Rockstar took Max Payne's past "very seriously" for Marvel comic line

Rockstar and Remedy teamed up to ensure the Max Payne 3 Marvel comic series stayed true to Max Payne's character and canon.

Remedy's Sam Lake told Kotaku that the team at Rockstar is very mindful of Remedy's creative control of the series.

"The Rockstar guys take the earlier games very seriously and they have a lot of respect for the heritage, they want to get all the details just right, so much so that they have noticed and included things that I'm sure I would have totally missed," he said.

The comic series was planned by Lake and Rockstar's Dan Houser, and is the first chance players have to see Max Payne's childhood, learning just how deep the vein of tragedy runs through his life.

"That was, originally, why I needed Sam [Lake]'s help," Houser said.

"For the comic books to do their job, which was to glue this game to the old games, and fill in the blanks for people new to the series, we wanted to go back to the very beginnings of Max. To do that, I needed Sam's help and guidance to properly discuss the character's origins.

"I had some ideas, and plenty of questions. What was very gratifying was how often my ideas and Sam's ideas aligned. It gave me confidence that my understanding of the character and his were very similar."

Remedy created and developed the first two May Payne games, while Rockstar is the force behind Max Payne 3, due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at the end of the month.