HALO INITIATION #2 Review - Suit Up, You're a Spartan Now
Halo Initiation tells the story of how Sarah Palmer became a Spartan, and by the end of this second issue I am already 10 times more enamored with her than I ever was with Master Chief ( I know, I know... blasphemy). Part of that is credit to her sense of humor, which is on full display in this issue especially in panels like the ones showing her Weapon X like spartanization. Brian Reed's voice comes through loud and clear here, and that's a good thing. While her Spartan teammates are less than stellar, in both skills and personality, it doesn’t take anything away from Sarah. I do hope the squad gets a bit more developed as we go along, though.
So far we’ve only seen the Spartans in training, but by issue’s end we get a glimpse of the spiffy armor all Halo fans know and love. Of course, there has to be a reason, and here its a bit similar to the revolutionary war, but in no way like the revolutionary war. The colonies are having a hard time surviving and seem to be just scraping by, and the government decides to spend billions of dollars on building a state of the art frigate for a war that is already mostly over. Well, it turns out when things like that happen people get a bit perturbed, as seems to be the case here. Some upstarts, led by Isla Zane, decide to take it for themselves, and now we have a game, folks. Speaking of Isla, it's refreshing to see both the main protagonist and antagonist be powerful, confident, and above all, interesting female characters. It's something we need much more of.
All of this is rendered quite nicely by Marco Castiello, and his art alone gives these characters some personality, something they desperately need at this point. He keeps the action moving and knows how to keep your eye busy. I'm looking forward to next issue, as it appears we’ll get to see some Spartan armor in action, and that is something Castiello should illustrate very well.
Suffice it to say, I'm enjoying the series quite a bit more than expected, and while the first two issues have contained a great deal of setup, I think issue 3 looks to get the party bus on the road. If you're interested, make sure to catch a 6 page preview here.