The Halo Graphic Novel
by Brett Lewis, Jay Faerber, Lee Hammock, Tsutomu Nihei
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.93 You Save: $15.06 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.11 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Halo Graphic Novel
Book Review: All Stories Disappointing, Some Strongly So
Summary: 2 Stars
This graphic novel is worth buying in order to have more Halo canon stuff at whatever cost, but otherwise is dreadfully disappointing.
This was not the delight I had hoped it to be. I actually bought this for the second story "Breaking Quarantine", about how Sgt. Johnson escapes from the Flood, hoping for an interesting twist or two. Instead, it appears that Johnson merely walks out _exactly_ the same way the Master Chief does in the game! Everything is exactly the same, down to the Flood fighting the Covenant, the Flood infesting everything infestable, the Flood running round and round in circles under the damaged light bridge, the flood pouring out of heretofore sealed chambers, everything! What is curious is that the Flood apparently clean everything up and go hide afterwards, so that they can pop out and surprise the Master Chief in exactly the same fashion when he arrives many hours later! Those crazy Flood! The art is also the weakest. The only part that is not worse than expected is the dialogue, of which there is none.
The other three have better artwork, but are all pretty unconvincing as stories that entertain, enlighten, or are worth money to read.
Book Review: Not bad, but somewhat disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
With the wild success of the Halo video game series on the XBox, expanding into other mediums was inevitable. Thanks to Marvel Comics, Bungie's shooter franchise makes it's way to the comic page in this original graphic novel, which features short stories taking place in the Halo universe. The best story to be found here is undoubtedly "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor", written by Lee Hammock and illustrated by the great Simon Bisley (Lobo, Heavy Metal), which details some major plot points that are intricate to the overall backstory behind the Halo series. The rest of the stories featured here though are quite underwhelming to say the least. Though there is great artwork to be found throughout the Halo Graphic Novel, there's not nearly enough here to hold your interest. Not to mention that a full-length, original story would have been much better served than what is found here, but hopefully with Halo 3 on the horizon, that will become a reality. All in all, the Halo Graphic Novel isn't bad one bit, and is worth checking out for hardcore Halo fans, but everyone else isn't missing anything here by a long shot.Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
For weeks prior to the release of this graphic novel, all we read about it was what an amazingly talented team worked on it, and that it was going to blow our socks off. Once again the consumer is bamboozled by marketing hype and BS. This book looks and reads like it was thrown together in about two weeks by the most average team of writers and artists the publisher could dredge up. The artwork is poor and the writing falls far short of engaging. The frames are too small and many times you can't even tell what is going on. The book also deviates from certain facts established in the games. The book mainly serves as a platform for the various artists and writers to tout their experience and talents in the editorial introductions to each story. The focus should have been on providing astounding artwork and riveting writing, not waxing poetic on one's artistic career.
Don't fall into the marketing trap by paying full price for this; wait a bit and see if you can get a used one online for cheaper. It's just not that great.
Book Review: Underwhelming.
Summary: 2 Stars
In this book, you get a Bungie prologue, 4 stories, and an Appendix of "also ran" artwork.
The Appendix was the best part. Amazing artwork to be seen there. Makes me wonder why those submissions didn't make it fully into this graphic novel...
The first story, "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor," had the best plot of the four. Most of the story is told visually, but the overly dark and overdone artwork makes it impossible to tell what's happening half of the time.
"Armor Testing," the second story, was too short and too simple. Decent artwork, however.
The third story, "Breaking Quarantine," is the only real gem of the four. Amazing artwork and a good story, though the ending is a bit lacking.
"Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa," the last story, suffered from goofy artwork and a convoluted plot.
In all, I'm sorry to say this was a let-down. Good thing it wasn't very expensive to purchase.
Book Review: another fantastic slice of the Halo universe
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very impressive collection. Extremely well put together, and you can tell the teams working here are fans who love what they're doing.
When they called this a `Graphic Novel' they really meant it. Two of the four stories are told mostly visually (one entirely without text, but incredibly compelling), and the other two, while heavy on story, are still beautifully rendered. (I'm not a fan of the art style in "second sunrise', but it's still well done.)
The art compilation in the back of the book is fantastic, and has some really creative stuff. I love the weapons load out with the Master Chief standing in the middle of all his gear.
Any fan of the Halo `verse will have fun with this.
(and if you haven't read the Eric Nylund novels, you're missing a Huge part of the Halo story! Don't miss it!)