Halo Initiation #2 Out Today!

On 09/11/2013 at 03:45 PM by KnightDriver

This issue sees the first challenge to the newly initiated Spartan IVs aboard the star ship Infinity. The Infinity was featured in the last Halo video game and novel. The story takes place after Halo 4.

The story by Brian Reed is fine, but I don't get the feeling that Sarah Palmer is going to be all that memorable after this series. She's a typical head-strong green recruit who needs to be less self-centered and more of a team player.

The art by Marco Castiello is fine but a little too much Saturday morning animated cartoon for me. In general I dislike the clean hard sci-fi environments like those of Star Trek or Mass Effect and prefer more detailed, organic design, but this fits with the Halo universe as it is.

I'm not convinced this series is going to be all that memorable, but I like keeping my interest in the Halo Universe going. My spark of excitement for Halo has somewhat lessened since Halo 4. I'm hoping something will come along to reignite it: an interesting character, or story line.

NSonic79

09/12/2013 at 10:56 PM

I've always been scared in trying out the comic series of halo. It's bad enough that some of the Halo books may or may not get things right. i'm still sore over the "revisions" made with "The Fall of Reach."

KnightDriver

09/13/2013 at 01:37 AM

I haven't noticed any departures in the comics from the Halo story as told in the games. They seem to be very careful about not changing anything.

I did have an issue in the Karen Traviss novels when they arrested Halsey and treated her like a criminal. I didn't get the sense that she was so evil or solely to blame for the Spartan II program from the earlier novels, or even in Halo Reach where she makes a brief appearance. I think 343 Industries and Mrs. Traviss did a bit of revisionist history in order to take some moral high ground on how it's bad to abduct children for your army (maybe to clean up the story for mainstream appeal). I think something like that had to have been supported by more than one person in the UNSC. Halsey being a villan just rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, she's not like that in Eric Nylund's Fall of Reach book. She's actually quite likable and has a conscience about what she and the UNSC are doing to create Spartan warriors.

PixlBit