A Belated Halo Graphic Novel Review
Before I Begin.
I ordered the book off Amazon on June 9th. After a long wait (and a near mental breakdown), I got the message that it was delivered on th 21st, and I finally recived it on the 28th. The second I got the book, I opened it and began reading the foreword, but not before I caressed the cover. It's so beautiful. The entire thing is. After the cross-species/object intercourse, I got to reading it, which leads me to the first review . . . .
The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor
Written and illustrated by Lee Hammock and Simon Bisely, this is my second favorite story in the novel. The Infinite Succor tells the story of Rtas 'Vadumee, also known largely in the Halo unverse as 'Half-Jaw', he Special Ops Commander, and how he came to lose both his lower left mandibles and his suicidal tendencies. The story starts with the Master chief being dropped off in the swamps of Halo in order to give the player a more familiar feel of the setting. The table quickly turns to the Infinite Succor, a Covenant agricultural ship. A lone Covenant dropship is headed to dock in the Succor. Though the Succor hails the incoming dropshp, it stays on course, and crashes itself in the launch bay. The grnts, thinking it's a human attack at first, contact the the rest of the crew with cries of help to escape the bay, but are killed before they can let them know who the real attackers are. The Flood.
The rest of the story explains how the Legate of Etiology aboard the Succor beaconed the rest of the Fleet of Particular Justice for extraction. The Special Ops Commander, Rtas, is selected to lead a search and rescue party through the Succor to secure the Legate. While aboard the flagship, the story also shows how Rtas lost part of his jaw in a taining exercise.
When aboard the ship, it becomes clear to the Commander that the Demon, Master Chief, was not involved with this particular attack. instead, it was something far more brutal. When the Legate is finally secured, the purpose of the flood taking over this ship becomes clear: To actiate the Succors slipspace drive and jump out of the system. Rtas sends half of his squad to beacon a dropship with plasma grenades, while the other half (his half) accesses the engineering room and sets the coordinates for the slipspace jump for the nearest star (since the ships self destruct sequence is offline).
Through his conflict with the Flood aboard the ship, Rtas loses his suicidal tendencies like so many other Elites.
The artwork here, like the rest of the stories, are amazing. Tight, creepy, and dangerous setting make this so much more Covenant like. The story is amazing, and so I give this a 5 out of 5.
Armor Testing
Written and illustrated by Jay Faerber, Ed Lee. and Andrew Hammock. A short story, Armor Testing explains who tested the MJOLNIR Mark VI before the Master Chief received it aboard the Cairo. The story is centered around the retired SPARTAN Maria -062, who settled down on Earth to start a family instead of staying in the armed forces.
While it mainly goes into details of how the Mark VI was tested over a few pages, and then on who the masked donner was in the end, there is nothing to really hate about ths story and everything to like, though it is rather short and vague. I give it a 4 out of 5.
Breaking Quarantine
Illustrated (sorry, no 'written') by Tsutomu Nihei. In this story, we learn about how Sergeant Johnson escaped the Flood in the level 343 Guilty Spark . . . . He ran. 7 pages of him running and fighting the Flood. That's it for the in depth review of this story. Its by far the shortest story of the novel.
This is a 12 page story with absolutely no dialogue. While the artwork is gorgeous, there is that feeling after reading it that you really didn't learn that much from it. But, then again, what would you really have expected to happen, huh? For Johnson to have met up with some friendly Forerunner guards who escorted him to the entrance of the structure? No. He really had nothing else to do but run, so I guess this story (along with all that we learned from the halo books) gives us a pretty lucid description on Johnsons involving with the Flood. I give it a 4 out of 5.
Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa
Written and illustrated by Brett Lewis and the legendary Moebius. The second longest story, Second Sunrise, gives us a look at a completely different view of th war than we've seen before: the civilians view. It explains a day in the life of an anonymous photographer who is employed by O.N.I. to edit and censor all media on the war to make it seem as if humanity is winning. This gives us, also, a new look at O.N.I., as more of a lying disutopian, propagandaish branch. The day is normal for the man, explaining his job, and how he keeps a secret from everyone around hm, and goes into detail about the other civilians of New Mombasa. Then, midday, 3 objects are seen falling from the sky. The news reports that the explosion in space was accidental, but that everyone should go inside immediately. the grim truth of the matter is revealed when the Covenant attack the city, intent on destroying everything living. The photographer is taking cover with a squad what seems to be soldiers when he recieves a translation on his pc from one of the nearby elites. "We need to clear this area before we can secure access to the Ark". The commanding officer in the group orders him to get the recording out of the city, obviously sensing that that something said was something big. The photographer escapes to the docs only to find a near full lifeboat about to leave. He hands his laptop to a little girl, and she boards the lifeboat and leaves the city. Whether they survived is unknown. The last screen of this story is of an unknown man sitting in a dark, empty room, with a dialogue box at the bottom reading [--This is the first day of the end of the world.]
Second Sunrise is the second longest and my favourite story the four. It has great dialogue (more like monologue, actually). great art, and a great story, plus, it leaves more wanting to know actuallywhat happened through the rest of this story. Did the girl live? Did she get the recording to safety? What did they learn? What happened to the photographer? Like I said, this is my favourite story, and I give it a 5 out of 5.
And, then, the rest of the book is a gallery section with some really nice artwork by various artists, including a super special Mister Chief.
Closing Note
So, to end this review, I guess I have to rate the book entire. The artwork throughout was amazing. some good stories, yes, but not all of them being entirely as much as I expected. In fact, I didn't learn all that much that I didn't already know, though I may just need to look a tad bit closer.
So, with Halo being my favourite fictional universe, though that shalln't sway my opinion either way, I guess I'm obliged to give this novel the score it deserves . . . . . A full 5 out of 5.
I said 'Good day, Sir!'
I ordered the book off Amazon on June 9th. After a long wait (and a near mental breakdown), I got the message that it was delivered on th 21st, and I finally recived it on the 28th. The second I got the book, I opened it and began reading the foreword, but not before I caressed the cover. It's so beautiful. The entire thing is. After the cross-species/object intercourse, I got to reading it, which leads me to the first review . . . .
The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor
Written and illustrated by Lee Hammock and Simon Bisely, this is my second favorite story in the novel. The Infinite Succor tells the story of Rtas 'Vadumee, also known largely in the Halo unverse as 'Half-Jaw', he Special Ops Commander, and how he came to lose both his lower left mandibles and his suicidal tendencies. The story starts with the Master chief being dropped off in the swamps of Halo in order to give the player a more familiar feel of the setting. The table quickly turns to the Infinite Succor, a Covenant agricultural ship. A lone Covenant dropship is headed to dock in the Succor. Though the Succor hails the incoming dropshp, it stays on course, and crashes itself in the launch bay. The grnts, thinking it's a human attack at first, contact the the rest of the crew with cries of help to escape the bay, but are killed before they can let them know who the real attackers are. The Flood.
The rest of the story explains how the Legate of Etiology aboard the Succor beaconed the rest of the Fleet of Particular Justice for extraction. The Special Ops Commander, Rtas, is selected to lead a search and rescue party through the Succor to secure the Legate. While aboard the flagship, the story also shows how Rtas lost part of his jaw in a taining exercise.
When aboard the ship, it becomes clear to the Commander that the Demon, Master Chief, was not involved with this particular attack. instead, it was something far more brutal. When the Legate is finally secured, the purpose of the flood taking over this ship becomes clear: To actiate the Succors slipspace drive and jump out of the system. Rtas sends half of his squad to beacon a dropship with plasma grenades, while the other half (his half) accesses the engineering room and sets the coordinates for the slipspace jump for the nearest star (since the ships self destruct sequence is offline).
Through his conflict with the Flood aboard the ship, Rtas loses his suicidal tendencies like so many other Elites.
The artwork here, like the rest of the stories, are amazing. Tight, creepy, and dangerous setting make this so much more Covenant like. The story is amazing, and so I give this a 5 out of 5.
Armor Testing
Written and illustrated by Jay Faerber, Ed Lee. and Andrew Hammock. A short story, Armor Testing explains who tested the MJOLNIR Mark VI before the Master Chief received it aboard the Cairo. The story is centered around the retired SPARTAN Maria -062, who settled down on Earth to start a family instead of staying in the armed forces.
While it mainly goes into details of how the Mark VI was tested over a few pages, and then on who the masked donner was in the end, there is nothing to really hate about ths story and everything to like, though it is rather short and vague. I give it a 4 out of 5.
Breaking Quarantine
Illustrated (sorry, no 'written') by Tsutomu Nihei. In this story, we learn about how Sergeant Johnson escaped the Flood in the level 343 Guilty Spark . . . . He ran. 7 pages of him running and fighting the Flood. That's it for the in depth review of this story. Its by far the shortest story of the novel.
This is a 12 page story with absolutely no dialogue. While the artwork is gorgeous, there is that feeling after reading it that you really didn't learn that much from it. But, then again, what would you really have expected to happen, huh? For Johnson to have met up with some friendly Forerunner guards who escorted him to the entrance of the structure? No. He really had nothing else to do but run, so I guess this story (along with all that we learned from the halo books) gives us a pretty lucid description on Johnsons involving with the Flood. I give it a 4 out of 5.
Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa
Written and illustrated by Brett Lewis and the legendary Moebius. The second longest story, Second Sunrise, gives us a look at a completely different view of th war than we've seen before: the civilians view. It explains a day in the life of an anonymous photographer who is employed by O.N.I. to edit and censor all media on the war to make it seem as if humanity is winning. This gives us, also, a new look at O.N.I., as more of a lying disutopian, propagandaish branch. The day is normal for the man, explaining his job, and how he keeps a secret from everyone around hm, and goes into detail about the other civilians of New Mombasa. Then, midday, 3 objects are seen falling from the sky. The news reports that the explosion in space was accidental, but that everyone should go inside immediately. the grim truth of the matter is revealed when the Covenant attack the city, intent on destroying everything living. The photographer is taking cover with a squad what seems to be soldiers when he recieves a translation on his pc from one of the nearby elites. "We need to clear this area before we can secure access to the Ark". The commanding officer in the group orders him to get the recording out of the city, obviously sensing that that something said was something big. The photographer escapes to the docs only to find a near full lifeboat about to leave. He hands his laptop to a little girl, and she boards the lifeboat and leaves the city. Whether they survived is unknown. The last screen of this story is of an unknown man sitting in a dark, empty room, with a dialogue box at the bottom reading [--This is the first day of the end of the world.]
Second Sunrise is the second longest and my favourite story the four. It has great dialogue (more like monologue, actually). great art, and a great story, plus, it leaves more wanting to know actuallywhat happened through the rest of this story. Did the girl live? Did she get the recording to safety? What did they learn? What happened to the photographer? Like I said, this is my favourite story, and I give it a 5 out of 5.
And, then, the rest of the book is a gallery section with some really nice artwork by various artists, including a super special Mister Chief.
Closing Note
So, to end this review, I guess I have to rate the book entire. The artwork throughout was amazing. some good stories, yes, but not all of them being entirely as much as I expected. In fact, I didn't learn all that much that I didn't already know, though I may just need to look a tad bit closer.
So, with Halo being my favourite fictional universe, though that shalln't sway my opinion either way, I guess I'm obliged to give this novel the score it deserves . . . . . A full 5 out of 5.
I said 'Good day, Sir!'
