Dead by Daylight #1 Preview: First Look at The Legion’s Comic Revealed (Exclusive)

Dead by Daylight’s first venture into comic books begins in May with Dead by Daylight #1 set to hit shelves on May 24th. When it does, we’ll see the story of The Legion brought to life, a four-in-one Killer in Dead by Daylight comprised of a group of angsty, murderous teenagers. Titan Comics will publish the book, and Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive hopes this is just the start of what’s to come as far as comic adaptations go.

Covers for Dead by Daylight’s comic debut have already been shown off by Titan now that preorders are open, and now, ComicBook.com can offer an exclusive first look at three pages from the first issue. To accompany this early preview of Dead by Daylight #1, we spoke to Behaviour’s head of partnerships Mathieu Côté to learn more about why Behaviour is opening with The Legion and what we can expect from the comic.

Côté said back when the comic was announced that The Legion was a perfect candidate for the game’s first comic given that they embody themes of “teen angst, rage and revenge” that a fleshed-out story can build off of. Dead by Daylight has plenty of Killers and Survivors to play off of, but The Legion is unique in the sense that they’re not especially supernatural like other characters – they’re much more of a horror-slasher archetype. Côté hopes this makes the first issue a bit more approachable and “intimate” for readers.

“So, we thought we’d start with something that is sort of self-contained and something that does not necessarily have ramifications throughout the whole of the Dead by Daylight universe,” Côté said. “We wanted to really focus on a story that’s a little more intimate, a story that’s a little more relatable. And obviously, it’s got touches of supernatural and things that are bigger than you can comprehend, but it’s still very much teen angst. It’s a very relatable story. Hopefully not too relatable, but at least a little bit relatable.”

Côté acknowledged that other Killers like The Clown, The Huntress, and The Trapper are characters people strongly associate with the game, but The Legion’s composition of four characters making up one Killer made for a unique opportunity to tell an origin story and kick off the Dead by Daylight comics.

And the first series will indeed offer us a look at the origins of The Legion. That story is something Dead by Daylight lore buffs will already be aware of if they’ve spent time learning the backgrounds of characters, but Côté said this canonical version of The Legion’s origins will expand on their story.

“We’re not changing the story. This is very much canon,” Côté said. “So, you are going to see and read things that you’ve read or seen in some of the cinematics and some of the deep lore that we’ve provided. But obviously it’s going to be expanded on. There’s going to be a lot more context and background, and a few key elements that were not mentioned before.”

Behaviour and Titan also provided the following synopsis for the first Dead by Daylight comic to prep readers for The Legion’s origin story:

“When the rebellious Frank crashes into the lives of Julie, Joey, and Susie, together they’ll unleash bloody chaos onto the sleepy, dead-end town of Ormond. Witness the terrifying origins of The Legion.”

Dead by Daylight #1 features writing by Nadia Shammas, art by Dillon Snook, colors by Emilio Lecce, and covers by Snook, Ivan Tao, Chris Shehan, and Lenka Simeckova. You can check out those different covers in Titan’s Twitter thread showing them all off, and if you purchase the physical edition of the comic, you’ll get a redeemable code for a unique in-game charm. The comic will also be available digitally with that format already up for pre-orders, too.