Destiny is a series full of colorful characters, vicious villains, and dangerous aliens that want to kill you. While the foundation of this franchise is about completing missions and collecting loot, developer Bungie has taken a lot of time to flesh out the world. Traditionally Destiny 2’s lore has been told through the game itself, however, Bungie has decided to branch out in how they tell their stories. Enter Destiny 2’s new online comic book series, Fall of Osiris.
Revolving around the infamous Osiris, readers will discover why his relationship with the Vanguard devolved and was labeled a traitor. We spoke with Destiny 2’s narrative director Margaret Stohl about this new story and how it fits into the game.
Heavy: Why did Bungie decided to tell Osiris’ backstory in a comic book format?
Stohl: I think one of the unique things about Destiny is the depth of the universe and the really broad and deep details, character details, and world details. It’s sort of a world builder’s dream. Because I work in comics – I’ve also write monthly Captain Marvels for Marvel and I’ve written novels – I see it as fertile ground for future storytelling and a lot of different ways both in and outside what we’ve seen as traditional game channels. I don’t think it’s so much that we’ve just decided to tell Destiny stories in comics, but that we’re beginning to explore so many different ways we can tell Destiny stories.
Heavy: Should we expect future comics on Guardians and enemies we haven’t fully explored in the games?
Stohl: I’m so trained by Marvel I never know what I’m allowed to say. I can tell you there are more. Obviously this is the first installment and I think some canny readers have picked up on the issue being numbered 001. Issue one is generally the beginning in comics, so I think they can expect to see more of the series, for sure. Beyond that I don’t know what I’m able to say.
Heavy: Can you tell us how many issues are in the Fall of Osiris?
Stohl: I don’t know that I can, but I can tell you that we are continuing to work with Ryan North who is a pretty famous comics creator. He actually won two Eisners at the last San Diego Comic Con which is, for the comics world, a big deal. We have continued to surround ourselves with veteran comics talent to match the veteran game writing staff we have. So it’s been a really unique and interesting partnership. Turns out a lot of comics writers are big gamers and a lot of game creators read comics, so there was a lot of common ground there.
Heavy: Will the comic book story and the one in Destiny 2 ever intersect or are they designed to be seperate?
Stohl: You can see that they’re already telling stories from the expansion world. I do think you’ll see more and more of that as we go along.
Heavy: Is there a specific character in the Destiny lore that you would like to write a comic about?
Stohl: There are so many, I think everybody would be interested in Cayde-6’s take on things. He’s much more like a traditional comic book character in a lot of ways. He almost has Tony Stark level banter game. I think that would be fun. I also love that they gave some great lines to Sagira, Osiris’ Ghost in this (Fall of Osiris). I think the whole Ghost world could be explored more than it has been. But really, it’s just a great universe and I want to play in it.
I think there’s no end to the stories you could write in the Destiny universe. A lot of that I attribute to the very beginning. Going back to Jason Jones, I’ve seen so many amazing narrative documents that were some of the earliest materials that they built the game out of. So it’s cool to go back and look through everything that exists in the universe. It’s been a deep dive and really fun.
Heavy: When the Fall of Osiris series finishes will this be the last time we hear from Osiris in Destiny 2 or should we expect more from him?
Stohl: I am just going to say this because I don’t know what I’m allowed to say. I’m going to go ahead and tell you that Osiris has a continuing role and his prophecies. You will be seeing more of him.
