Assassin's Creed: Visionaries 2

Assassin's Creed: Visionaries 2 is the second issue of Studio Lounak's comic book series Assassin's Creed: Visionaries, a collection of non-canon works set in the Assassin's Creed universe. The comic, written by Bray Dornback and Charles Austen, was released on 20 March 2024.
==Publisher's summary==
In our first tale "SHINOBI," writer BRAY DORNBACK and artist RYAN BENJAMIN bring us to the Shogunate age of Feudal Japan. The target is a rival clan member and the kill has to be perfect. Failure means certain death and instant dishonor. A true Shinobi must protect his clan, even at the cost of his own life, pride, and honor. If his actions reveal his clan's involvement, Hamato's life will be forfeited to keep the peace...Then in "UNCIVIL WAR," writer CHUCK AUSTEN and artist PATRICK OLLIFFE take us to the American Civil War, where a newly liberated slave, William Jones, uncovers a plot to assassinate leaders of the , including the President. Best course of action would be to assassinate the would-be assassins, but a freed slave killing a white man is treacherous business... even when it's meant to protect the fate of a fractured nation. 
==Plot summary==
===Shinobi===
;Feudal Era Japan
A masked shinobi leaps across rooftops of a town at night, making his way towards the local warlord while avoiding his guards' patrols. A rumor that the warlord is looking to covertly move a powerful artifact prompted the assassin to find his way into the warlord's private room, where he found his target writing at his desk as his son comes in to say good night. He waits until the child leaves before stabbing his target with his Hidden Blade and leaping back onto the rafters. The son and the mother return to the room immediately after and find the warlord's corpse as the assassin flees through a window.
As the shinobi attempts to escape, he dispatches the guards on his way before the alarm sounds. Taking to the rooptops once again, he finds himself being followed by a and a fight ensues, with the shinobi emerging the victor. As he reaches relative safety, he thinks back to the target's son, certain that his actions will be how "the cycle of war continues".
===Uncivil War===
;The White House, Washington DC, USA, 11 April 1865
A few days after the end of the Civil War, former slave William Jones attends President Abraham Lincoln's speech at the White House lawn. Though Jones had been paid by a man to attend, being brought to the White House for the third day in a row, he still did not understand his employer's reasons. Lincoln outlines the future changes of the country, allowing people of all skin colors the right to citizenry, enraging one of the men in the crowd. That man, John Wilkes Booth, loudly proclaims that he will for this act before his companion quiets him, though not before catching the attention of both Jones and his employer.
Jones decided to go to the best man suited to advise him, General Ulysses S. Grant, meeting him in his carriage. Jones tells Grant of his investigations, relating that the group he followed was intent on kidnapping and ransoming Lincoln and possibly Grant himself too. Grant notes that Lincoln is notoriously unprotected and the best course of action would be to assassinate the assassins before they could act. The pair arrive at a workshop, where Grant gives Jones a disguise and Jones builds himself a Hidden Blade from the parts available.
Later, William Jones follows his target from the to where the conspirators are meeting. Jones, hanging from the rooftop, listens in to their planning on kidnapping the President and the General devolve into planning their assassinations at . He is suddenly pulled up to the roof by a Templar guard and a fight ensues, with Jones winning by drop-kicking his enemy over the roof's edge. Returning to the window, he finds that the conspirators had already left.
Jones rushes to Grant, finding him and his wife in their carriage on route to the theater. Grant urges him to return and protect Lincoln, which William does, running his horse as fast as possible. In the city, crowds of people celebrating the war's end force him to continue on foot.
As he nears Ford's Theater, Jones finds himself in a white void, his only company a strange man. The man, his future descendant, explains that Jones is in the Animus and requests that he allow Lincoln to be assassinated, as only when Ulysses Grant is president will the slaves be emancipated. Jones refuses to let a good man die and is restrained by the apparition for a moment. As the void gives way to the streets and his descendant vanishes, his employer tells Jones to hurry. He bursts into the theater, but hears gunshots while running up the stairs, arriving at the balcony's closed doors just in time to hear Mary Todd Lincoln cry out that her husband had been killed.
Jones returns to Grant's residence, where Grant tells him that he did everything that he could have done, but Jones still feels guilty for failing to save Lincoln. Some time later, Grant becomes president and Jones lays down his weapons.
===Project Altair===
For the past two years, giant creatures have appeared at random to cause destruction, razing everything in sight and vanishing as quickly as they appeared with apparently no rhyme or reason for it. Humanity has finally developed a possible way to counter these monsters: giant robots.
Atop a building, Minerva watches another monster attack. She removes her cloak and performs a Leap of Faith down into her giant robot, Altaïr-01. Her support team confirm that all systems are ready and, from the command chair, Minerva activates her plasma Hidden Blade and, with it, the machine. Minerva then maneuvers the robot towards the creature and engages it in combat, having Altaïr-01 strike it with its own Hidden Blade.
==Cover gallery==
AC Visionaries 2 Cover B.jpg|Variant cover by Patrick Olliffe
AC Visionaries 2 Cover C.jpg|Variant cover by Moy R. Marco
AC Visionaries 2 Cover D.jpg|Variant cover by Patrick Boutin-Gagné
AC_Visionaries_2_Cover_E.jpg|Incentive variant cover by Patrick Boutin-Gagné
==References==
Category:Assassin's Creed: Visionaries
fr:Assassin's Creed Visionaries: Tome 2