So I picked this up today at my local comic book store. After what seemed like a long wait (it wasn’t), I finally had this in my hands to read and review it.
As much of this review is going to talk about what happens in the comic book, if you plan on getting this, then do NOT read any further. it will contain SPOILERS aplenty.
Our story starts out with a wheelchair ridden UNSC Commander who has come to speak to other high ranking UNSC officiers. Turns out this particular commander was a Spartan long ago. His name is Musa. He was a Spartan II.
He addresses the officers to let them know that with Master Chief missing and the rest of the Spartan 2’s and 3’s all but gone, he’s created a NEW batch of Spartans.
While this is an initial good set-up for the story, not enough is given to the backstory of Musa, who I hope we’ll learn about sometime in the near future.
A page or two after this reveal, we get to see “Lance Corporal” Sarah Palmer getting ready for battle by way of scrambling for her ODST gear, then dropping in on a planet in an ODST Drop Pod.
The artwork showing the pods dropping is excellent. It’s even available for free as part of the preview for this book here.
The story moves to planet-side where we see a Marine and a high ranking UNSC officer scrambling to get away from the covenant, while in a warthog.
The warthog coms under attack by a Brute Chieftan and the marine dies. The officer is carrying an important AI core and must not be caught. When all of the sudden, Palmer lands nearly on top of the chieftan.
She quickly break out of the pod and into action right away fighting of the same brute, a grunt and an elite, with several other covenant see in on the very close horizon. There isn’t a ton of dialog in this portion of the book and there really doesn’t need to be as it’s the action that pulls you in.
Needless to say Palmer wins the day, but not before being shot a couple of times by a needler. She escapes with the officer and AI core in tow, safe and secure.
Next we see Palmer in a hospital bed. She has a visitor. Something seems strangely familiar about him. ONI perhaps??? No in fact it’s Jun. Yes, THAT Jun. Noble 4 from Reach. He has indeed survived. Though now he’s wearing a suit and looks more like a beefy Professor X from X-Men, than the tanner non-caucasian Jun we know from the game. (Hopefully, he’ll be draw more accurately in the last two issues if he appear in them again.)
Jun talks with Palmer about the mission and then drops the bomb on her, asking her if she want to be recruited as a Spartan.
The comic book is fairly short at 28 pages. I’d like to know more about this Musa and of course how Jun survived. With this being only a 3 part series, I was hoping for some more action, more backstory and more overall comic book. At a price of $3.99 before tax, I expected more pages. Maybe I’m so far removed from comic books now though that 28 pages are the norm for the price. It just seems a bit short to me is all.
The artwork is good. The page with Master Chief on it is my favorite of this book (as seen above). The panel layout is nice and flows easily so you won’t get lost. The text bubbles and text effects are well done.
My two main gripes for the artwork is that Jun doesn’t look like Jun from Reach. Since this comic takes place within a couple of years at most after the events of Reach, Jun shouldn’t look as aged as he is in the book. As well, they totally missed the mark on what Palmer looks like, with exception to the cover art.
All in all, it’s a good book. Not great, but good. Is it worth picking up? Yes, if you’re into more story. In fact you will get a code will allow you to view it online so you won’t have to worry about losing/tearing your physical comic book.
This was a good start to the series. Again though, since it’s only a 3-book story arc, I really hope book 2 is much better. More action please! More story! MORE PAGES!
-Sal