Recent from talks
Mass Effect: Foundation
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Mass Effect: Foundation
Mass Effect: Foundation is a Canadian science fiction comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics featuring several secondary characters from the original Mass Effect trilogy. The fifth Mass Effect comic series to be produced, Foundation is a tie-in to 2013's Mass Effect 3: Citadel downloadable content, the story of Foundation explores the characters' backstories prior to their meeting with Commander Shepard. Much of its narrative is framed as reconnaissance by the antagonist of Citadel, Maya Brooks, as the point-of-view character, with the first issue exploring her childhood and origin story.
The series lasted 13 issues, from July 2013 to July 2014. Most issues function as standalone stories for each featured character, and some issues have direct ties to specific events in the games. Foundation was mostly written by Mass Effect series lead writer Mac Walters, with Jeremy Barlow joining as co-writer from Issues #11 to #13, and artwork was provided by Tony Parker, Omar Francia, Drew Geraci, Matthew Clark and Garry Brown for various issues.
As the first ongoing comic series in the Mass Effect franchise, Foundation was considered to be the most ambitious Mass Effect comic book series project at the time, with writer Walters committing to explore stories hinted at in the games while advancing a new narrative. The series has been received positively by critics, who praised the writing, artwork, and how it serves as a tie-in to various historical points in the Mass Effect trilogy.
The first issue of Foundation details a desperate child in the violent mining colony of Themis. By the end of the issue she turns on a covert ops agent she had encountered earlier and assumes control of her resources. Going by "Rasa" as an adult, she is interviewed by the Illusive Man for her expression of interest to join Cerberus, the anthropocentric paramilitary organization Cerberus he leads. The remainder of the series sees Rasa compiling and reviewing dossiers on a number of notable individuals for Cerberus while delving into their backstories. These characters eventually become Commander Shepard's companions in Mass Effect 2 and participate in the suicide mission against the Collectors. Other major characters who make recurring appearances in the series include Miranda Lawson and Kai Leng as Rasa's Cerberus colleagues.
In Issue #13 and the series finale, Rasa severs ties with Cerberus and sets her act of betrayal in motion. She steals a tank containing a dormant clone of Shepard, created as a contingency to potentially provide spare organs and limbs for the real Shepard, and escapes Lazarus Research Station after executing a station-wide sabotage of Cerberus mechs. Rasa would eventually remerge in the Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3, and assume the alias of Maya Brooks.
"When we started talking about what we could do in the future, we said, "Well, obviously, something that's character-based could work." Rather than going into an area where we tell brand-new stories in a universe that people know already, maybe we could find ways of fleshing out some of the stories that we've heard hints of already. At a high level, that's where we thought about going with "Foundations" and that's where we went with it."
Foundation is the first ongoing comics series set in the Mass Effect series and is the first series to be scripted by Walters on his own; Walters had worked on some of the franchise's mini-series prior to Foundation, and was responsible for reviewing other writers' contributions to the script. Walters noted that he was able to fully commit to a longer series with the release of Mass Effect 3 in March 2012 and conclusion of the production schedule for its downloadable content by early 2013. Walters said that the development of Foundation's main character is different from other prominent female characters in the series, as the concept for this character came about through the comic first, and that her story and background could be developed without being filtered through the perception of a player character like Shepard.
Foundation features a story that runs parallel to the game trilogy and is designed to expand the universe as a whole. Previous Mass Effect comics have focused on the supporting cast of the series and sets its story from the main events of the trilogy. Walters explained that Foundation continued with this creative direction due to the difficulty of representing a canonical Shepard without invalidating players' choices in the games, and that it is impossible to explore the backstory of a younger Shepard as Shepard's gender, class, first name and facial appearance are varied and customised by players. Walters explained that certain fan favorite characters are featured in the series, and that the series was conceived to flesh out some of the existing backstories of the featured characters, or expand upon story points which were only hinted at or alluded to in the games. The story does so by making connections between the characters' backstories to the villain of Mass Effect 3: Citadel as part of its narrative. For example, Issue #5 which follows Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor is a direct tie in to Mass Effect 2.
Hub AI
Mass Effect: Foundation AI simulator
(@Mass Effect: Foundation_simulator)
Mass Effect: Foundation
Mass Effect: Foundation is a Canadian science fiction comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics featuring several secondary characters from the original Mass Effect trilogy. The fifth Mass Effect comic series to be produced, Foundation is a tie-in to 2013's Mass Effect 3: Citadel downloadable content, the story of Foundation explores the characters' backstories prior to their meeting with Commander Shepard. Much of its narrative is framed as reconnaissance by the antagonist of Citadel, Maya Brooks, as the point-of-view character, with the first issue exploring her childhood and origin story.
The series lasted 13 issues, from July 2013 to July 2014. Most issues function as standalone stories for each featured character, and some issues have direct ties to specific events in the games. Foundation was mostly written by Mass Effect series lead writer Mac Walters, with Jeremy Barlow joining as co-writer from Issues #11 to #13, and artwork was provided by Tony Parker, Omar Francia, Drew Geraci, Matthew Clark and Garry Brown for various issues.
As the first ongoing comic series in the Mass Effect franchise, Foundation was considered to be the most ambitious Mass Effect comic book series project at the time, with writer Walters committing to explore stories hinted at in the games while advancing a new narrative. The series has been received positively by critics, who praised the writing, artwork, and how it serves as a tie-in to various historical points in the Mass Effect trilogy.
The first issue of Foundation details a desperate child in the violent mining colony of Themis. By the end of the issue she turns on a covert ops agent she had encountered earlier and assumes control of her resources. Going by "Rasa" as an adult, she is interviewed by the Illusive Man for her expression of interest to join Cerberus, the anthropocentric paramilitary organization Cerberus he leads. The remainder of the series sees Rasa compiling and reviewing dossiers on a number of notable individuals for Cerberus while delving into their backstories. These characters eventually become Commander Shepard's companions in Mass Effect 2 and participate in the suicide mission against the Collectors. Other major characters who make recurring appearances in the series include Miranda Lawson and Kai Leng as Rasa's Cerberus colleagues.
In Issue #13 and the series finale, Rasa severs ties with Cerberus and sets her act of betrayal in motion. She steals a tank containing a dormant clone of Shepard, created as a contingency to potentially provide spare organs and limbs for the real Shepard, and escapes Lazarus Research Station after executing a station-wide sabotage of Cerberus mechs. Rasa would eventually remerge in the Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3, and assume the alias of Maya Brooks.
"When we started talking about what we could do in the future, we said, "Well, obviously, something that's character-based could work." Rather than going into an area where we tell brand-new stories in a universe that people know already, maybe we could find ways of fleshing out some of the stories that we've heard hints of already. At a high level, that's where we thought about going with "Foundations" and that's where we went with it."
Foundation is the first ongoing comics series set in the Mass Effect series and is the first series to be scripted by Walters on his own; Walters had worked on some of the franchise's mini-series prior to Foundation, and was responsible for reviewing other writers' contributions to the script. Walters noted that he was able to fully commit to a longer series with the release of Mass Effect 3 in March 2012 and conclusion of the production schedule for its downloadable content by early 2013. Walters said that the development of Foundation's main character is different from other prominent female characters in the series, as the concept for this character came about through the comic first, and that her story and background could be developed without being filtered through the perception of a player character like Shepard.
Foundation features a story that runs parallel to the game trilogy and is designed to expand the universe as a whole. Previous Mass Effect comics have focused on the supporting cast of the series and sets its story from the main events of the trilogy. Walters explained that Foundation continued with this creative direction due to the difficulty of representing a canonical Shepard without invalidating players' choices in the games, and that it is impossible to explore the backstory of a younger Shepard as Shepard's gender, class, first name and facial appearance are varied and customised by players. Walters explained that certain fan favorite characters are featured in the series, and that the series was conceived to flesh out some of the existing backstories of the featured characters, or expand upon story points which were only hinted at or alluded to in the games. The story does so by making connections between the characters' backstories to the villain of Mass Effect 3: Citadel as part of its narrative. For example, Issue #5 which follows Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor is a direct tie in to Mass Effect 2.