in Italian that embodies it. According to Stacey, the line that goes something like "colpiero due volte più forte" plays when Vendetta respawns inspired the comic as well as many of her other media appearances. Another voice line to note is "I am the empire," which Stacey came up with very early on. It was just powerful enough that it stuck around for people and inspired the comic's name, too.

As for what else Stacey is excited for players to experience soon, she hopes that they’ll enjoy the fantasy of being an unashamed, empowered gladiator and that Vendetta's voice lines will help convey that feeling in gameplay.

"Swinging around a giant sword -- not a lot gets better than that," she said. "I hope that people feel empowered and excited playing her in the same way that we felt creating her."

That's all for now. Vendetta's release date is Dec. 9 alongside Season 20. Stick around on esports.gg for more Overwatch 2 news, interviews, and updates!