All the way back in 2011, as the gaming company Valve was gearing up to release the highly anticipated Portal 2, a promotional tie-in comic titled Portal 2: Lab Rat was released, and it is truly a must-read for any fan of the beloved Portal series.
Portal was originally released in 2007 as part of a bundle of Valve games titled The Orange Box, but the darkly creative puzzle game quickly became the most popular in the bundle, leading to it being released separately and gaining universal critical acclaim. After the intense popularity of Portal the much longer Portal 2 was released, deepening the fascinating lore of the Aperture Science company, the power-mad rogue AI called GLaDOS, and the human Chell who was featured as the heroine of both games.
In Portal the player - operating as the recently awoken Chell after some time spent in stasis - must solve an increasingly difficult set of puzzles by using a "Portal gun" that allows the user to travel between two portals instantaneously, all the while fighting against the corrupt GLaDOS. While the final showdown between Chell and GLaDOS seemingly ends in the final destruction of the malicious AI, the final scene of Portal shows an unconscious Chell being dragged from her freedom on the surface back into the depths of the "Aperture Science Enrichment Center." Released in two-parts two weeks before the debut of Portal 2, Portal 2: Lab Rat revealed the hidden story of "The Rat Man" - a schizophrenic former Aperture employee who survived GLaDOS' original neurotoxin event that killed the rest of the Aperture staff. Rat Man was responsible for the many pieces of frantic writing, clues, and art on the walls of the facility seen throughout both games. Lab Rat - written by science fiction author Ted Kosmatka in collaboration with the Portal 2 writers and with art by Michael Avon Oeming (Cave Carson, Powers, Left 4 Dead) and Valve's in-house artist Andrea Wicklund - unveiled the behind-the-scenes events that led to both Portal and Portal 2.
The Rat Man's History Reveals Chell's True Strength
In Lab Rat Doug Rattermann is an Aperture Science employee working on the GLaDOS system, and is a paranoid man diagnosed with schizophrenia who takes daily medication, however after GLaDOS kills everyone else and forces Doug to go into hiding he is unable to get my anti-psychotics, causing him to fall into a deeply psychotic state, befriending a "talking" Companion Cube and becoming "The Rat Man." Rattermann is determined to take down GLaDOS - who he helped to design - and is able to find the file room of Aperture Science, where he discovers that Chell is the test subject most likely to be able to defeat the rogue AI. Seeing a report that Chell's "tenacity levels" are off the charts - meaning she is an unfit test subject because she never quits - Doug realizes that her inability to give up is what he needs in a fighter against GLaDOS, so managed to move her up to the top of the testing queue, explaining why Chell was prioritized by GLaDOS as a test subject in Portal. After the dramatic events of Portal Doug manages to escape but sees Chell being dragged back into the Enrichment Center, so bravely re-enters to attempt to reattach life support to Chell's room so that she does not die while in stasis. Rattermann successfully does this, leading to the events of Portal 2, but not before he is shot and wounded by one of Aperture's turrets, putting himself into a stasis chamber, where is fate is still yet unknown.
While anyone can enjoyably play Portal and Portal 2 without reading Portal 2: Lab Rat, the comic truly does enhance the playing experience of both Valve games, making the plot even more meaningful, tragic, and deeply moving.
Source: Think With Portals