DC Comics and Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, have announced plans to publish a comic book series based on the highly touted Prototype video game.  The comic book series, which DC is publishing under its Wildstorm imprint, is set to debut in August.  More details about the comic series will be released in the coming weeks, but it is clear that DC has grabbed the license for an edgy and highly anticipated game in this move that appears designed to match what Marvel has been able to do with its licensed HALO comics.

The Prototype game, in which the player assumes the role of the amnesiac anti-hero Alex Mercer, is set in New York City and provides players with the kind of freedom to interact with their surroundings in a wide variety of ways, not all of which are related to the “object” of the game, similar to the kind of freedom of action found in the Grand Theft Auto series of games (these types of games are now being referred to as “open world games”).  Alex has some superhuman abilities, which allow him to navigate through the stone canyons of New York in blazing Parkour fashion (see the chases in the most recent Bond film), but the real heart of the game is Alex’s “disguise or destroy” powers that permit him to consume the bodies of those he has killed and assimilate their memories and physical forms.  He can also shapeshift into a variety of objects in order to attack his enemies or defend himself.

Radical Entertaiment, the studio that is producing the Prototype game for Sierra, is planning a fall release for Prototype across the next-gen console systems as well as in a PC version.  The game is not yet rated.