Captain Laserhawk is a BAD@$$ crossover we needed, but never realized
This six-part animated series, from the mind of Adi Shankar, delivers fanservice to Ubisoft fans while weaving an incredible original story.
Netflix started streaming Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix a few days ago on October 19th and I was delighted with the show. It had left me wanting more and there are hints of an upcoming second season but we’ll probably have to wait because of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike as it’s still dealing with the AMPTP.
It’s the crossover we NEVER knew that we needed.
I originally thought this would be a story set in the Blood Dragon timeline which was introduced as DLC to Far Cry 3. I was wrong and found it to be the most unexpected crossover of Ubisoft’s various intellectual properties (IP). The story takes place in a dystopian futuristic cyber-punk version of 1992 in which the United States ceased to exist and is known as Eden.
Eden is filled with human, hybrids (half-human and half-animal), and alien citizens. Hybrids and aliens are often discriminated against by their human counterparts which is an important subplot for the story.
It’s like mash-up of The Hunger Games, The Suicide Squad, Cyberpunk, and Gintama.
The story begins with Captain Dolph Laserhawk, the titular protagonist, and his partner, Alex Taylor (based on the same Alex Taylor from The Crew), as they commit a heist to steal large sum of untraceable Eden credits. S — t hits the fan when Taylor betrays Laserhawk in which the latter is captured and taken to the Supermaxx prison. Laserhawk and a ragtag band of misfits, who are fellow prisoners, are conscripted into a secret anti-Eden taskforce called the “Ghosts” headed by its warden Sarah Fisher.
It’s automatically Ubisoft’s version of DC’s Suicide Squad with a twist of cyberpunk.
Like members of the Suicide Squad, Dolph and his teammates have bombs implanted in their heads.
If you disobey an order, your head goes boom!
Dolph and his fellow Ghosts partake in a bunch of missions to deal real damage to Eden while crossing paths with Alex, his former partner and former lover, again. I enjoyed the story on its own but I also enjoyed all of the references to Ubisoft’s many IPs.
SPOILERS AHEAD, DON’T READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU WATCHED THE SHOW!!!
Professional wrestlers Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega make one-time cameo appearances in the series which shows that Ubisoft has paid close attention to how connected both of them are to the video game community. If one didn’t know, Kenny Omega and Xavier Woods are very active in the fighting game community (FGC) where they often play against each other in front of large crowds.
Rayman, the titular protagonist of Rayman, plays a huge role as an alien who immigrated from Dimension X. This version of Rayman becomes a right-wing media pundit but ultimately loses his cool when interviewing someone with an anti-immigrant stance. This version of Rayman was made for the people who grew up with him and are now adults. On top of that, this version of Rayman is less heroic than his original video game counterpart.
I laughed a lot when I saw Rayman snorting cocaine in his penthouse suite.
Sarah Fisher, the commander of the Ghosts and Supermaxx’s warden, is the same Sarah Fisher who is the daughter of Sam Fisher the main character of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell franchise. The “Ghosts” are an obvious reference to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon which is also an IP belonging to Ubisoft. I was also drawn further to the guest appearance of Sam Fisher, himself, whose work as the titular “Splinter Cell” led him to lose both of his legs.
I was further impressed that having no legs did NOT stop Fisher from getting the job done.
The story also has a direct reference to Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs, which both franchises exist in the same story universe for those who didn’t know (there’s an optional mission in Watch Dogs that connects the two, through Bullfrog and Marcus Holloway.
Bullfrog, a frog & human hybrid and one of Laserhawk’s teammates, is the last living member of the Assassin’s Brotherhood.
Marcus Holloway, though aged, is the same Marcus Holloway from Watch Dogs 2, and is the leader of Deadsec which is an anti-Eden resistance group.
I was shocked yet not surprised when Eden was revealed to be the current incarnation of the Knight’s Templar, the main antagonistic group in Assassin’s Creed because it did once operate as Abstergo Industries. I found it funny as f — k to see the Templars easily wiped out by a gun-wielding Rayman who’s royally pissed off and out for revenge.
It’s fitting that the Templars are in charge of this dystopian Hell.
An @$$hol3 incarnation of the Power Rangers called the “Niji 6,” based on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six franchise, was a nice touch. I’m assuming that Niji Red is a douchebag version of Domingo “Dingo” Chavez who is known as the leader of the titular Rainbow Six.
Pagan Min, the main antagonist of Far Cry 4, makes a villainous cameo as a local crime lord.
Captain Laserhawk does a great job telling an original story while loading it with references to Ubisoft’s other IPs.
The dynamic between the characters is surprisingly progressive. Laserhawk wasn’t the stereotypical white male protagonist who shacks up with the major leading lady, he was portrayed as a gay man from the very beginning. That dynamic was spiced up more with the past romantic and sexual relationship that was shared with Alex.
In short, Laserhawk was betrayed by his gay lover. I also loved that Laserhawk and Sarah did not get romantic with each other either. Laserhawk isn’t white either, as he’s voiced and portrayed by Indo-British actor Nathaniel Curtis (who identifies as queer), he’s a person of color. Normally, a gay male protagonist would be portrayed as a white guy. The series effectively shattered that stereotype.
The success of Captain Laserhawk is yet another impressive thing that Adi Shankar can add to his resume. Shankar obviously knows the story material and it translated into his previous works Castlevania and Castlevania: Nocturne. I am left (impatiently) waiting for a possible second season of the show because it’s so f — king good… It does have me looking forward to the upcoming Netflix animated adaptation of Devil May Cry, which Shankar signed on as showrunner and executive producer, that is based on the same action horror franchise of the same name.
It also shows how successful a show or film can be when the original game companies are closely involved. This is one of many examples of why the Netflix adaptation of One Piece and the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us were successful while all live-action adaptations of Resident Evil miserably failed.
