Official Apex legends comics under fire for tracing fan art

The official Apex Legends comics from Dark Horse Comics have come under from fans for apparently tracing fan art and putting it into the graphic novels without any credit. 

Ever since Apex Legends first launched back in February of 2019, the community has been awash with creative ideas, fan art, cosplays, and everything else you can think of.

The battle royale has also expanded way beyond the virtual world too, with action figures and comics being made to give some more lore to the deeply diverse cast of characters.

However, Dark Horse Comics – the company behind the official Apex Legends comics series – have come under fire for seemingly taking some of the best fan art around and simply tracing it into their work.

On October 3, Twitter user Nessepack highlighted a piece of Octane fan art from 2019 that bears a striking resemblance to the upcoming comic release – Apex Legends Overtime 3.

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“Dark Horse back at it again with tracing stock poses AND fanarts,” they tweeted, and wasn’t long before other fans joined in the pile on, pointing out that in other releases, Octane has looked more buff than his usual in-game look and there has apparently been Wraith and Pathfinder fan art used too.

“Dude they even just traced over Wattson. This is the comic we’re getting, and we have to PAY for it?!” said another fan. “They-are-tracing-fanart. The effort of someone else, the love for the franchise from someone else. I know this is not Respawn fault but… something has to be done!?” asked another.

Tom Casiello, a former writer at Respawn for Apex Legends, also weighed in with a seemingly dismayed response of his own.

“Sigh. It’s almost over,” he posted.

As of writing, neither Respawn nor Dark Horse has addressed the backlash and the next installment of the comic series is set to launch on October 6.

It remains to be seen if anything changes in the future.