Assassin's Creed 3 (issue)

Assassin's Creed 3 is the third issue of the Titan comic book series Assassin's Creed. The comic, written by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery with art by Ivan Nunes and Neil Edwards, was released on 9 December 2015.

Publisher's summary

Desperate to escape from the horrors of Salem, Tom must place his trust in the hands of a stranger, and go against every instinct he has as an Assassin, and man, to save the terrified travelers relying on him. For Charlotte, time's running out as the Templar threat moves closer...

Plot summary

2015: Galina and Xavier continue to argue over how to utilize Charlotte. It is revealed by Kody, the team technician, that Joseph is being held by Didier Hawking, a high level Templar with a specialization in memory hacking. It is feared that Joseph will reveal their location. As such, the team decides to load the Animus into a van to allow Charlotte to keep searching during their relocation.

1692: Tom manages to fight off the angry mob, whilst Jennifer finds a hidden passageway to escape the dungeon. They are chased into the surrounding woodland, where Jennifer is shot whilst trying to carry David. Tom chooses to escape with Dorothy, putting the mission first.

Once clear of pursuers, Dorothy falls into a trance and declares that she is Consus—a First Civilization entity—whom is inhabiting the body. Consus leaves a message for Charlotte to seek out "The Ones with great knowledge." Jennifer eventually catches up with Tom, as Templars follow shortly behind her. Tom and Jennifer are captured.

Supplementary material

Salem

Life in the Massachusetts bay colony was hard, and life as a Puritan was even harder...

In 1692, a mysterious form of hysteria overtook the inhabitants of several sleepy Massachusetts towns. The circumstances that hysteria was borne out of go a little way to explaining how so many people lost their lives, and they are far from simple...

In the years leading up to 1692, Salem Town and the surrounding villages had been In a state of near constant turmoil. Despite being issued a charter in 1629, after the establishment of the colony, that would allow them to practice their Puritan beliefs, the people of Salem were subject to numerous changes In government. These were influenced in large part by the shifting politics and civil war taking place in Britain, which had a significant impact on migration to the colonies.

The increasingly insular members of the Massachusetts colony were well-suited to self-governance, however, and elected their own leaders who supported and reflected their religious beliefs. It was a controlling environment. Puritanism was an extreme form of Protestantism, with origins in Calvinism, that believed wholeheartedly in original sin. However, where Calvinists believed they could seek salvation through good deeds, and therefore absolve themselves of sin, Puritans instead believed they were the chosen people of God, and were therefore required to live by the teachings of the scriptures and set an example for the heathen ways of the Anglican and Cathollic churches. Church attendance was absolutely mandatory, and Puritan life revolved around the meetinghouse, with villagers and townspeople required to attend services lasting two to three hours every Wednesday and Sunday. This atmosphere of fear and control was fed by the Puritan belief in the Devil, and in witchcraft. It was an accepted fact of life that the Devil existed, and was constantly trying to tempt the Puritans into blasphemous behavior.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was also subjected to devastatingly cold winters, and the land was not Ideally suited to farming. Crop yields were poor, food was scarce, and the long winters were dangerous, not least due to increasingly frequent attacks by Native Americans on British settlements along the East Coast. With internal fighting, and external threats, life in the colony was fraught with anxiety and paranoia.

However, over time, increased prosperity in Salem Town. A port engaged in trade, shipbuilding, and fishing resulted in a wealthy merchant class, who had little in common with the poorer farmers who lived in Salem Village and other outlying settlements. This led to simmering tensions between the town and village, as the villagers believed they were due greater autonomy. However, they were not united in this belief, as around half of the villagers remained loyal to the town and wished to remain affiliated with it. The issue was couched In religious terms; the villagers seeking autonomy felt that the thriving economy of Salem Town made it too "individualistic", which was directly opposed to the communalism that a Puritan belief system called for. Eventually, Salem Village was allowed its own church, and was given the freedom to employ and support their own minister—one named Samuel Parris.

This was not enough to quell the mutterings of the discontented, though, and other issues began to come to light. Factions developed within factions, and tensions rose further still. When the villagers refused to support Parris and his family, bitterness and anger flourished on all sides...

Cover gallery

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  Variant cover by Stephen Mooney
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  Variant cover by Joe Corroney