Brand New Feature: Halo: Initiation #1 (Dark Horse Comics)

By Brian Reed & Mario Castiello

The Halo franchise is nothing short of astonishing. What started as a singular video game title has become its own brand, and soon-to-be television program, as well. Halo: Initiation is not the first comic Halo comic title, but it is meant to be the precursor for Halo: Spartan Assault. The book focuses on Sarah Palmer as well as the rebuilding of the Spartan unit. The status quo at the start of this story is that the year is 2553 and the previous Spartan army, along with Master Chief, are all missing. One man has decided to stop waiting and enact his own plan B.

Brand New Feature: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #1 (Dark Horse Comics)

by Gerard Way, Shaun Simon, Becky Cloonan

No longer needing to hide from his claim to fame, Gerard Way has combined his music career and his love of comics into this new story, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, from Dark Horse Comics. Originally doing his best to separate the two so as to let his first work, The Umbrella Academy, rest on its own merits, Way is now presenting a story that is also the basis for My Chemical Romance's final album, Danger Days. The story is dense, and like Brian K. Vaughan's Saga, it drops readers in this new world, filled with a lot of unfamiliar elements and language. Ultimately, this first issue is pretty well handled and the art is incredibly lively.

Brand New Feature: Dream Thief #1 (Dark Horse Comics)

by Jai Nitz, Greg Smallwood

Sometimes the best stories are the ones readers have to work for. There is a fine line, though, where asking too much of your reader can be more damaging than asking nothing of them. Jai Nitz and Greg Smallwood present Dream Thief, a miniseries from Dark Horse. Here, readers are introduced to a fascinatingly unique story that balances several genres and influences for a final product that will surely draw them in for more.

As it opens, readers are quick to infer that the lead character is a bit of a deadbeat. Johnny wakes up, seemingly hungover with little knowledge of how he came to be in this room with last night's pretty face. Already, Nitz employs an interesting tactic with dual narration from the same character. Johnny is writing a letter to his son, and he is also narrating a bit, each employing different colored text boxes, and each serving separate purposes, though appearing within the same panels. Readers learn was once married, has kids and now a girlfriend but seems to have spent the night with none of those people.