What do you think?
Rate this book
Halo Graphic Novels
Halo: Blood Line
The Spartans--four soldiers trained from birth as a special operations team--crash land on a desolated planet and prepare to do battle with two Covenant brother soldiers until they discover they face a common menace.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published July 20, 2011
24 people are currently reading
1,423 people want to read
About the author
Fred Van Lente
1,324 books316 followersFred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
December 23, 2021
A Spartan Black team has to agree to an alliance with the remnants of a Covenant ship after they both crashland on a planet with an ancient Forerunner device on it. I thought this was solid but not as good as the two previous Halo miniseries.
December 30, 2018
Well, this was an unexpected blast.
I’ll be honest: I’ve never been the biggest Fred Van Lente fan – to me, his writing style has always been just a tad too self-aware, a little bit too twee…but here, in “Blood Line,” his “showoff-y cleverness” works splendidly. I think a part of the reason why Van Lente’s story sensibilities work better here than in something like, say, “The Incredible Hercules” or “Archer and Armstrong” is because, with “Halo,” they’re grounded in a hard-edged universe – there’s only so much “look-at-me, I’m-so-clever”-styled plotting that you can do in a world that’s as militaristic and no-bull**** as “Halo”s. It also doesn’t hurt that Van Lente has Francis Portela – he of “Faith” and “Green Lantern” fame – providing gorgeous, vibrantly colorful art to the proceedings.
“Blood Line” just WORKS. The twists are surprising and actually feel earned, the action is well-drawn, and the emotional underpinning of the story is never overshadowed by the writer’s less-than-ideal sensibilities. Even if you’re not a “Halo” fan, I can pretty confidently recommend “Blood Line” – it’s a treat.
I’ll be honest: I’ve never been the biggest Fred Van Lente fan – to me, his writing style has always been just a tad too self-aware, a little bit too twee…but here, in “Blood Line,” his “showoff-y cleverness” works splendidly. I think a part of the reason why Van Lente’s story sensibilities work better here than in something like, say, “The Incredible Hercules” or “Archer and Armstrong” is because, with “Halo,” they’re grounded in a hard-edged universe – there’s only so much “look-at-me, I’m-so-clever”-styled plotting that you can do in a world that’s as militaristic and no-bull**** as “Halo”s. It also doesn’t hurt that Van Lente has Francis Portela – he of “Faith” and “Green Lantern” fame – providing gorgeous, vibrantly colorful art to the proceedings.
“Blood Line” just WORKS. The twists are surprising and actually feel earned, the action is well-drawn, and the emotional underpinning of the story is never overshadowed by the writer’s less-than-ideal sensibilities. Even if you’re not a “Halo” fan, I can pretty confidently recommend “Blood Line” – it’s a treat.
March 11, 2019
The third Haloverse graphic novel that I bought and read after Halo Graphic Novel and Halo: Uprising, sadly, this one is the worst.
The art was quite good but the story could be better, it featured SPARTAN Black Team, secretive spec ops squad among elites, etc. It failed to deliver the same impact as the previous two graphic novels I read, the story was a bit shallow overall.
I know that video game related publications such as this are meant to improve your video game experience by completing details, backstories, whatchamacallit for players, but please even as a 'completing' part of the saga it should be better than this.
The art was quite good but the story could be better, it featured SPARTAN Black Team, secretive spec ops squad among elites, etc. It failed to deliver the same impact as the previous two graphic novels I read, the story was a bit shallow overall.
I know that video game related publications such as this are meant to improve your video game experience by completing details, backstories, whatchamacallit for players, but please even as a 'completing' part of the saga it should be better than this.
February 21, 2020
This was a fun read, nothing amazing. To be honest, the story got a bit confusing at times, and while this was on purpose for the sake of the plot, it did ruin the experience a bit for me. For some reason, the characters looked too similar (even with their helmets off) and I had a hard time telling them apart. Nonetheless, some cool visuals in this story.
October 20, 2024
A fun read! But this doesn't do anything to advance the larger plot of the Halo story, this is just a side story that builds up the universe.
June 24, 2015
Overall I really liked this book. The storyline is a group of spartans crashed their ship and get lost and see some covenant. The spartans follow the covenant and watch them. Soon after than a Forerunner creature comes and captures the spartans and the covenant. After a while they are released in a prison but the spartans escape and roam around . Soon they bump into more covenant a group of elites grunts and hunters. Both of them know that they will struggle to escape so they truce the spartans have no weapons so the covenant lend them some. Then the covenant get attacked and defend themselfs. This is as far as im going to go for now I really enjoyed this book and i would really recommend it to people who like sci fi and the actual game. The reason I read this book is becuse I was into the halo video game series and then i game up with this book after reading it I was wanting to make a review.
October 3, 2010
I picked this up on a whim because I had a Barnes & Noble gift card and am a pretty big Halo fan. Overall I enjoyed the story, but found it somewhat lacking.
There were many attempts to give the characters depth, but they still felt very flat and archetypal to me. The AI, Iona, was by far the most interesting character, and even she saw very little development. Perhaps it is the nature of the five-comic graphic novel that didn't allow for much exposition, but compared to other Halo works, it was definitely a bit sub-par.
That said, if you're a Halo fan, you should still pick it up. It goes into the relationships amongst Spartans as well as that between Elites. We learn a little more about the Forerunners too. All in all a fun read.
There were many attempts to give the characters depth, but they still felt very flat and archetypal to me. The AI, Iona, was by far the most interesting character, and even she saw very little development. Perhaps it is the nature of the five-comic graphic novel that didn't allow for much exposition, but compared to other Halo works, it was definitely a bit sub-par.
That said, if you're a Halo fan, you should still pick it up. It goes into the relationships amongst Spartans as well as that between Elites. We learn a little more about the Forerunners too. All in all a fun read.
January 2, 2018
As a fan of the Halo series having played numerous games in the series, I was pretty intrigued how this comic was going to fit in the already vast lore. From the beginning it was certainly action packed and suspenseful, however as the story progressed at some stages I had a confused expression on my face while saying "What the fuck?" out loud.
The first two chapters had to be my favourite out of all of the comic, purely because of the mystery aspect. Both UNSC and Covenant forces receive a message in space and they find themselves crash landing on some unknown planet and that's when things kick up. When Team Black and the Covenant were involved in a firefight a huge machine with tentacles ambushes them and actually kidnaps some members from both sides. The ones that gets left behind goes off to rescue their comrades and they eventually find the alien structure. What really surprised me was the Spartans and Covenant reluctantly agreed to work together.
As for the unfortunate captives they find themselves locked up in cells and they're soon approached by a monitor. The monitor's intentions are dark - it wants to experiment on the unwilling subjects by dissection. Right from the beginning when they crash landed I had a suspicion that it might have something to do with the Flood. Also I didn't exactly trust the monitor - trust me, the games have taught me to never place faith in them because most of them (especially Guilty Spark) often betray humans.
When you see the monitor 'testing' out a poor Hunter and Grunt and realising the reason behind the experiments is truly horrifying in a way. For me personally it was a moment that stood out to me. It kept me on the edge of my seat because I wanted both Spartan and Covenant leaders to survive.
Overall I really liked the characters. Iona, the AI, drew me in as she's feisty in some ways and her loyalty to Team Black certainly impressed me. For me the strong point is the exploration of themes such as family and strong team work. Although they're enemies at the front, both the Covenant and Spartans realise in some ways they're not so much different. And because of that, I truly believed that they were able to have better understanding of each other despite their various species. That's why I have so much love for Halo novels/comics that focus on the UNSC and Covenant being unlikely allies.
From there, things turned a little more darker and twisted. Even though the team of Spartans are presented as a close family and whatnot, secrets lurk underneath the surface. A particular incident that happened back on Reach in their early days was what sparked it off. I admit when I saw the flashback of two Spartans locked in a passionate embrace in a shower cubicle I was like "What the hell are they doing?!" And as the story unraveled itself further the more I wanted to know what was going on.
Personally I slightly disagree with the concept of Spartans having a secret relationship despite it being a plot device. I do have a love/hate relationship with it. I hate it because Spartans are meant to be seen as fierce, legend-like warriors and due to their augmentations I would imagine them not having sexual urges. But at the same time I do love the idea because when the monitor gets inside their heads and fucks everything up by causing them to fight, they pull together as a family (with the help of Iona) and they're able to find forgiveness and strength.
What kinda let it down was how it all ended. I would have loved to see the Covenant and the humans continue working together. Sadly that never happened.
Overall the story was amazing and pretty much enjoyable. The artwork and the way the action/sequences flowed was top notch most of the time. Oh, and another thing I liked was the humour. Almost every scene featuring the Grunts had me crack up laughing - especially that part where a Hunter jumped off a sheer drop with a few Grunts holding on and when they landed the Grunts were cheering and wanted to do it again.
The first two chapters had to be my favourite out of all of the comic, purely because of the mystery aspect. Both UNSC and Covenant forces receive a message in space and they find themselves crash landing on some unknown planet and that's when things kick up. When Team Black and the Covenant were involved in a firefight a huge machine with tentacles ambushes them and actually kidnaps some members from both sides. The ones that gets left behind goes off to rescue their comrades and they eventually find the alien structure. What really surprised me was the Spartans and Covenant reluctantly agreed to work together.
As for the unfortunate captives they find themselves locked up in cells and they're soon approached by a monitor. The monitor's intentions are dark - it wants to experiment on the unwilling subjects by dissection. Right from the beginning when they crash landed I had a suspicion that it might have something to do with the Flood. Also I didn't exactly trust the monitor - trust me, the games have taught me to never place faith in them because most of them (especially Guilty Spark) often betray humans.
When you see the monitor 'testing' out a poor Hunter and Grunt and realising the reason behind the experiments is truly horrifying in a way. For me personally it was a moment that stood out to me. It kept me on the edge of my seat because I wanted both Spartan and Covenant leaders to survive.
Overall I really liked the characters. Iona, the AI, drew me in as she's feisty in some ways and her loyalty to Team Black certainly impressed me. For me the strong point is the exploration of themes such as family and strong team work. Although they're enemies at the front, both the Covenant and Spartans realise in some ways they're not so much different. And because of that, I truly believed that they were able to have better understanding of each other despite their various species. That's why I have so much love for Halo novels/comics that focus on the UNSC and Covenant being unlikely allies.
From there, things turned a little more darker and twisted. Even though the team of Spartans are presented as a close family and whatnot, secrets lurk underneath the surface. A particular incident that happened back on Reach in their early days was what sparked it off. I admit when I saw the flashback of two Spartans locked in a passionate embrace in a shower cubicle I was like "What the hell are they doing?!" And as the story unraveled itself further the more I wanted to know what was going on.
Personally I slightly disagree with the concept of Spartans having a secret relationship despite it being a plot device. I do have a love/hate relationship with it. I hate it because Spartans are meant to be seen as fierce, legend-like warriors and due to their augmentations I would imagine them not having sexual urges. But at the same time I do love the idea because when the monitor gets inside their heads and fucks everything up by causing them to fight, they pull together as a family (with the help of Iona) and they're able to find forgiveness and strength.
What kinda let it down was how it all ended. I would have loved to see the Covenant and the humans continue working together. Sadly that never happened.
Overall the story was amazing and pretty much enjoyable. The artwork and the way the action/sequences flowed was top notch most of the time. Oh, and another thing I liked was the humour. Almost every scene featuring the Grunts had me crack up laughing - especially that part where a Hunter jumped off a sheer drop with a few Grunts holding on and when they landed the Grunts were cheering and wanted to do it again.
April 8, 2019
The story follows a squad of Spartans on a mission focused primarily on survival. I enjoyed the complexities of their training which begins at age 6 after being taken from their families and replaced by clones. They spend day and night together to ensure that they build teamwork. Even though the challenges of this mission threaten to break them apart like it almost did once during their training, they remain together like family. It reminds me of the clones in Star Wars.
The human exploration ship Long Time Coming, in reality an ONI ship in Operation Blowback, is grounded by a space hazard in sector 35. The human ship's AI, Iona, releases the four Spartans on board to make hasty repairs on the ship. One of them remains behind while the rest head for an underground facility with breathable atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Covenant assault carrier Clarity of Faith also crashlands. Some of the crew believe they are witnessing a sign from the Forerunners, but the shipmaster dismisses the ideas and focuses on survival.
The human exploration ship Long Time Coming, in reality an ONI ship in Operation Blowback, is grounded by a space hazard in sector 35. The human ship's AI, Iona, releases the four Spartans on board to make hasty repairs on the ship. One of them remains behind while the rest head for an underground facility with breathable atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Covenant assault carrier Clarity of Faith also crashlands. Some of the crew believe they are witnessing a sign from the Forerunners, but the shipmaster dismisses the ideas and focuses on survival.
September 2, 2024
An undercover ONI ship carrying Spartan Team Black and a Covenant warship both crashland on an unknown world where members of their crews are kidnapped by Forerunner automatons. The remaining Spartans and the Covenant survivors are forced to enter into an uneasy alliance in an attempt to rescue their missing compatriots.
What I quite liked about this book is that it's set on a previously unknown world, features all-new characters and has no significant impact on the larger Halo franchise. Whilst sometimes all of that can leave a franchise story feeling a bit pointless, here it means that there's everything to play for, no-one is guaranteed to survive and nothing is off the table. It adds actual stakes to a book which would have none if the main characters were Master Chief, Cortana and Sergeant Johnson.
I also enjoyed seeing how the Covenant are portrayed here and we get to explore a bit more of the attitudes, beliefs and personal codes of both the Elites and, to a lesser extent, the Grunts. That and the alliance formed with the Spartans mean that the Covenant characters are more than just antagonists here. I particularly liked how the two groups are used in juxtaposition to explore concepts of duty, loyalty and brotherhood.
Overall, I enjoyed this quite a bit.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
What I quite liked about this book is that it's set on a previously unknown world, features all-new characters and has no significant impact on the larger Halo franchise. Whilst sometimes all of that can leave a franchise story feeling a bit pointless, here it means that there's everything to play for, no-one is guaranteed to survive and nothing is off the table. It adds actual stakes to a book which would have none if the main characters were Master Chief, Cortana and Sergeant Johnson.
I also enjoyed seeing how the Covenant are portrayed here and we get to explore a bit more of the attitudes, beliefs and personal codes of both the Elites and, to a lesser extent, the Grunts. That and the alliance formed with the Spartans mean that the Covenant characters are more than just antagonists here. I particularly liked how the two groups are used in juxtaposition to explore concepts of duty, loyalty and brotherhood.
Overall, I enjoyed this quite a bit.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
November 14, 2016
This is actually a very good halo comic created by marvel. To be honest the story about a group of spartan crash landing on a forerunner world and being attacked by a crazy Ai and they have to work with the covenant is fantastic. in the end we see a band of heroes beating the invading covenant forces who crashed on the planet. Thanks marvel for making a good halo comic!
November 19, 2017
Go team black!
Another extension of the Halo University with Spartan black team in the center of it all. My first graphic novel and it does fill some grapes in the regular word novels.
Another extension of the Halo University with Spartan black team in the center of it all. My first graphic novel and it does fill some grapes in the regular word novels.
June 25, 2018
An interesting story featuring Spartan II Black team and their AI Iona. Set during the war, and forcing a joint UNSC/Covenant effort to rescue teammates, with a troublesome Forerunner Sentinel makes for an interesting read.
December 31, 2017
Very enjoyable, short halo story, excellent artwork. what's not to like?
April 23, 2020
gibi bom da porra ta doido
December 9, 2020
Really captured the ambiance and flair of the game. Makes me feel like a wee lass again!
A+ artwork.
9/10
A+ artwork.
9/10
May 6, 2011
If I were a bigger fan of Halo, I might love this book. Otherwise, it's an beautifully drawn muddle about brotherhood in times of chaos, and impossible troops faced with impossible situations. I thought the scene where the troops and the Covenant soldiers were forced to corroborate towards a mutual gain, despite their hatred for each other, was especially poignant because it surfaces the homogeneous nature of consciousness.
As we are divided by race today, perhaps someday our races unite to divide against other species.
As we are divided by race today, perhaps someday our races unite to divide against other species.
May 20, 2024
This is a strange comic. I still have no idea what was going through the authors head. Fred Van Lente must have been wired to write other styles of comics. The art is good, and the Covenant storyline is good as well. But Reff seems to be missing his sense of honor that all other elites have. The Spartan story is all out of whack. Spartan II's do not have relationships! That is against all Spartan II and UNSC policies! SPARTANS ARE MILITARY SUPERPOWERS! WHAT WAS GOING ON HERE!? I will say though, the story would have worked well with anything else. Score: 7.5/10
February 27, 2014
The artwork has some nice moments but nothing really spectacular or innovative. The story is painfully shallow. Nothing interesting happens except for the downplayed ending. The ending is dense and yet still underwhelming. Kind of a "then he turned into a bird and the world blew up" sort of ending. After the awesome work (especially the unbelievable and boldly styled visuals) in the Halo Graphic Novel, this is a sad offering. At least it's very short.
August 8, 2013
I found the story to be deeper than I expected. It primarily dealt with the theme of how beliefs influence action, which surprised me when the catalog copy focused only on the family dynamic of teams. Much of the art reminded me of the '90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novels, which gave the book bonus points for nostalgia.
Read
August 9, 2022This is a really interesting and self-contained story in the Halo universe, centering on a team of Spartans and an A.I. previously unknown to me. The story is compelling and the artwork is next-level outstanding. Easily, this is one of the smoothest comic reading experiences I’ve ever had. Congrats to the whole team on delivering a stunning piece of work!
September 20, 2011
I love reading the books based on the video games I play. I love to read more of the story that surrounds the game and this is one of those books. I really liked the fact that this was also a graphic novel.
April 23, 2012
Great short story! Adds depth to the characters and their history. It was an interesting take on the more personal side of a group of Spartans.
June 17, 2012
Awesome, just need the rest! such a Halo nerd
April 7, 2014
It's good to see Spartans and Covenant come together and hate each other on a more personal level.
Want to read
November 11, 2010i need to read it
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews