Customer Reviews

Halo: Helljumper

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Being the avid Halo fan that I am, I expect a lot out of every single production based on this wonderful franchise. Helljumper is no exception.
First off "Helljumper" is NOT abot Master Chief, though he does make an appearance though.
This story is centrally focused on the ODSTs of the universe. What they have to go through and the impossible missions presented to them like the ones presented to Spartans.
Some of the Characters from the latest edition of the Halo video game ODST makes an appearance in the comic, it helps because it brings life to the characters, where in ODST very little is known about each character other than what they present on the outside.
I really enjoyed reading through the comic, it helped me understand more about the characters, if you are a fan of the ODSTs then you will also enjoy this comic. It's not about people in super badass armor armor kicking ass and taking names. It's about Marines kicking ass and taking names.

In conclusion if you were a fan of the ODST game and wanted to know more about some of the characters this comic will help with that.
If you are a fan of Halo and wanted to know more about the ODSTs and how they function, like what type of missions they go on, on a regular basis then this will be a good read.

If you don't fit either of those 2 categories then you will be more or less disappointed in the comic.

The reason it got a 4 out of 5 stars was because:
----POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT-----

During the whole comic, I felt the ODSTs were more badass then they were suppose to be. They are suppose to operate in small tactical insertion groups; instead the author decided that they would all be split up and then have them take out a whole covenant ground batallion. I would understand if they were spartans but they aren't. The situations presented to them would seem like a challenge even to spartans but they take it on no problem.

Full disclosure: I've never played Halo. The closest I've ever come is the hours upon hours of GoldenEye that my friends and I played on the N64 back in college, but I know the basic mechanics of the first-person shooter genre of video games. However, this allows me a unique position to comment on this graphic novel as a comic, rather than an accessory to a huge property that has already spawned action figures, miniature strategy games, and alien fightin' underpants.

I've been reading Peter David (no relation) since his days writing Star Trek paperbacks, and I've always enjoyed his ability to leap into almost any given property, understand how it works, and give it some humanity and humor. David delivers a deeply bromantic war story that works without knowing anything about Halo's gameplay. There's some talk of different classes of soldiers and supersuits that are used within the game itself, so while this surely enhances the mythology that surrounds the game if you're a serious player, it's still a pretty okay read if you just like things about shooting aliens, or war stories, or exquisitely drawn explosions with an absurd amount of shrapnel.

Nguyen's artwork is great, and exceptionally detailed, though something seems to be lost in the coloring. While the hues are appropriate for the setting, it's not easy to immediately distinguish camouflaged human forms in the hurricane of explosions and landscapes that fill the pages. It's also fairly difficult to tell one character from another, as they're generally masked, or similarly attired and coifed as a unit of soldiers--but the dialogue can go either way anyhow. It actually isn't too important to tell who was saying what anyhow. I don't know if this is a discredit to the story itself, but I didn't feel like I wasn't picking up on anything. Hint: One guy's chestplate is a very subtle blue, and the other guy has a very subtle orange.

The artwork is consistent, which is tremendously hard to do when you're creating a realistic world.

There's a lot of gunfire, gory exploding aliens, mild profanity, and general themes of death and violence--but nothing too expressly offensive or unnecessary. When you're battling an alien invasion, you're going to say a few things that aren't appropriate for the kids and maybe spray a little more blood than Nick Jr. would appreciate. If this can serve as a gateway into reading for a reluctant teenager, I would suggest taking advantage of it. There's a growing world of Halo comics and paperbacks out there that can, in their own unique way, be used as learning tools.
-- Collin David

So,I bought Helljumpers, thinking that this is another great Halo novel. But instead, I found it to be a comic book. I was pretty upset for a while, until I finally sat down and opened it. Really, it was okay for a graphic novel. I'm not a big fan of comics, but since I'm a Halo fan, I gave it a chance. The story is pretty good, even though it's based off of the "lacking" ODST Halo game. The artwork is kind of sporadic and forgetful, but that might just be that I'm not a comic fan. Really, I'm not complaining, just wish whoever wrote the description could have mentioned that it's a graphic beeping novel!

After being thoroughly disappointed with Halo's previous comic foray, Halo: Uprising, I didn't have the highest expectations for ODST. To me, Uprising really fell apart in focusing more on the lame central lovestory rather than... anything else. Helljumper proves to be Uprising's opposite in terms of making you care about the central characters, and I highly recommend Helljumper.

For the story, frankly do I need to give a story? The comics follow the characters that show up in the Halo: ODST game (with a few really awesome cameos sprinkled in), and do a really good job of going into their backstory and motivations. As for this specific mission, however, it's fair to say they're going to shoot a lot of stuff and that's about all there is to it. That's actually a good thing in this case, as the beautiful art and frequent action serve only as a backdrop to really put the internal motivations of the ODSTs front and center. Where Uprising tried to focus on two bratty teens that you couldn't care less about, ODST brings a real human element to the killing machines you have have already met in the ODST game. Sure, the basic premise is still putting bullets into enemies, but now you really dig into why they're doing what they're doing, and what's going on in their heads.

Helljumper is a perfect tie-in comic. It compliments the ODST game perfectly, yet it stands on its own as a fine addition to any Halo fan's collection regardless of whether or not you've played that specific game. I'd say it's really not a good place for someone new to the series to get a start (that's accomplished much better by the first Xbox game or the Fall of Reach novel), but otherwise, it's a must-have.

this series of five volumes about helljumpers does not involve mjolnir armour of any sort, but is very enjoyable to read nonetheless. the story and the illustrations are quite good, i say.

Ok, I just entered a 4 star review. I think this comic Its greatly done, im really satisfied with my purchase, but being a Halo Fun and all, it left me with wanting something a little bigger. Its very nicely written and very well drawn, but at the end its very small in scale. Just one mission where you learn about Romeo and Dutch friendship, way of fighting and some of there history. Maybe they needed more cameos or to show all of the characters in a more important mission, one that implied something at the games.
I think this way for most of the Halo Franchise. There is a main story made by the games, and every aspect of this Universe should be tied to it in some way, if not it loses an oportunity of being more exiting....well thats my opinion. Even though, its a great comic, good action, well written, well drawn, and fair to its universe. I recomend it.

Although short this was excellently done, its the first halo comic I've read, and it was good enough to make me consider the others.

Just wanted to say it is a comic book, I bought it thinking it was a part of the Halo book series. Just wanted to make that clear, it was an enjoyable read and maybe I am just an amateur when it comes to graphic novel but at one point I was unsure of what exactly was going on.

The item was shipped relatively fast! I was surprised when I received it. Over all the book itself wasn't that great. Didn't take me to long to finish.

It is overall a very good book. I just wasn't expecting it to be a comic book based. It "stars" Dutch and Romeo from Halo 3: ODST. I was really wanting a novel but this was still a good buy. The animations are very well put together. I still recommend it for all Halo fans.