Impressions: Halo Uprising

6:20 PM on 06.18.2009   |   Hamza CTZ Aziz

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Earlier this month, a hardcover book made up of the four issues of Halo Uprising was released by Marvel. The comic series details the events that took place between Halo 2 and Halo 3, as it follows the Master Chief on board the Forerunner transport, the Keyship. The comic also follows two characters on Earth as they try to survive during the Covenant invasion.

Hit the break to find out more about Halo Uprising's story, art style and more. 

The first issue begins with the Master Chief causing all kinds of hell for the Covenant forces on board the Keyship, a ancient Forerunner ship. The ship is on its way to Earth, which we find out in Halo 3 is the key to setting off all the Halos.

The comic begins with a few pages of the Master Chief kicking ass on the Keyship. The scene switches and now we see a Covenant Cruiser maintaining orbit around Mars. On board is a human by the name of James Ackerson who's being interrogated by Brute forces. For those that follow the novels, yes, this is the same James Ackerson who tried to sabotage the SPARTAN-II project and started the SPARTAN-III project.

Ackerson is told he's going to finally be killed and that's when the main plot of Halo Uprising kicks off. Ackerson leads the Covenant to believe that there is a key located on Earth called the Key of Osanalan. Ackerson tells them that the key is, well, the key to the Halos, and if the Covenant don't have the key, the Halos will fail.

The Covenant then begin their search for the Key of Osanalan, which is in Cleveland, and this is where we meet the two main characters of Halo Uprising -- Ruwan, a hotel concierge, and Myras, a famous singer. The comic follows the two as they struggle to survive among the carnage created by Covenant and UNSC forces. Eventually, they're captured by the Covenant and put in a impromptu prison with hundreds of other human survivors. 

In the prison, the Covenant demand the human prisoners to tell them where the Key of Osanalan is. No one has a clue at what it is, except for Ruwan, who knows exactly what the key is. From there, we're shown the struggle Ruwan and Myras go through on Earth and how exactly Ruwan fits into the overall story. 

It's a good read, but the problem is that it focuses too much on Ruwan and Myras. The comic is more of a side story and doesn't really serve a purpose to the overall Halo storyline. We see the Master Chief a number of times throughout the comic as he's fighting on the Keyship, but it's usually short and doesn't do much for his story either. The fight scenes are great, but there's nothing in there in terms of a plot for the Chief. We already know he survives while on the Keyship.

The artwork is really what made me read through the entire thing. Alex Maleev's artwork is very dirty and dark, and usually I don't like that kind of style at all. Yet Alex makes it work, and it helps bring some life to the characters.

There's also a little bonus section at the end too, with some more artwork and interviews with Brian Bendis, Alex Maleev, Brian Jarrard and Frank O'Connor. If you're interested in checking out the comic, Marvel has provided the entire first issue on their Web site.