John, Spartan 117, is not a Marine. He is a UNSC Master Chief, and the only two branches of the military in the world that have a rank called Master Chief are the United States Navy and Coast Guard. He is a Sailor. If the stories are followed, you will find two other Spartans, both Second Class Petty Officers in the book Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. Yes he is a bio-mechanically enhanced human, but not a cyborg. And a Sailor!

I read this in order to catch up on events in the Halo universe before the release of Halo 3. I'm glad that I did. It was very interesting storylines with great artwork! If you appreciate Halo's story and want to know more, and also love comics, this is for you! There's nothing bad about it!

This comic book anthology is not a good value. For $50.00 full retail you can get a game that will take you many hours to finish. For $7.99 you can get a Halo prose novel that may take you anywhere from several hours to a couple of days to read. For $24.99 you get this anthology of four stories that should take you, unless you're still in first grade, about an hour to finish.

In addition there is a collection of drawings and paintings (mostly of the Master Chief) from some very talented artists, a 24-page gallery that is longer than all but one of the stories. You also get a total of 14 pages of introductions - of the stories, the artists, the comic book project, the significance of Halo in pop culture, blah, blah, blah. This is the same number of pages as the book's second longest story! That's a total of 48 pages that could have been given to another story, or could have been left out to produce a more reasonably priced book.

The stories themselves are mostly run-and-shoot, adding very little to the Halo universe. The one exception happens to be the best piece in the book, a story that at its Orwellian worst is reminiscent of war reporting from Iraq. Brett Lewis and Moebius are the only two creators here who exploit the medium and follow in SF's grand tradition of using an imagined future to shine a light on the present.

Look for this used, or better yet borrow it from a friend or library. For those that might interested, reviews of each story follow.


THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE INFINITE SUCCOR
Writer Lee Hammock
Artist Simon Bisley
Here we find out how SpecOps Commander Rtos Vodumee, seen in Halo 2 along side the Arbiter, lost a bit of his mouth and how he knows so much about the Flood. While the story is minimal it's loaded down with far too much text. The Commander, for example, is given lengthy orders, which he then repeats verbatim to his subordinates in the next scene. Once would have been enough. Perhaps it was intended as a reflection of the culture, or perhaps it's just sloppy writing, but much of the dialog is stiff and stilted: "And one cannot train in the ways of spilling blood without partaking in the act. It is good to see that the softness of others in the Covenant has not weakened your discipline." The story, such as it is, has Rtos Vodumee leading a landing party to retrieve a high ranking Legate from a valuable and now Flood-infected ship. Along the way many Covenant troops, both clean and infected, are blasted, blown up, and cut down. If you like action, this piece is nearly all so, 45 pages of vivid, kinetic painting that will have you hurriedly flipping pages. Bislesy's minimal style fits the pace of the story, not bothering to slow down the reader with lots of detail.


ARMOR TESTING
Writer: Jay Foerber
Artists: Ed Lee, Andrew Robinson
A 10-page story depicting a trial run of assault armor, the kind of suit worn by the Master Chief. The person inside jumps from space, makes a controlled landing in a simulated hostile zone, and then takes out all his opponents. There's a little twist at the end, but there isn't much remarkable about "Armor Testing" except the artwork, an animation style presentation enhanced through computer filtering by Ed Lee based on Andrew Robinson's fully colored and inked pages.


BREAKING QUARANTINE
Writer/Artist: Tsutomu Nihei
You may remember from the fist game that the Master Chief is quickly isolated from the rest of his squad when they first encounter the Flood. If you ever wondered how the cigar-chomping Sergeant Johnson escaped, you need wonder no more. Nor will you be kept in suspense for long. It shouldn't take you more than a minute to flip through this 11-page shoot-out. Japanese artist Tsutomo Nihei presents a painted project that is stylistically unlike most manga and features no script but the Japanese onomatopoeia - the "don don don" of a hand gun, the "kachin" of a switch being flipped, the "ga gi gi gi gi" of an automatic rifle.



SECOND SUNRISE OVER NEW MOMBASA
Writer: Brett Lewis
Artist: Moebius
The best 14-pages in this anthology relates the story of a journalist covering the Covenant invasion of Earth at New Mombasa. In Halo 2 we see only the smoking remains, but through this story we get a glimpse not only of the civilian life in the Halo universe but how the military controls the press and the public's perception of the war. As you might expect, the art from Moebius is exceptional and compliments a very fine script from Brett Lewis. Where the other stories are largely sizzle, this one brings on the beef.


GALLERY
24 pages of splash art, most of it featuring the Master Chief. Some great pieces here, but hardly worth the cost to include them.


INTRODUCTIONS
14 pages of self-congratulatory logorrhoea.

Unfortunately Microsoft is one of those companies that will milk anything till it is dead and withered. Fortunately their current cash cow is Bungie's Halo franchise. If i have to explain Halo your in the wrong place.
Marvel did a beautiful job colaborating with the various artist to provide a gorgeous peice of eye candy. As far as story goes... read the books. This is a collection of 4 comics.... and when have you ever seen four comics explain or lead to anything. Regaurdless the shorts featured are a definate flashback for even the greenist player.

This is a really good collection of stories. if you like halo you would do well to buy it or even just read it. this is another fine halo product.

The only thing that bothered me about this graphic novel is its lack of content, it took me about twenty minutes to read this from beginning to end, including one that is about the master chief that is set in the level 343 guilty spark in the game. the rest however is very well made. there are also some pretty cool graphics at the end of the book.

P.S. if you do happen to buy the book, look at the story about the covenant landing party: in one of the frames doesn't it look like the grunts are carrying human assault rifles?

First and foremost, I'd like to say I'm not the biggest comic book fan. I'm more of a Halo fan - played all the games, read all of the books, and there was basically one thing left - the graphic novel. It's not much of a novel with emphasis upon plot or story or even character developments but more about the Halo universe and art. You really have to be a Halo or a graphic novel fan to enjoy it, otherwise I would recommend that you pass this up.

There's four stories overall, the first one having to do with an Elite Special Operation to destroy a ship infected with the mysterious parasitic race known as The Flood. "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor" expands on events briefly following the first Halo game which was probably my favorite in terms of graphical art and dialogue. The second story, "Armor Testing" follows a deadly war game between Spartans and UNSC Marines (I'm sure most will get a kick out of the ending). Next, what would a graphic novel be without our favorite secondary hero, Sarge? "Breaking Quarantine" attempts to develop Sarge's character without any use of dialogue, simply weapons fire (how ironic). And finally, our last story takes a look at New Mombasa, the city that was fought and badly destroyed in the second Halo game. "Second Sunrise over New Mombasa" deals with a lonely reporter illustrating the humans way of life during the Covenant Invasion of Earth.

In other words, most non-Halo fans won't have a clue on events in this graphic novel, they will just sit back and enjoy the art.

The graphic novel was as listed. Nice helps fill in the story between the games. Not a real big fan of the one artist but it is all judgemental.

Good add on to any Halo Fan.

Amazingly sucky. Artwork is mostly blurred, boring, or uninteresting. Action sequences are too long, confusing, and muddied. Stories are non-existent. Maybe you'd get more out of it if you're more familiar with the Halo universe, but I don't think so. Case in point: The Johnson story is a total flop. Despite the huge buildup, nothing happens except a running shootout with the Flood. Most of the art in the Gallery at the end is better than the stories, and one or two even has a better story than the actual stories. Pretty clear Bungie & Microsoft just grabbed whoever was available and pushed out four stories to make this happen in time for some deadline or budget, despite all the protestations that that's exactly what didn't happen. Very disappointing, this could have been awesome.

I was shocked to see any negative reviews of this book! Maybe I just don't know what a good comic is because this was my first. But if you're a fan of the 'HaloVerse', or are even a little interested in the Halo story then you should like it. Great side stories and great Halo art.

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.

I bought this book for my little Brother and since he doesn't read much and he has read this book I say it is a good book.

I don't get why everyone is loving this book. The art is great 1/2 the time. The stories are too short. It's way too much money for what it is... and I'm in bathrobe. The bathrobe doesn't have anything to do with it... but it's too short and too random.

I felt this book wasn't worth the price. At least for the hard cover version. The only really good story is the first one, other than that the others aren't very good. Reasonably good artwork but the last one had more of a kid like style and the story wasn't very good and a little confusing even. The drawings in the back were better than half the stories. I expected more but i would say it isn't worth the 20-25 dollars. wait for the paperback.

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!)

No lo piense mas y compre esta vara.... esta muy tuanis.. vale la pena de verdad.. tiene unos dibujos excelentes y su historia es muy buena... no se va a arrepentir... menos si es un fiebre de halo!!!

The Halo Graphic Novel is beautifully written and illustrated by some of today's best talent. I was only a marginal Halo fan before reading this graphic novel... and now I'm a Halo fanatic! If this is a precursor of things to come for this property (Bendis is writing a new series for Marvel), then you have my money and my vote!

I didn't think when i bought it that it would be as graphic as it is, but the call it the 'Graphic Novel' for good reasons. If you have read the other 3 Halo books it dose fill in a few cracks, also in the Halo 2 story. I wouldn't recomend it for younger readers though.

This is a great book to add to any Halo lover's collection. It gives more insight into the Halo world and the pictures are just amazing.

This is actually a review from my son since it was a gift to him and he was the one who read it, so here is what he thouht of it: "There is really good artwork, the stories were great but it was missing some key elements from the games. Otherwise, it was very entertaining. I recommend this book."

This books is one of the best I've read in a long time. If you are a fine of the halo series of games and wish for deeper story, then this book and the previous three will satisfy your curiousity. It will give you insight as to what happened with the other spartans during the first 2 games and sets up where they are at the start of the third I do believe. There is a fifth books coming as I understand it. I hope it is as amazing as this book. Only took me a day to read...not because it was that easy or short but because I couldn't put it down. 5 stars!

This is the best comic I have ever read. I , being a Halo fan myself, have also read the novels that compliment the story of Master chief and the rest of the Halo universe. This is a wonderful edition to the Halo universe. It answers questions about characters , the art is spectacular, the stories and how they are presented meld so perfectly together with the style of the games, novels, and the rest of the halo universe that I felt I was reading cut scenes form the games and continuations of the books( which both were amazing as well). Any comic book lover, Halo fan or Sci fi fan should check this comic out , and if that sparks your enthusiasm and you want to find out how this all ties into the Great Story that is Halo you should check out the other novels and game products. 5/5, perfect!, wonderful!, so many words can describe how pleased I am with this product.

this was a very good grafic novel. although one of the stories is writen in japanise. and the book on a whole is short.

First things first, the art is splendidly wonderful, but they forgot to keep it simple. The last story read like a cross section between the matrix and halo and seems too pretentious than it ever should be. One story about Sargeant Johnson has almost no dialogue over 20 pages of the book. I really felt like this should have been reviewed first by users of the game. Unlike the novels which really add to the overall story of halo, this seems to jumble it a bit. The stories in all were far too short as well. Oh well.....

I'm not the biggest Halo fan in the world, but this graphic novel is awesome! It has beautiful art and simple but well told stories. Each of the different artists has a unique style that make this book worth while. Definitely not for children because of the gore factor which is done tastefully, but this is definitely not Reading Rainbow material. My guess is anyone over 13 should be okay reading this if they are allowed to watch PG-13 movies. This definitely PG-13 from the 80s not the 00s so there is no sexual content. Overall good teen/adult reading without too many words to ruin the real experience which is the artwork. With that being said buy this if you enjoy great graphic novel art.

The Comic was pretty Cool, The artwork is awsome and descriptive but it was to short of a comic and i don't reccomend this comic for that arent big halo fans or don't like gore! but the comic wasnt as good as i thought it would be but i do say it is a must buy to have in your collection

I hope to be best because:
1-the art it's not very good, except the cover art and bisley arts.
2-The stories: 2 stars.

Whether you just play halo or you have read every novel...this novel is for you

Excellent. Arrived quicker than expected, and the stories were all great. Great for any Halo fan.

The general feeling I had left after reading through this graphic novel was, That was it? Costing anywhere between 17 and 25 bucks this title hardly pays for itself. The book overall has a couple of different stories split up, all set in the Halo Universe. A good way to describe this book is, it's like the Animatrix, short stories based in a specific fictional landscape that are at best, cool and at worst mediocre. The art in every one of these short stories in this book were all top notch but, the shortness of the short stories just left me with again, the feeling of: That's it? My suggestion to Halo fans out there? Wait till this comes out in trade paperback form when it'll be about 10 bucks, then it might be worth buying.

The stories were good. Some of the graphics for the stories were pre-grad. I like my graphics Marvel style. They were not crisp and clean but they had a sloppy feel. Overall tho the content was good, I liked all the story threads. It helped to flesh out the Halo universe.

This Novel fills in some information on the background story, great if you already know the basic Halo story.

I thought that the book had great graphics. One of the stories was hard to follow. My favorite was the Armor Testing.

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.

I don't know if it's me, but this book was is not what I expected. The artwork in my opinion was not that great. The stories were somewhat bland and flat. One story is completed made up of splash pages (all art) and with nothing written on it. You figure with Marvels stable of talented artist, they artwork would have been better. The only halfway decent story was the last one in which the media, along with government, manipulates the news in order to give the people war propaganda news in which the human are winning, and not disclosing the casualties nor suffering that are being endured by mankind. If you truly want to read a gripping graphic novel with amazing artwork, check out Pride of Baghdad. Now that's a great graphic novel.