Halo Omnibus Volume 2 Review

June 6, 2019 at 3:26am
By Jason Stettner

This is the second Omnibus in the current Halo series and it contains the rest of the Escalation comic run. This entry includes the stories of thirteen to twenty-four. This wraps up a collection that aims to cover the events between Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians. This is done mostly through the perspective of Sarah Palmer’s squad as she aims to track down Dr. Catherine Halsey. The latter of which you get to see a fair bit of perspective wise in this.

The Halo Omnibus Volume 2 is definitely something that can be read separately of the first release, but I do heavily suggest jumping into both of them. They’re very much a direct continuation of one another and that will matter for a more developed narrative. I found this one to be better than the first release, as it had a better series of tales and some more action included. It also directly funneled into my recollection of the events within the games.

This is important as it’s great to build out the lore, but I also want it to connect to the main games that I enjoy. It definitely helps players understand why certain characters are in particular situations for the games and sets the stage for the big war events that take place in Guardians.

With this being a series of comics, there’s a focus on detailed imagery and then text in speech bubbles to accompany it. These were well designed pieces of art, and they felt authentic to the Halo franchise. There was a larger focus on action which I enjoyed and they presented fast moving scenes well. This is also dense in terms of pages and content within it.

There are many panels and for the most part it all flows very well throughout the read. The chapters work together well, and aside from one sort of odd back story setup it came across as a streamlined engagement. On top of there being great regular collections of artwork, there’s also some bonus content. You get a whole behind the scenes and it features some lovely art.

The Conclusion

The Halo Omnibus Volume 2 is an improvement over the first series with more action and a more important plot to the overall universe. It uses the Spartans better, and focuses on key events that help set the stage for the future of the franchise. It would have been helpful to see some of this in the games as it does provide context into what was going on between the main entries. There’s a decent set of characters in this, and it’s always a treat to see Halsey in action.

I’m still not a fan of Sarah Palmer however, they didn’t do much to change my mind in this one. I’m not sure it had a direct conclusion here, but it did wrap up and set things in motion for the series. The artwork was great in this, and the comics generally flowed well together. The increase in action was appreciated and the face-offs felt more epic as we got to see what everyone was working towards here.

Halo Omnibus Volume 2 Book Review
Authors: Brian Reed, Chris Schlerf, Duffy Boudreau
ISBN: 9781506710839
Review Copy Provided by Penguin Random House Canada

Rating Overall: 7.8