Swordquest: Realworld is a 2017 comic-book miniseries by Chad Bowers, Chris Simms, and Ghostwriter X, and published by Dynamite Comics. It is inspired by the Atari game Swordquest and its comic-book adaptation.
Back in 1984, Peter Case was on his way to winning the four Swordquest contests and earning a $50,000 sword. But then The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 happened, the fourth Swordquest game and contest never happened, and nobody won the sword. Fast forward to the present, where Peter learns that he's got degenerative lung disease and has less than a year to live. When his apartment building burns down, forcing him to move back in with his mother, he finds his old Swordquest paraphernalia and is inspired to track down and steal the lost sword.
This miniseries contains examples of:
- Armored Closet Gay: Peter realized that he had feelings for best friend Alvin way back in 1984, but when he tried to raise the question, Alvin rejected him. Peter went back into the closet and stayed there.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Early in the first issue, Peter runs into his burning apartment complex to rescue his neighbor's dog, nearly killing himself in the process.
- In the second issue, Amy is introduced giving a verbal smackdown to an obnoxious geek who questions her knowledge of 1980's video games.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Peter is dying of degenerative lung disease. Consequently, he coughs a lot throughout the series.
- Innocently Insensitive: Alvin tries to reassure Peter that he knows what he's going through by talking about how depressed he got when he was eliminated from The Cutting Board. Peter asks how Alvin could possibly compare losing on a reality TV show to dying.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: In order to carry out his plan to steal the sword, Peter reunites with his friends Alvin and Amy Perez.
- Straight Gay: Peter is gay, but does not give off any "vibes".
- A True Story in My Universe: Here the Swordquest games are based on a true story. Created by a wizard hailing from a fantasy world.
- We Used to Be Friends: Peter never forgave Alvin for humiliating him when they were teenagers.
