Comic Book publisher Dark Horse has announced that they will be teaming up with video game developer Naughty Dog to release a four-issue prequel comic book series based on one of the most anticipated games of 2013, ‘The Last Of Us’.

‘The Last Of Us: American Dreams’ will be written by Neil Druckmann, with up and comer Faith Erin Hicks as co-writer and artist. The series will explore one of the main character’s backstory leading up to the events of the game. It is scheduled for a Spring 2013 release.

I’d be the conductor on this hype train if I could. Ever since ‘The Last Of Us’ was first teased back in the fall of 2011, I have been following the demo videos, in game screen shots and interviews. I’m calling it now, This WILL be the best game of 2013 (sorry, GTA fanboys).

I understand that pretty much every kind of media company is trying to squeeze out every last penny from an intellectual property whether they be games, movies or even a television series. But this whole prequel/spin off/tie in is on the verge of playing itself out.

Let’s take for instance…Mass Effect 3 and Kai Leng.

No where in Mass Effect 2 is he mentioned, hinted at or even kind of in there. But along comes Mass Effect 3 and second only to the Illusive Man in terms of Shepherds utter hatred of Cerebus, there’s this guy. The dialog implies that Shepherd really, REALLY hates him and we the audience have no effing clue why. Sure, he’s Cerebus and they are a bunch of evil jokers so that’s one reason to hate him. But Shepherds’ loathing of this guy is palatable. Unless you read mass Effect: Retribution and Mass Effect: Deception, both around 330-ish pages.

Games that force you to read extra novels/comics at additional cost, just to get the same exposition that SHOULD have been included in the game itself is bad business.

With all due respect to ‘The Last Of Us: American Dreams’, this could be a cool teaser and hopefully, it can enhance the experience of the game. However, I don’t know how much better the game experience can be at this point. Based on what I’ve seen, Naughty Dog has another franchise on their hands. The fifteen minute demo was more than impressive.

I highly doubt the game will cover the same ground as the comic will, but that doesn’t mean Ellie, the heroine, will be a complete mystery to the player. Her backstory isn’t all that important. Backstory usually isn’t for that matter. It’s just a way to flesh out interesting characters or worlds to make them even more so.

Maybe it is just that people have to be spoon fed the story and be told what happened. Maybe they know something I don’t. Maybe the mythos of ‘The Last Of Us’ is strong enough where they can expand the universe of the franchise already. Before the game has even been released.

However, I would hope they incorporate everything into ‘The Last Of Us’ itself. Give the prequel back story DL content its own game or why not just make the back stories playable as extra missions or explore these tales through a movie/cutscreens.

Lets hope that this is a clear way to build upon a story and not an just an obvious commercial.

-Dagobot