The revelation that Deadlock was founded by four teenagers seems like it’s a massive change on the scale of changing the course of a river—and it is a big one, trust me, I’ve written so much about the concept of Deadlock working off a very different organizational structure—but, in the end, when I think about how this affects the trajectory of what was established about McCree, it feels so… minor to me. Any discussion about the 1976 date aside, when talking about whether or not this is implausible in the lore or is a radical departure from what was established about McCree, this change in a way feels like it’s changed little in how I understood and approached him and the universe as a whole.
I end up asking: what has it actually changed about what has been definitively and unambiguously established about McCree, his abilities, the trajectory of his character, and his thematic arc? In what massively significant way has this actually contradicted McCree’s character as presented in his biography and in his subsequent appearances? In the end, I find the answer to be: not much.
What we knew concretely about McCree before Ashe’s reveal was that a) he was in a gang that was troublesome to the United States military b) to the point that Overwatch had to get involved and c) upon his arrest, Gabriel “Military Genius” Reyes offered him an invitation to Blackwatch / Overwatch, d) such an invitation generally indicating if not genius then truly exceptional talent, as an alternative to maximum security lockup because e) Reyes found great promise in his potential and was impressed by not only his marksmanship but also by his resourcefulness. It’s been previously well established that McCree is of exceptional talent that was apparent when he was seventeen.
These things remain exactly the same, and are even reinforced, with this revelation that he was one of the founding members of Deadlock. He ends up in the same exact spot, and his characterization as a talented, resourceful, hyper-competent, teenaged agent remains unchanged. Hell, it seems now he has even more strong reason to have ended up where he did: accepting an invitation to join a top-caliber organization.
“But what could Deadlock possibly have been doing to force Overwatch to concern itself with kids?” I don’t see why the leaders being teenagers changes what they did. They ran guns and sold military grade hardware. All they would have to do is hit the United States military enough times to steal their stuff for resale and make enough clean getaways to prove that the military is incapable of dealing with them. How many thefts would that take? How often can you hit military targets when you’ve got skill and ambition? If you hit one military convoy per month and get away clean, how long would it take before the becomes clear that the military cannot handle you? Would it really take a few, several years? It doesn’t seem like that would take very long. But, once it becomes apparent that the United States military can’t deal with thieves who are putting all sorts of dangerous things on the market, then you call in bigger guns—like Overwatch. If they’re too much for the military to handle, how much does it matter how old they are?
“But it’s ridiculous to believe teenagers could’ve done that!” This is a universe where, to name a few, Hana Song is a MEKA pilot at 19, Angela was working on her tissue regeneration research at 14, Sombra was hacking local police systems as a child and drew the attention of the global conspiracy as an older “girl”, Efi built Orisa at 11. Again, McCree himself was offered a place in a premiere espionage organization at 17. Given how exceptional just McCree is, given how Ashe is apparently a strongly competent leader given Deadlock’s current operations and the coalition she formed, and assuming that the other two founders kept pace with them, it’s very plausible and isn’t abnormal for the lore.
I do admit that it is a big revelation, and that it is stating that McCree (and Ashe and the others) perform a big feat. But, given how McCree alone has been characterized and how the lore is filled to the brim with child prodigies, it feels to me like it falls easily in stride.
Teenaged doesn’t mean incompetent and unskilled. Not in the real world and especially not in this lore.
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