What do you think?
Rate this book
Halo Graphic Novels
Halo: Initiation
Halo® —one of the most iconic video game franchises in history—comes to Dark Horse!
Before she was a supersolider defending humanity as part of the Spartan-IV program, Sarah Palmer was an ODST—Orbital Drop Shock Trooper—carrying out the most dangerous missions behind enemy lines!
Join her on her dramatic journey from the ranks of humanity's toughest leathernecks to the highest echelon of elite warriors in the galaxy. Collects the three-issue miniseries.
* A new era of Halo ® comics begins at Dark Horse!
* The Halo franchise has sales eclipsing $3 billion over its lifetime!
* From one of the writers on Halo 4 —comics veteran Brian Reed!
Before she was a supersolider defending humanity as part of the Spartan-IV program, Sarah Palmer was an ODST—Orbital Drop Shock Trooper—carrying out the most dangerous missions behind enemy lines!
Join her on her dramatic journey from the ranks of humanity's toughest leathernecks to the highest echelon of elite warriors in the galaxy. Collects the three-issue miniseries.
* A new era of Halo ® comics begins at Dark Horse!
* The Halo franchise has sales eclipsing $3 billion over its lifetime!
* From one of the writers on Halo 4 —comics veteran Brian Reed!
72 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2014
About the author
Brian Reed
442 books21 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 16, 2025
Since I don't play Halo, I don't know who Sarah Palmer is. And I don't care because the plot is simple enough to understand: she's a colonial marine or whatever and she's selected to become a Spartan—clearly Warhammer 40K's Adeptus Astartes—in this environment. She's cocky and reckless, she takes names and kicks ass. That's it.
The background is light—I suppose you have to know the game to connect the dots—and the psychology is non-existent, but that's okay, I wasn't expecting anything. The plot itself is reasonably well written for its genre even if it lacks oomph.
On the other hand, I was hoping for some badass artwork that would highlight the action, but what we get is functional artwork with static and clumsy action scenes.
The background is light—I suppose you have to know the game to connect the dots—and the psychology is non-existent, but that's okay, I wasn't expecting anything. The plot itself is reasonably well written for its genre even if it lacks oomph.
On the other hand, I was hoping for some badass artwork that would highlight the action, but what we get is functional artwork with static and clumsy action scenes.
December 16, 2020
And then came Dark Horse and the new era, along with generic boredom...
July 4, 2015
Le doy solamente la mitad de los puntos porque el arte está bastante bien, pero para ser "la historia de Sarah Palmer", le falta MUCHÍSIMO contenido. Muchísimo.
August 13, 2026
A perfectly fine introduction to the Spartan IV program and the character of Sarah Palmer.
I do like Halo stories like this one that can draw upon other elements within the Halo cannon, it helps make it feel like a piece of a larger, whole world.
However, the late introduction of antagonist really brings it down a lot.
This "villian" seems to act like a character designed to be a foil for Palmer, but they have so little interaction or even awarness of each other that it feels incredibly shallow. Which leads into another recurring problem with the Halo extended stories, that the main human faction, the UNSC, are clearly terrible people who create their own problems and probably deserve to have the ,often violent, pushback. But this story, like many others in Halo, seem to be unaware just how bad they make the UNSC look.
It could be a deliberate choice about how the military opperates and those that serve can be blind to it. But sonetimes, like here, it feels as if the story is somewhat ambivelent to it.
I do like Halo stories like this one that can draw upon other elements within the Halo cannon, it helps make it feel like a piece of a larger, whole world.
However, the late introduction of antagonist really brings it down a lot.
This "villian" seems to act like a character designed to be a foil for Palmer, but they have so little interaction or even awarness of each other that it feels incredibly shallow. Which leads into another recurring problem with the Halo extended stories, that the main human faction, the UNSC, are clearly terrible people who create their own problems and probably deserve to have the ,often violent, pushback. But this story, like many others in Halo, seem to be unaware just how bad they make the UNSC look.
It could be a deliberate choice about how the military opperates and those that serve can be blind to it. But sonetimes, like here, it feels as if the story is somewhat ambivelent to it.
July 19, 2017
What I kind of miss in the length of this comic it makes up in the quality and style of the graphics.
The pictures are very nice and the print is of good quality. But it's not very long so I will have to continue reading with the next part of the series.
The pictures are very nice and the print is of good quality. But it's not very long so I will have to continue reading with the next part of the series.
April 23, 2020
Esse é um dos piores gibis que li em muito tempo.
Fazia tempo que eu não via algo tão inumano e sem alma quanto este gibi, parece algo feito por uma IA seguindo passos pré determinados para criar algo que sirva seu propósito de contar uma história mas sem nenhum outro objetivo, completamente privado de qualquer emoção conhecida pelo homem.
A arte é triste, absolutamente triste, em quadros isolados ela é até bonita (apesar de ser extremamente parecida com de outros artistas, como o Leinil Yu de maneira que até incomoda) mas quando é necessário ação ou movimento ela é HORRENDA, é uma triste ver um gibi ser tão imóvel, os gibis do Fantasma do Lee Falk tinham muito mais movimento que isso e aquela porra é dos anos 30.
Fazia muito tempo que eu não era tão afetado negativamente por um gibi assim e olhe que eu leio/li MUITA porcaria na vida.
Esse gibi tá tranquilamente nesse meio.
Fazia tempo que eu não via algo tão inumano e sem alma quanto este gibi, parece algo feito por uma IA seguindo passos pré determinados para criar algo que sirva seu propósito de contar uma história mas sem nenhum outro objetivo, completamente privado de qualquer emoção conhecida pelo homem.
A arte é triste, absolutamente triste, em quadros isolados ela é até bonita (apesar de ser extremamente parecida com de outros artistas, como o Leinil Yu de maneira que até incomoda) mas quando é necessário ação ou movimento ela é HORRENDA, é uma triste ver um gibi ser tão imóvel, os gibis do Fantasma do Lee Falk tinham muito mais movimento que isso e aquela porra é dos anos 30.
Fazia muito tempo que eu não era tão afetado negativamente por um gibi assim e olhe que eu leio/li MUITA porcaria na vida.
Esse gibi tá tranquilamente nesse meio.
December 31, 2024
The process of creating the Spartans was part of the Halo lore; part of the epic story which fans love. It changes the dynamic if ONI is not the same type of ruthless and heartless jerks to steal infants from their parents, and having the families believe the child is dead but in reality, they are being turned into breathing weapons. Creating Spartans any other way does not feel like Halo at all. Also, the individuality or personality of soldiers and ODST personnel would make for bad/poor Spartans. It makes no sense; they have lived too long being human; they cannot simply be turned into weapons. This story would have worked way better if the idea was simply former ODST troopers returning to glory via ONI guerilla warfare tactics.
January 20, 2026
Confieso mi total debilidad con todo lo relacionado al universo Halo, me parece una historia que supera en demasía lo que fué el juego y que lamentablemente por lo menos en formato audiovisual todavia no tiene algo que esté a la altura.
Yendo al grano. Sarah Palmer es uno de los personajes mas potentes de la historia, aquí en esta historia de origen se quedan un poco cortos, de haber tenido unos dos numeros más habrían profundizado en el personaje. pero no está mal.
Yendo al grano. Sarah Palmer es uno de los personajes mas potentes de la historia, aquí en esta historia de origen se quedan un poco cortos, de haber tenido unos dos numeros más habrían profundizado en el personaje. pero no está mal.
November 29, 2025
this comic book involves SO MUCH LORE I never would have expected it when I first picked it up but the amount of lore in this book that you can't find anywhere else but that gets referenced again is unbelievable, altogether a great read very fun, i had nothing but sadness when i ran out of pages
May 4, 2017
a bit of a let down, not a great story, non of the characters from the games... But it's short and reads easy and looks nice...
April 6, 2023
This was okay. I am not the biggest fan of Palmer, but I appreciated the insight into her character. I did like seeing Jun and Lasky thought and the insight into the Spartan-IV program.
December 12, 2025
Married to the uninteresting, enslaved to pick up the narrative scaps of 343's Reclaimer trilogy, Halo's ongoing comic series reads as just another unnecessary half-assed tie-in to sell games.
February 4, 2016
Based on her role in Halo 4, it seems like Sarah Palmer was intended to be the "face" of the new Halo generation and the Spartan-IVs. And on the surface, she seems like a pretty great character; she's a Commander, which is cool, and she's voiced by legendary voice actor and perennial fan favorite Jennifer Hale. Unfortunately, her characterization throughout the game is uneven and even somewhat unlikable, and those problems extend to this book which was meant to serve as an origin story for the character.
Palmer's character is, for lack of a better term, just flat-out unlikable as a protagonist. It's always great for characters to have flaws, of course, but those flaws do need to be tempered with characteristics that cause an audience to identify with the main character. Even worse, Palmer is uneven, at first disliking the Spartans for being "superior" and then lording that same superiority when she becomes a Spartan herself. There's also the odd inconsistency in her rank and promotion: originally, her character was supposedly a lieutenant before she became a Spartan, which would make sense, but here she's a lowly corporal . . . which means that, by the time of Halo 4, she's jumped how many ranks in how short a time?
Basically, it's just hard to root for her, and as this story is entirely focused on introducing us to her character, it drags the entire story down, even though the rest of the book is pretty decent. Fortunately, I've also read the next book in the Halo graphic novel line, Escalation Volume 1, and that story does a great deal to redeem Palmer's character.
Thus, I'd say skip this one entirely. It doesn't do anything for the character except make you dislike her, which is a huge problem for a backstory book.
Palmer's character is, for lack of a better term, just flat-out unlikable as a protagonist. It's always great for characters to have flaws, of course, but those flaws do need to be tempered with characteristics that cause an audience to identify with the main character. Even worse, Palmer is uneven, at first disliking the Spartans for being "superior" and then lording that same superiority when she becomes a Spartan herself. There's also the odd inconsistency in her rank and promotion: originally, her character was supposedly a lieutenant before she became a Spartan, which would make sense, but here she's a lowly corporal . . . which means that, by the time of Halo 4, she's jumped how many ranks in how short a time?
Basically, it's just hard to root for her, and as this story is entirely focused on introducing us to her character, it drags the entire story down, even though the rest of the book is pretty decent. Fortunately, I've also read the next book in the Halo graphic novel line, Escalation Volume 1, and that story does a great deal to redeem Palmer's character.
Thus, I'd say skip this one entirely. It doesn't do anything for the character except make you dislike her, which is a huge problem for a backstory book.
June 25, 2016
As someone with very little familiarity with the Halo games after the first one, I assume there are a lot of references and callbacks here that I'm missing. That being said, it still manages to be completely accessible, and a surprisingly full action story considering its relatively short length. Sarah Palmer is a new generation of Spartans, and she gets to prove it with her cohorts against a renegade who is trying to steal a secret ship. It has lots of action, although not much in the way of aliens. The artwork is more than sufficient to tell the story and keep most of the characters distinct, and does seem to echo what little knowledge I have of the HALO universe. I would strongly recommend this for HALO fans, and say even if you're not a fan, it might suit you if you like military science fiction.
March 4, 2014
Halo Initiation is billed as the lead-in to the Halo: Spartan Assault videogame. It covers the origins of the Spartan IV program and Command Sarah Palmer, the leader of the Spartan IVs.
The story is well told and well illustrated, capturing the aesthetic of the Halo universe that has already been established through the games and previous comics. It stands on its own, but if you played Halo 4 or Spartan Assault, it ties in nicely, adding more depth to the universe.
If I had any criticism for the comic, it's that it was too short. This graphic novel only has three issues, so before you know it you're done and wanting more.
Overall I enjoyed Initiation and would recommend it to fans of the Halo universe. It's by no means required reading though.
The story is well told and well illustrated, capturing the aesthetic of the Halo universe that has already been established through the games and previous comics. It stands on its own, but if you played Halo 4 or Spartan Assault, it ties in nicely, adding more depth to the universe.
If I had any criticism for the comic, it's that it was too short. This graphic novel only has three issues, so before you know it you're done and wanting more.
Overall I enjoyed Initiation and would recommend it to fans of the Halo universe. It's by no means required reading though.
March 29, 2014
I've played the games, read the books & other graphic novels. In my opinion, this was disappointing. Palmer wasn't my favorite Spartan, so I thought this GN would make me think " well, she's not such a b-". That didn't happen. On the cover of the GN proclaims 'The exciting lead-in to Spartan Assault!'-nope. Not exciting. More like 'too short, story disjointed'. Actually succeeded in making me like Palmer even less than I did before. I see on the back of the GN that it was 'Scripted by one of the writers on Halo 4'. This explains a lot. It was nice to see Jun again. I would have liked to have seen a GN about Spartan Thorne- now there's a back story that could be interesting. But let Karen Traviss write the script for that issue.
January 15, 2014
I guess I should have paid more attention when I ordered this as when it arrived I was surprised to see it was a graphic novel.
After reading it I couldn't tell you what it was about. It just did not register.
The Halo game franchise is very strong, and the books I have read add to that strength. This graphic novel was too self centered, at the exclussion of the story making process, for me to enjoy.
Even the art work was only okay.
I'd recommend the books in this series over the graphic novel approach
After reading it I couldn't tell you what it was about. It just did not register.
The Halo game franchise is very strong, and the books I have read add to that strength. This graphic novel was too self centered, at the exclussion of the story making process, for me to enjoy.
Even the art work was only okay.
I'd recommend the books in this series over the graphic novel approach
November 23, 2016
"I know my answer."
This is an interesting expansion of the Halo universe.
For an introduction the story is good, but not great. The pacing feels a bit rushed and there's some pretty cheesy banter. We get to see how ODST's became Spartans and get some background on people in the Halo world, but this book doesn't suck you in or add anything mind blowing...yet.
It's a short read and it's super focused on Palmer while also trying to share the larger story of Spartans.
This is an interesting expansion of the Halo universe.
For an introduction the story is good, but not great. The pacing feels a bit rushed and there's some pretty cheesy banter. We get to see how ODST's became Spartans and get some background on people in the Halo world, but this book doesn't suck you in or add anything mind blowing...yet.
It's a short read and it's super focused on Palmer while also trying to share the larger story of Spartans.
November 5, 2015
I've played the games, read some of the books, and a few of the graphic novels. This was a fun quick read, but it was a bit too quick. It glossed over the rest of the Spartans, and focused only on Palmer, who I do like, but even then, it didn't go into much detail about her. That being said, I still enjoyed it, and look forward to seeing more of these characters. The art was also really good.
October 10, 2013
The female Spartans are taking the lead in this new post Bungie Halo Universe. At least in the recent Karen Traviss trilogy of novels and this 3 part comic series. I wonder though, if these characters are going to make it into the next game. Could be interesting.
June 23, 2014
A decent story that explains where Spartan Palmer came from.
February 4, 2015
I liked it but its kinda short and felt like they rushed the ending but i still like it the book also informs you about what surgeries they do on you before you become a spartan
June 24, 2016
Good story. Makes me want to get back into the Halo universe again.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews