Assassin's Creed (Les Deux Royaumes comics)

Assassin's Creed is a series of French comic books split into three tomes, focusing on Desmond Miles and his various ancestors. It is mostly based on the main games in the series, but adds certain new elements which aren't featured upon in the games, such as the Aquilus storyline, of which several contradict the original canon.

Tome 1: Desmond
The comic begins at a Psychiatric Hospital known as St. Erembert. Supervisors are rounding up patients at the end of the day, and notice somebody is missing; said person is shortly discovered dead. As a supervisor panics and calls for help, he is assaulted by a man who calls himself Subject 16. He then proceeds to climb over a wall and execute a Leap of Faith, and his fate is otherwise unknown until later into the comic.

The plot then moves onto an Assassin traveling to a town on horseback in what appears to be Roman times, introducing himself as "Aquilus, son of Lucius". He then proceeds to speak to the leader of the town about various matters, but is then stabbed in the shoulder and is knocked out.

The scene then moves to Desmond at Abstergo's labs, who was living the previous experience via the Animus as Warren Vidic and various Abstergo executives watch. Lucy then interrupts, insisting that Desmond should take a rest. The executives unwillingly oblige.

The executives then have a meeting inside the Conference Room, discussing things such as the Animus Project before moving onto discussing Subject 16; he is shown as a large, bald-headed man in medical-like garment upon the Animus. Things seem to be running smoothly, before he screams in terror and violently awakes from the Animus, ripping open his shirt and tracking his nails violently down his face. He assaults Lucy and Vidic, and it is apparently "10 Minutes before security arrived and sedated him.". In these 10 minutes, 16 is seen writing atomic structures of elements and other such drawings on the floors from the blood pouring down his face. He is sedated and strapped down to the bed in the adjoining room, however, for reasons unknown, he was found naked and bleeding on the floor in the morning, the Cryptic Messages seen in both games having been drawn on the walls and floor. It is mentioned he lived though, as seen at the beginning of the comic.

Desmond is then seen awaking in said room, seemingly a short period of time after his capture by Abstergo; he is awakened by Lucy inserting a syringe of some kind into his arm. After a brief introduction and conversation, Lucy suggests Desmond gets some sleep. While sleeping, Desmond dreams of his capture by Abstergo; Lucy is seen at the bar ("L' Horizon") Desmond worked at, and is seen flirting and making conversation with him. After hours, they head back to an apartment and proceed to have drinks. However, Lucy had slipped a sedative into Desmond's and he proceeds to pass out. Desmond then awakes, and demands answers from Lucy and Vidic, however Vidic sedates him and he falls back into slumber. He is then taken back to the Animus, in which he relives Altaïr's assassination of Tamir during Assassin's Creed, a brief encounter with Malik (however seemingly before the events at Solomon's Temple, they share a friendship) and the final encounter with Al Mualim. Vidic views a hologram of the World Map seen in the ending of Assassin's Creed, is pleased, and then leaves after having a brief confrontation with Lucy. Desmond awakes, and is stunned to discover blood messages written all over the floors and walls of both the lab and his room. (However these messages share no resemblence to those seen in-game.)

The events of the beginning of Assassin's Creed II then occur; Lucy finds Desmond, enters him into the Animus for a few short minutes and they make their escape via the Parking Lot. When they arrive at the seemingly identical warehouse however, they are confronted by an ally known as Tom, with no sight nor mention of Shaun or Rebecca. They discuss plans, before a man in a leather jacket arrives, greeting them and announcing his escape from St. Erembert; Subject 16. Lucy addresses him as Michael, they argue over whether it should be him or Desmond deserving to be put into the Animus based on their heritage, which Michael claims to be superior much to the denial of Lucy and Tom. He finally produces a Hidden Blade and moves to attack Desmond, before being knocked-out by Lucy; who tells Tom to find somewhere for Michael where he can neither harm others nor himself. The scene then shifts to Desmond in an Animus almost identical to Abstergo's, in a dark smoky lab, surrounded by Lucy and various scientists. He then enters Ezio's memories, and the comic ends.

Tome 2: Aquilus
On 21st October 2010, the official French Assassin's Creed YouTube channel uploaded a trailer for a second volume of the comic, which focuses on the comic's original character Aquilus. The second volume was released on 12th November 2010.

While trying to get to Monteriggioni in a truck, Desmond relived the life of one of his ancestors through the Animus, namely the life of Aquilus. A Roman Assassin in 259, Aquilus had traveled to a Roman camp site to visit a Roman General named Gracchus, who stabbed Aquilus after a quick conversation and lost consciousness. Now lying on the ground in a tent, a war starts with a miniature army of Romans against second army of Alamans, who won later on. Accipiter, An Alaman General and the cousin of the Assassin Aquilus rescued Aquilus from the destruction of the tent ,removing him from the broken tent, to the top of a Roman Tower to tend his wound. Afterwards both Accipiter and Aquilus mounted onto horses, but after a short distance ,close to a river they split up, Accipiter vowing to protect Lugdunum in troubled times with his army of Alamans. Before leaving, Accipiter gave Aquilus an artifact which he got from Aquilus’s father Lucius,which was a Piece of Eden, an Ankh that can revive the dead. Aquilus now going to his father’s house in Lugdunum, Lyon. After arriving, Lucius showed him to one of his old friends, Caius Fulvus Vultur who was a Roman senator, and a secret member of the Templar Order. After a quick conversation, Aquilus tries to find a man named Faustin in Lugdunum, whom he interrogated, about who his ally was, replying Vultur Caius Fulvus. Killing him and jumping out of a window, Aquilus ran to his father’s house to find that Vultur had killed Lucius and fatally wounded his servant Weke, who lost Vultur and the Ankh after a short chase.

In modern times, an ambush and a traitor in the truck caused disturbances for the Assassins, but were swiftly dealt with.

Tome 3: Accipiter
Alongside Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Ubisoft will release the third comic book titled Accipiter.

In the past, Aquilus, seeking revenge for the murder of his father, continues searching for the Ankh and his discoveries lead him to Rome. Meanwhile, his cousin Accipiter, also an Assassin, is leading the Alamans to strike at Lugdunum and Italy.

In the present Desmond gets new abilities through the Animus, while a new danger approaches him and Lucy.

Trivia

 * The comics are available in Canada and France, and have recently been translated into German and Dutch as of 2011.
 * While the first comic shares enough discrepencies with the games to suggest it is not canon to the series, the second comic, 'Aquilus' has been confirmed by Ubisoft to be part of the Assassin's Creed Universe, both in the Universe video and in the Encyclopedia.
 * A major contradiction of the first comic is that Subject 16 is alive. Official guidebooks for Assassin's Creed state that Abstergo's doctors "were too late to save him" after he cut a vein to produce the messages seen by Desmond through Eagle Vision and it has been explicitly stated by Alexandre Amancio that Subject 16 is physically dead. Lucy appears to react uncaring towards him and is irritated by his presence later in the first comic, which contradicts greatly to the visible guilt and grief she shows about him during the games.
 * The progression into Assassin's Creed II's main events via the Modern Times's Assassins and Animus greatly differ, some characters being entirely omitted as of the first comic.
 * The song used in the Aquillus trailer also was in the Brotherhood E3 trailer, a link for that song can be found here