“The Glass Horizon, Part 2”—On a Covenant-ravaged colony world, past and present converge for a tenacious young soldier on a high-risk search-and-rescue mission

Take a look below at the 6 preview pages, then read on for my review of this issue, plus discussion regarding possible ramifications in the continuing Halo saga!

This is the second part of “The Glass Horizon” duo logy. In the first part we were introduce to Tanaka, a survivor of a Covenant attack and glassing of her planet. In this issue, that story continues with switching back between that tie and her current timeline where she is now a UNSC Marine Sgt. and is part of the team doing the hunting.

SPOILERS BELOW! YOU”VE BEEN WARNED!!!

This issue starts off in Tanak’s ‘present’ time. She is on board a Pelican with a couple of ODSTs preparing to recon an area and see if there are any survivors fro a Covenant attack. The story often switches back from the current to the past in which she and two other’s from the mine colony she was a part of escape and try to find their way to other bases/survivors.

The action’s pretty good and the art work is fantastic! Again, Escalation brings in eras of Halo races. Both the classic Jackal and the Halo 4 era Jackals are present in this issue and they look great together. I do like that Darkhorse continues to do this as it helps greatly with continuity.

At one point in the story the ‘past’ Tanaka and her group happen upon a glassed area of farmland. This quickly transitions to the present where she and her team find an relatively intact agricultural station. She immediately recognizes that this is where the Jackal forces will be holed up at and holding any potential survivors. At this point, her past kicks in and allows her to guide the ODSTs through tunnels that will lead to the underground base.

One of the ODSTs is a little gung-ho and moves ahead too quickly, just to almost be caught in a trap. The team fights their way through it and finds a small band of survivors.

It’s what’s next, on the last page of the issue, that is the most interesting. In the after-action report given by Tanaka’s Commanding Officer, we see that Tanaka has been suggested for recruitment into the Spartan IV program. Captain French, Tanaka’s CO, has written to Jun, yes THAT Jun. It’s in the very last panel that we see Tanaka staring out into space with a reflection of her in Spartan armor in the window…

After the events of the last few weeks of HUNTtheTRUTH and the reveal of the key art of Halo 5 Guardians, people have been wondering who the spartans are on Locke’s team. I think we might just have an answer for who one of those might be. While the armor shown in the last panel isn’t the same, who’s to say she doesn’t get a new set of armor when/if she joins Locke’s team?

It’s funny that some had guessed that Tanaka may indeed become a Spartan. I found it odd in the first issue that a ‘random’ solider’s tale was being told. It just had to come to this eventuality. Now it’s going to be exciting to see where the story takes her! Will we see her again before Halo5 Guardians? Will she be one of Locke’s team? I certainly hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Tanaka. Now that she’s been granted the opportunity to become a Spartan, it would be such a waste to only have her in two issues only to never see/hear of/read about her again.

As always, I suggest you buy form your local comic book store to help your local businesses. If however you don’t have one close and/or want to read this issue without having to go anywhere, you can always order it from Darkhorse HERE.

I definitely recommend this issue. However, be certain that you pick up issue #17 as well so you get the rest of Tanak’s story.

-Sal