Halo Graphic Novel
Various writers/artists
Marvel, 128pp.



I may not be the best person to review the 'Halo Graphic Novel', seeing as how I've never played the massively popular X-Box game, and subsequent embellishments on which it is based. I'm also the kind of pedantic fellow who'll take issue with a collection of short stories being called a novel, graphic or otherwise; after all, so much effort was put into coining the term above the less dignified comic book, so we may as well use it properly. But I'm aware that fans of the game probably don't care about such semantics, so let's move on.

Like I said, I'm new to the Halo universe, but here's the basic idea: future humans are locked in an intergalactic war with the Covenant, sophisticated warrior aliens, and the Flood, less sophisticated aliens of the squishy, infectious kind. At least, I think that's it, as the readers of this collection are given practically no back-story or frame of reference. I realise most of the people who pick this off the shelf will be existing fans, but surely a jumping off point for newbies would not have gone amiss.

There are four stories in this collection: The Last Voyage Of The Infinite Succour (Lee Hommock/Simon Bisley) concerns the two alien species meeting violently on a crippled Covenant ship; Armor Testing [sic] (Joy Foerber/Ed Lee/Andrew Robinson) is a confusingly written account of someone, well, testing a suit of armour; Breaking Quarantine (Tsutomu Nihei), the most interesting story for its lack of dialogue and beautifully painted pictures, shows one man desperately escaping his Flood-mutated colleagues; and Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa (Brett Lewis/Moebius) shows humanity's first contact with their new enemies from the viewpoint of a government spin-doctor.

Honestly, it's hard to comment on the quality of the writing given my total alienation - pardon the pun - from the source material, except to say that the dialogue in the opening tale is incredibly overwrought. The artwork varies greatly, in style as well as standard, but is never of an unacceptable level. Indeed, an extensive gallery by a range of artists at the back of the book is a visual treat.

So we end up back where we started, with me admitting that I'm not ideal for this assignment. If you're a Halo fan, I'm sure you'll be able to track down a critique somewhere written by a reviewer better acquainted with the game. I can tell everyone else that they'd get far more out of almost any other comic book - sorry, Graphic Novel - on the market.

Henry Nicholls