Van Lente, Fred
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.5 out of 5
(2 books)
TOP PICK:
Halo: Blood Line
Captain America: The First Avenger - First Vengeance
(Art by Luke Ross, Neil Edwards, Daniel Green, Javi Fernandez, Andy Smith, Tom Palmer and Richard Elson)
A tie-in to the first Captain America movie (well, the first MCU one, anyway), intercutting one of Cap's WWII missions alongside the Howling Commandos against Hydra with all-new backstory for Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Abraham Erskine.
This book does exactly what it sets out to do, acting as a prelude to 'The First Avenger' and expanding elements from the movie to give them new depth and context. In particular I liked seeing Erskine's role in the origin of the Red Skull and the part Peggy (AKA Agent 13, in a nice nod to Sharon Carter) plays in his escape to America. The stuff with young Steve and Bucky was fine, but not really anything we couldn't extrapolate from what's in the movie.
But, it has to be said, that aside from expanding on the movie, this book doesn't do much else. There's the briefest sketch of a plot of it's own, set amid the montage of Cap taking down Hydra bases part-way through the film, but nothing terribly significant or engaging. What I'm saying is that this is perfectly good as a supplement to the movie, but lacks what would be required for it to stand alone on its own merits.
3 out of 5
Halo: Blood Line
(Art by Francis Portela)
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.
4 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
Chaos War: Avengers (here)
Hercules: When Titans Clash!/Gods Of Brooklyn (here)
Marvel Zombies: The Complete Collection Vol. 2 (here)
Tales From The Crypt: No. 5 - Yabba Dabba Voodoo (here)
The Amazing Spider-Man: Red-Headed Stranger (here)
The Avengers: Road To Marvel's The Avengers (here)