Team Fortress 2 (aka TF2) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game with a simple story: two feuding brothers hire mercenaries to protect and/or destroy their rival company's assets. But that didn’t stop the creators from expanding their fictional universe with additional characters, weapons, and backstories – which they explored in a TF2 comic book series that let their characters enjoy their gratuitous violence within an entirely new medium.
In truth, the comics are pretty confusing to anyone who isn’t already well-versed in the characters and storyline of the game – although the characters’ cartoonishly snarky personalities do guarantee several laughs. One TF2 comic that is relatively easy to understand, however, is TF2’s original one-page comic “The Insult That Made A ‘Jarate Master’ Out 0f Sniper” which brings back a classic comic book bodybuilding advertisement – with some scatological twists.
Originally, the comics were intended to explore the weird world of the TF2 mercenaries, including some that spotlighted the oddball weapons in the game. One of these weapons was “Jarate,” an unlockable secondary weapon for the Sniper character which was basically a mason jar filled with urine that the Sniper threw at people to blind them and short out their cloaking devices (genius). The comics highlighted this weapon by mashing it with the classic “Charles Atlas Fitness Program” advertisement from old 1960s comic books.
In the original comic book advertisement, a beach bully kicks sand at a skinny teenager, prompting the teen to order the Charles Atlas Fitness Program and transform into a muscle man within the span of one panel. After punching the bully in the face, the former wimp is proclaimed a "real man" by his girlfriend and crowned “Hero of the Beach” by everyone around him - prompting comic book readers to send their hard-earned cash to Atlas and become “real men.” (Actually, the “program” was basically just a series of pamphlets on bodybuilding that required no weightlifting).
TF2 comic parodies the famous ad by showing TF2's gun-toting Sniper getting gravel kicked in his face by a rival mercenary character. Frustrated, Sniper orders “Saxton Hale Jarate Pills” from a magazine that triple the size of his kidneys, as well as “Saxton Hale Pain Tonic” that numbs him to the pain as his organs shut down. Now able to excrete tremendous amounts of urine, Sniper fills several mason jars full of his excess fluid and throws his “Jarate” weapon at the horrified mercenary, winning the day.
The mock ad ends with a note from NPC “macho man” character Saxton Hale promising readers that “Jarate” will make their enemies lose the will to live once they realize “dignity does not exist.” It’s a weird way to spotlight TF2’s “Jarate” weapon (also known as “JAR-Based Karate,” but at least it re-introduces readers to a classic comic book ad. Sort of. While also proving Team Fortress 2 is on its very own level when it comes to comedy and Easter eggs.