Halo: Blood Line

Halo: Blood Line, formerly known as Halo: Spartan Black, is an upcoming four-part comic series about a team of stranded SPARTAN-II commandos before the Battle of Reach in mid-2552. . It is set to be released in December 2009. It is written by Fred Van Lente and will be penciled and inked by Francis Portela as well as colored by Ulises Arreola.

Official Synopsis
"Blood Line is also a pre-"Halo: Combat Evolved" story, focused on a small Black Ops sabotage and intelligence fire team of Spartans assigned to the ONI, the Office of Naval Intelligence. While on a top-secret mission in enemy space, their ship crashes on a remote moon along with a Covenant cruiser. When a mysterious entity that has lurked on the moon for millions of years threatens both groups, Spartans and Covenant have to forge an uneasy alliance to take down the common threat ... but not all humans and aliens can suddenly start treating the other like allies.."

- Fred Van Lente

Issue #1 Summary
"Based on the Best-Selling X-Box Game! The Spartan team codename: Black is the top-secret unconventional warfare unit of the United Nations Space Command's Office of Naval Intelligence, engaging in sabotage and assassination missions deep inside Covenant space. But when this quartet of super soldiers is shot down over a desolate moon along with a Covenant Cruiser, humans and aliens will have to forge an uneasy alliance against a common foe before an eons-old threat destroys them both!''"

- IGN article

Issue #2 Summary
"Greetings! I am the monitor of Line Installation 1-4. I am 6-8-6 Ebullient Prism. My function is to collect and inspect any and all specimens captured within this sector for evidence of immunity to infestation by The Flood. I require your assistance. Please do not move while you are dissected and all your tissues are properly analyzed and cataloged."

- Marvel.com

Characters

 * 686 Ebullient Prism
 * "Team Black", a top-secret team of SPARTAN-II commandos.
 * Iona, an AI construct assigned to the team.
 * Thon, a Sangheili who is stranded on the moon.
 * Reff, the brother of Thon, also stranded on the moon.

Locations

 * Unnamed Moon
 * Line Installation 1-4

Vehicles

 * Colonial Mining Ship
 * Covenant Cruiser

Trivia

 * The armor the Spartans wear in the series appears similar to the MJOLNIR Mk. VI, which was not in use by the time the comic takes place. As stated by Frank O'Connor, this armor is a "skunkworks prototype" produced in Songnam, Korea, explaining its unique appearance.

Internal

 * Halopedia Interview with Fred Van Lente