Halo Initiation #3

On 10/09/2013 at 03:46 PM by KnightDriver

This is the last of a three part series. In this issue we find out about the pirate group's leader and the resolution of the conflict aboard the Infinity. The last few pages set up some interesting story possibilities for the future of the Spartan program and its possible new threats going forward. My guess, since the Covenant threat has been defeated, is that the conflict between Earth and its colonies will renew. It was the reason the Spartan program was created in the first place. I have a feeling this new post Bungie Halo Universe will recreate Dr. Halsey as a pure villain leading her own Spartan program against the UNSC Spartans. The recent novels by Karen Traviss have been setting up Halsey as a cold hearted amoral person, so it stands to reason she might lead a rogue unit of her own Spartans. I don't like this trend because she was not this evil in the Eric Nylund novel Fall of Reach. It breaks with how I know her up until the last Bungie made game.

It does seem like the female Spartans are taking center stage in this comic and the recent Karen Traviss novels. I think it's interesting, but it is kinda strange. I mean, even with augments, the men are still going to be bigger and stronger. That's just basic human physiology. Women Spartans definity have their place, but as bad ass brawlers? I don't know if I buy that. I mean I buy it a little bit. I can see Gina Carano, a MMA fighter who I've followed in her acting in movies like Haywire and Fast & Furious 6 being a Spartan who excells at hand to hand fighting. But I would think most of the female Spartans would be specialists in speed and agility type roles like they are in the Spartan teams descibed in Nylund's Fall of Reach book. I don't know though. There was a hulking female Spartan in Tobias Buckell's novel Halo: The Cole Protocol. I just think these recent comics and Traviss novels have really put all the men into the background and centered fully on the women. I liked it better where there is a mix of both sexes. This is primarily a story about fighting and space military stuff. It's odd to see women leading such a normally male dominated arena. It breaks my willing suspension of disbelief a little bit. I mean if the UNSC was female dominated from the start, I would get it. But aside from Dr. Halsey and Parangosky of ONI, it wasn't.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/10/2013 at 08:45 AM

wait a sec, you said they were mostly female at first? that's pretty weird.

Travis Hawks Senior Editor

10/10/2013 at 09:09 AM

Most of the recent stuff has had female Spartans. Not games, but books and things. I think each of the Spartan programs were split pretty evenly male/female, but there has been a focus on female characters... I hadn't really noticed, but I only keep up with the novels.

KnightDriver

10/10/2013 at 04:47 PM

From the beginning it was mixed. The first team Master Chief worked with in Nylund's book Fall of Reach was three men and two women I think (need a fact check here, but I don't have the time at the moment). The dynamic worked really well.

I liked the female Spartan in the Traviss books, but after a while I noticed almost all the major players were women. Not to say there's anything wrong with that. It's just a different perspective to this Halo Universe. The other part of it though is that I don't like the way Dr. Halsey is being handled in the books and in Halo 4. She's been characterized as a cold calculating villain and I never saw here like that from the days of the first 3 Halo games.

10/10/2013 at 06:09 PM

that's pretty interesting. maybe because Traviss is a woman? Did she write those Yuuzan Vong whatever alien books of starwars? or was that someone else?

10/11/2013 at 02:35 AM

I think you're refering to the New Jedi Order books. Karen wrote one of the 19 books in that series; an e-book called Boba Fett: A Practical Man. The rest were done by all different authors. Karen did a bunch of other Star Wars books though like the Republic Commando series and several books in the Legacy of the Force series. I want to read those Republic Commando books because I thought the story of the game was interesting.

10/11/2013 at 02:44 AM

Part of it might because she's a woman, but I think it's a choice made by 343 Industries. I mean, Karen has written plenty of male centric stuff. She did all the Gears of War books for instance. Stuff I think is just too dude-bro for me. Also, there's a scene in Halo Reach where Halsey appears and acts cold and bossy. Maybe Bungie intended her to be like that from the beginning. I have to go get an audio recording of the Fall of Reach novel again and see how Halsey is portrayed there. That's the memory I'm going on here. Maybe it's off base.

Ranger1

10/10/2013 at 12:39 PM

Not having read any Halo comics or books (or played any of the games), I can't comment on the content, but it sounds like they're trying to suck up to the whole "tropes vs women" thing. Which is unfortunate when it causes a break with the continuity of story.

10/10/2013 at 12:51 PM

It never hit me like that, but I keep my brain shut entirely off when in the Halo universe.

10/10/2013 at 04:52 PM

It's all in the books and comics this is happening recently. The games still center on the men. Laskey in the miniseries and Master Chief in Halo 4. I definitely like the female Spartans, but it does seem like they're keying in to the 'tropes vs. women' thing and trying to bring more women in the Halo experience.

Somehow I think the new interpretation of Dr. Halsey is fueled by the outrage over abduction of children to create the Spartan II's like Master Chief; to try and sanitize the story by showing moral outrage.

10/11/2013 at 01:49 AM

Thought about this topic all day today. It all just comes down to two things I haven't jived with from 343's take on Halo.

1. Dr. Halsey as a villain. Yes, she headed the program to abduct children for the Spartan II program, but she's not alone in the blame. She had a superior who had to write off on this project who had his superiors who also had to ok it all. The whole UNSC brass are really in collusion here and to have members of the military not support its own programs is unbelievable to me. Yes, the public would have something to say about this program, but the military, even a fictional one, would protect it's own. It's just what they do. Also, in light of the fact that the program created Master Chief who was the single most important force that led humanity to victory over the Covenant. I think that has to be taken into account.

2. Master Chief's "romance" with Cortana. This appeared at key moment in Halo 4 and I nearly laughed myself silly and then got angry at what was happening to Halo. I get it that they have to try and make Halo more appealing to the mainstream and so they need a romance, but with MC and Cortana? Cortana is an AI construct and occupies no physical space other than electricity and the circuits that transmit her program. It's absurd! MC had a romance going in Nylund's Fall of Reach book with a female Spartan. Now that makes sense. I even thought it made a strange kind of sense for MC to have a gay relationship with The Arbiter. They're two of a kind but from different alien races. But to Cortana? I guess 343 had no choice because they are such major characters, but I think it's the dumbest, most rediculous thing I've seen in gaming lately.

NSonic79

10/20/2013 at 08:38 PM

I wonder if we'll see any of these concepts worked into the supposed Season 2 of Spartan Ops. It would be hard to keep up with the game universe if we had to read up on THAT much backstory between game titles.

10/20/2013 at 10:42 PM

I guess like movies and books, canon is really just what's in the movies. The books do their own thing.

The games have been pretty straightforward unless you look at all those terminals, then you get confused. I've read all the books and comics and I'm still hazy on what all those terminals are trying to say. I'm sure the TV series will expand into new territory in a much more direct way for the next game.

PixlBit