"Then we walked the road to Vegas, all the lights of the Old World still glowing, shining pretty as you please..."
"The year is 2281. In the aftermath of a nuclear war, humanity has struggled to survive. In the Mojave wasteland, great tribes have again taken on the trappings of civilization, building communities, towns, and even cities... but their more brutal instincts aren't so easily left behind."
All Roads, or Fallout: New Vegas: All Roads, is a 2011 graphic novel set in the Fallout universe, written by Chris Avellone and published by Dark Horse Comics with cover art by Geof Darrow. Originally released as a Collector's Edition bonus for Fallout: New Vegas, it was later made available for purchase on Dark Horse Digital for a limited period.
The comic serves as a prequel to the events of New Vegas, expanding on the backstory of a few major characters and factions in the game and detailing the planning and execution of the ambush the protagonist falls into in the game's intro. Of particular importance is the contrast and conflict between Benny, a ruthless former tribal who tries to bury his past for a brighter future, and Chance, a Great Khan unable to let go of the tragedy at Bitter Springs.
While the comic has since been unlisted from Dark Horse's store, used physical copies can still be found through various online retailers.
All Roads contains examples of the following tropes:
- Back-to-Back Badasses: The battle with the Fiends culminates in Benny and the Khans pulling this, standing in a circular firing line against waves of drugged-up melee fighters, while Chance fights their flamethrower-wielding leader one-on-one.
- Central Theme: Letting go of the past, or rather, being unable to. Benny and Chance are both, in their own ways, unable to escape their past: Chance is Drowning His Sorrows due to his inability to move on from the tragedy at Bitter Springs, while Benny is so determined to bury his tribal origins that it paradoxically becomes an obsession. This theme is explored at various points throughout New Vegas, but is especially prevalent in its DLC expansions, which Avellone also wrote.
- Colon Cancer: The comic's full title, Fallout: New Vegas: All Roads.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Benny and a small handful of Khans vs an entire Fiend raid party. After a heated battle, the guys in the checkered suit and leather jackets stand victorious over a mountain of dead chem addicts.
- Death Glare: Benny earns several of these from the Khans over the course of the comic, usually in response to him disparaging their traditions or lifestyle.
- Drowning His Sorrows: Chance is shown doing this with chems at the beginning of the comic, and Benny later tells him a story about a Chairman who sang at the Aces Theater who did the same. Both of them die of a psycho overdose due to Benny's meddling.
- Due to the Dead: Near the end, the Khans insist on giving Chance a proper burial. Benny objects, but their looks of silent fury at his disrespectful attitude leads him to back down.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The whole story takes place over the course of a few days before Benny and his hired muscle ambush the Courier at Goodsprings. Most of the climax is even implied to be set in the final 24 hours before the start of New Vegas.
- Functional Addict: Despite having fallen hard into drug abuse after the Bitter Springs Massacre, Chance remains an incredible fighter; his issues mainly stem from his trauma rather than his addiction.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Fiend with the flamer who burnt down an entire settlement is killed by Chance bending the nozzle around to roast his face off.
- Kill It with Fire: Near the halfway point of the story the group comes across a wild band of Fiends burning up a small village. Benny wants to just avoid them but Chance grabs their attention which leads to a brutal fight.
- Let Me Tell You a Story: When Chance is severely injured after the battle with the Fiends, Benny comes to him while the others are sleeping to tell him about a member of his old tribe, a lounge singer at the Aces Theater, who couldn't adapt to "civilized" life and wanted the Chairmen to return to their nomadic origins. He claims that the singer ultimately died of a drug overdose trying to escape into the past (a lie of omission, as we saw earlier in the comic that Benny killed him with a spiked dose). He closes by leaving Chance a dose of psycho — the same one he gave to the singer — and subtly implying that he needs to stop holding the others back, be it by shaping up and letting go of Bitter Springs or by ending his own suffering. Chance chooses the latter.
- The Millstone: Benny considers Chance to be this due to his drug habit and shellshock, and it's not an unfair assessment — the group is forced into a dangerous fight with a Fiend warband because Chance flew into a rage at the sight of them razing a tribal village. The rest of the Khans seem on some level aware of this, but refuse to cut him loose because he's "family," leading Benny to take matters into his own hands.
- Series Continuity Error: Though in regards to an unresolved series
Shrug of God. An NCR soldier is seen riding a horse due to the artist not being instructed not to do so, however Chris Avellone stated
this was an error and that the status of horses should be considered ambiguous, not wanting them to tease players with their non-presence as a game mechanic, and the narrative questions raised by their absence in the games are not addressed by New Vegas. - So Much for Stealth: When the group finds a tribal village being razed by the Fiends, they debate whether to sneak past or wait out the rampage, reasoning that negotiating or fighting would be too risky given how drugged-up they are. This goes out the window when Chance suffers a Bitter Springs flashback and recklessly charges the raiders. Benny suggests ditching him and nearly convinces the others, but Jessup refuses and charges in on his own to help, convincing the others to follow suit.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Benny was born a wasteland nomad from the Boot-Riders tribe, but after getting a taste of "civilized" life in Vegas he's become utterly disdainful of that lifestyle and considers it savage and undignified. At several points in the story, he reacts with disdain or even outright rage when people from similar backgrounds insist on keeping to their traditions instead of "getting with the times" like he did.
- Those Two Guys: Jessup and McMurphy fill this role, being ancillary to Chance and Benny's stories and mainly serving as a collective voice for the rest of the Khans in the group. They do get some degree of characterization to differentiate them — McMurphy is more malleable to Benny's suggestions and less patient with Chance, while Jessup is a ride-or-die Khan who refuses to give up on their friend.
- To Be Continued: Ends on one, naturally, due to the whole graphic novel being a prequel set in the days leading up to the start of Fallout: New Vegas where Benny has a fateful encounter with a random wasteland courier...
- Trauma Button: Fire is this for Chance, reminding him of the NCR's massacre at Bitter Springs. The sight of Benny's lighter causes him to suffer a minor flashback early in the comic, and when the gang runs into a group of Fiends burning a tribal village to the ground, it sends him into a blind rage.
- Villain Episode: The whole comic focuses on what Benny and the Great Khans he hired did on the journey to Goodsprings in the days leading up to to his first meeting with the Courier.
- The Voiceless: Chance never speaks throughout the comic. It's implied that he hasn't spoken since the massacre at Bitter Springs.
"My kinda town..."
