Overwatch Crossover Potential #4: Soldier 76 · 9:16pm Sep 26th, 2016
Oh man, I’ve been looking forward to this review. This guy, like Hanzo but more so, has so much great potential for a fanfic. A classic case of the fallen hero who now works on the other side of the law, this is someone who wants to bring back the light to the world and get revenge on those that brought him and the organization he once lead down. Get ready for the story behind this vigilante: Soldier 76.
Official The Actual Backstory:
…Ok, here’s a link to the “official” bio for Soldier 76, but it really does you no good other than to reveal the world’s perspective of this guy. To figure out this guy’s true bio, you have to do a bit of digging. Luckily for you, I’ve already done quite a bit of that for you.
Soldier 76′s story begins in rural Indiana with a farmer’s son who went by the name Jack Morrison. Described as salt-of-the-earth, rambunctious, and humble (all depending on who you spoke to), the only thing everyone around this kid agreed on was that he was meant for more than the farming life.
At age 18, Jack joined the military with the intention of serving only for a little bit before returning to the family farm. However, his “work ethic and courage” was noticed by his superiors, and he was inducted into the American “soldier enhancement program.” Think something along the lines of Captain America, and you might have the right idea. The details of the program are unclear, but what is known is the fact that it succeeded in granting its inductees “superhuman speed, strength, and agility.”
As the Omnic Crisis went on, the UN began to put together the experimental task force, Overwatch. Of all the potential candidates from America’s soldier enhancement program, the top two, who joined up, were Jack Morrison and his unlikely friend Gabriel Reyes.
Raised in Los Angeles, Gabriel was a hardened, seasoned veteran in the American military. How close he and Morrison were is unclear, but one would assume that they were pretty close.
Upon joining Overwatch, leadership fell to the superior and more experienced officer, Gabriel Reyes. Even though he lead the team, it was Morrison who acted as the heart of the team, bringing out the best in everyone, and helping to keep them all working together as a team.
So great was Morrison’s contribution, the UN decided to make him Overwatch’s first official strike team commander, the leader of Overwatch. In doing so, however, the UN completely overlooked Gabriel Reyes, causing a rift to open up between him and Jack Morrison.
Following the Omnic Crisis, Jack Morrison lead Overwatch to become a world-renown and respected peacekeeping force. 20 years following the end of the Omic Crisis, however, Overwatch fell apart. Rumors about Overwatch abusing its power, negligence in high-profile missions, corruption, abuse of human rights, and more such rumors began to crop up more and more until the UN launched secretive investigations to find out what the heck was going on.
As it turns out, there was some truth to the rumors, but it was coming from the Overwatch’s top secret division, Blackwatch, which was under the command of Gabriel Reyes. It was Blackwatch that was indeed committing all that the rumors were accusing Overwatch of doing.
Before the UN could properly shut the organization down, tragedy did it for them. Ever since Morrison was promoted to strike team commander, the tension between him and Reyes had been growing more and more. A quote from Mercy from the news article Fading Glory: On the Trail of Jack Morrison, puts it in a very clear perspective.
“The tension became more pronounced as time went on. I tried to mend things. We all did. Sometimes when the closest bonds break, all you can do is pray you stay out of the crossfire.“
It wasn’t enough. The tension grew to its boiling point, resulting in a fight between the two commanders that completely leveled the Overwatch headquarters in Switzerland.
With Overwatch officially disbanded, many (if not all) assumed Jack Morrison to be dead. How wrong they were.
Torn apart by the world’s betrayal towards him and all that he worked towards, Jack Morrison let himself die metaphorically, and was reborn as the masked vigilante, Soldier 76.
Armed with stolen Overwatch tech, he now works to bring down those who brought down Overwatch with relentlessness, near cold-bloodedness, and vigor. All anyone can say is may any divine being in the world have mercy on those who have the misfortune of being in Soldier 76′s path, for he certainly won’t.
Sources:
Fading Glory: On the Trail of Jack Morrison
Soldier 76 Origin Story
Overwatch is Back: Uncertainty and Hope after UN Confirms Vigilante Activity
Soldier 76′s voice lines, commentated by Hammeh
Hero, an official animated short
Abilities:
Heavy Pulse Rifle: A piece of Overwatch Tech that Morrison swiped after the Switzerland incident, this big boy packs a 25 ammo clip that can be unloaded between 10 and 20 rounds per second. Each round does about 10 damage per hit in-game with the chance for a critical hit depending on where you land the shot. This can kill an in-game Tracer with one clip if all the shots land on the head, but everyone else will require at least a second clip, which Jack can have loaded and firing in only a second.
To translate this into literary terms, though, can be a bit tricky. This is because the exact damage of the bullets depends on the size of the rounds. The bigger the rounds, the bigger the hole they’ll leave in their targets. Blizzard, the company who produces Overwatch, seems to pretty insistent on not showing blood or graphic warfare in this game, so we really can’t figure out the caliber size other than by examining the damage they’re implied to do in the official animated short: Hero. At the 3:36 mark, we see Morrison incapacitate, at the very least, three unarmored thugs wielding AK-47s (or at least some type of variant of it) with just three shots. The third guy was incapacitated by a shot in the shoulder.
This implies that the shot on the guy’s shoulder was big and powerful enough to remove him from the conflict. Also considering how big that impact blast is, I would think we’re looking at .50 Caliber pulse rounds. Just to give you an idea what a .50 Cal can do, here’s a .50 Calibur round against a watermelon:
Link to the YouTube video of it here.
Yeah, Soldier 76 has got some serious firepower in that rifle of his, and that’s not the only function it has.
Helix Rockets: Oh yeah, this beats out the noob tube attachment for Call of Duty by a long shot. Firing three pulse rockets rotating around an imaginary straight line to their target, this currently (July 22, 2016) deals 120 damage upon impact, and it also deals 80 splash damage to anyone within two meters of the initial impact.
In Hero, the 3:25 mark specifically, we see Soldier 76 blow up a truck with this ability. This implies the ability to destroy lightly armored vehicles, but its capability against anything heavily armored is up to the discretion of the author.
Sprint: While this one would be obvious for everyone, one does need to remember that Jack Morrison went through the American Soldier Enhancement Program, which increased “speed, strength, and agility” (emphasis added). This means that while everyone can indeed sprint, Jack Morrison can out-sprint everyone naturally, and run farther than them as well. He doesn’t have the same speed as DC Comic’s Flash, but in a fair sprint, he’ll outpace everyone but an Olympic runner.
Biotic Field: This ability is one that can make him useful in a bad situation. He’ll drop some piece of tech that will emit a healing field with a 5-meter radius that will last for five seconds while healing 40 health per second (equalling a possible 200 point heal at maximum. That’s 4/3 of a Tracer right there).
This means that this could potentially heal anyone who’s sustained serious injury, perhaps even life-threatening if the author was to choose so. However, with this in mind, this needs to be limited by Soldier 76 only haveing a small supply of these, and each on being either a one-time use only or having a very long cool-down (as opposed to the 15-second cooldown that’s present in-game).
Tactical Visor: It has been a bit tricky to figure this ability’s literary use. For in-game use, it’s essentially an aim-bot. No need to try to aim, the game will do it for you. Guaranteed damage right here!
Its literary function was mostly up to speculation, even with its demonstrated use in Hero. However, With the release of the 8th Overwatch digital comic Old Soldiers, we finally get a canon literary use for the visor. On page 5, after defeating the only soldier standing guard, Jack Morrison uses the tactical visor to find where someone he knows is present is hiding. This reveals that the visor’s primary purpose isn’t some aimbot, but rather a tool used to highlight enemy locations. The precision aiming we see in-game is simply Jack Morrison taking over.
Leadership: Remember, Jack Morrison was the commander of Overwatch. He knows how to lead both on the battlefield and off of it, and has done so for about 20 years. He is very unlikely to be flustered by whatever the battle can throw at him, and even if he does, he’ll recover quickly. He’ll do what needs to be done, and use whatever tools and soldiers he has available to get the job done.
He also knows how to inspire those under him. It was the very reason he was chosen to lead Overwatch officially instead of Reyes.
Source:
Specific data from Overwatch Infinity
Hero, an official animated short
Old Soldiers, Overwatch Comic #8
50 Cal vs Watermelons Super Slow Motion
Important Character Notes:
Soldier 76 is what I’ll be calling a mystery character since there won’t be a lot known about him. We can get glimpses, and such from the comics, animated shorts featuring him, and from his in-game voice lines, but there will still be a lot left to the imagination. Still, there is enough about him released that we can start doing some work with him.
Soldier 76′s personality is a far cry from Jack Morrison’s. The brutality seen from him in Hero is not what one would expect from the war hero that many saw him as prior to Overwatch’s shutdown. He also clearly separates himself from Jack Morrison, no longer seeing himself as a hero for the world, as can be seen in Hero when he responds to Alejandra asking if he was one of the heroes of Overwatch with “not anymore.”
However, much of the old Morrison is still somewhere in there, as can be seen in Hero when he chooses to let the gang members get away in favor of saving Alejandra from the grenade thrown at her. He is not the same Jack Morrison as before, but when the chips are on the table, the beliefs of old will be found. After all, “Old habits die hard.”
A story involving him should have him trying to hunt down crime/evil (make it dominant crime that few have the power to stand up to, whether it be a gang, crime family, or an overpowering nation), and having to be faced with moral choices to get the job done. The choices should essentially be between being a hero, or completing the objective, and then living with the consequences of his choices. How to implement that, if this really is the right way to accomplish this, is up to the author.
Notable Character Interaction Possibilities:
Soldier 76 has close interactions with Ana, Reinhardt, Torbjörn, and Gabriel Reyes (who will be revealed in another post) due to having worked with them during the Overwatch’s operation. Understanding or thoroughly theorizing their relationships will be key to displaying successful interactions between them all.
As for possible interactions with characters from the MLP universe, the most obvious one would be Applejack due to having grown up in a farming community. His work ethic that got him noticed for the American Soldier Enhancement program would also be a plus for their relationship.
Otherwise, there really aren’t a lot of characters that would naturally interact well with him.
Final Notes and Conclusion:
That is Soldier 76: a fallen hero seeking to once again protect the world and bring down crime in any way necessary. I hope that this post has been helpful to you.
The next post will be a bit different. The next character I will be going over is completely shrouded in mystery, even for those who have done their research on him. Here’s a little bit to blow your mind: Gabriel Reyes is the next character: Reaper.
In the meantime, you can also check out my prior Overwatch post in which I detailed Genji Shimada.
Thank you for reading to the end. I'm Little Voice, and if there’s something that you think I got wrong or something important that I missed, please let me know in the comments section below. If you liked this and look forward to more, then please follow me here on fimfiction.net and on my Tumblr blog. If you do reply with something that I might need to change, please include your reasoning and (if you can) source material so that I can update this post to be accurate as possible. I will also give you credit if help to correct my post, so don’t worry about me plagiarizing you.
