List of changes in Halo: Fall of Reach

Halo: Fall of Reach takes many artistic liberties to better suit the adaptation of the original novel into the comic medium. Other changes are intended to reflect lore established between the release of The Fall of Reach (October 2001) and the limited series itself (September 2010 - April 2012). Though the salient points of the story remain largely the same, a great number of scenes are omitted or heavily altered. As it is a rather loose adaptation of the source material, one may regard Fall of Reach as an alternate, apocryphal interpretation of the original work, though non-contradictory elements are understood to be canonical.

General changes

• There are several discrepancies regarding the hairstyles of certain characters.
  • Kelly-087 is depicted with brown hair in the Spartans' first day of training, whereas in the novel, she had her hair dyed blue at the time. She is also depicted with a bob-cut hairstyle in later scenes of childhood training; according to Dr. Halsey's personal journal, Kelly, like the other Spartans, had her head shaved a few days after her induction into the program, with an entry describing how she had to be held down for the barbers to finish cutting her hair. Kelly is also depicted with medium-length hair in the scenes following the augmentation procedures; in the book, her hair had yet to grow back after the augmentations at the time of the Spartans' mission to Eridanus Secundus, and even later in her career she is described with a short military cut.
  • Linda-058 maintains a rather long haircut in the comic, while the novel describes her as having close-cropped hair.
  • The comic consistently portrays Dr. Halsey with black hair; the novel mentions that her hair had started graying by 2525 being completely gray by 2552.
• There are a number of differences involving the attire of characters.
  • The comic does not depict Dr. Halsey with glasses at any point, whereas the book describes her as wearing glasses in most of her appearances.
  • In Admiral Stanforth's initial briefing on the Covenant and the destruction of Harvest in Boot Camp, Stanforth wears a green uniform vaguely similar to the standard Navy service uniform. Mendez and Halsey are wearing similar outfits, teal and light gray in coloration, respectively. The novel describes Stanforth and Mendez as wearing black dress uniforms, with Mendez's chest covered with decorations while Stanforth's uniform is undecorated; Halsey is described as wearing gray slacks and a black shirt with her glasses hanging about her neck on a gold chain.
• Like Halo Wars: Genesis, the series depicts space battles with considerable artistic license. In the novel, space engagements are consistently described as occurring over distances of many thousands of kilometers. For example, when the Unrelenting performs a slipspace jump near the Commonwealth, a distance of three thousand kilometers is considered to be dangerously close, enough to trigger collision alarms. Meanwhile, in the comic, ships and entire fleets exchange fire within visible range, often merely hundreds of meters from one another. This is simply a pragmatic storytelling approach and does not reflect the actual nature of space battles in the Halo universe.
• Slipspace is depicted as a bright, blue-white tunnel with streams of lines and quadrilateral figures; in the novels, slipspace is described as being pitch black.

Volume-specific changes

Boot Camp

• Issue 1 features a new prologue centered on Colonel Watts' actions during Operation: TREBUCHET, replacing the novel's prologue featuring Blue Team battling an Unggoy horde on Jericho VII.
• The events the first chapter are depicted with a number of differences. In the comic, Dr. Halsey is already awake and on the Han's bridge by the time Jacob Keyes wakes up from cryo. In the book, Halsey awakens immediately after Keyes. Keyes is also shown wearing clothes upon waking, whereas in the novel, both Keyes and Halsey are naked while in cryo; similar concessions are applied to all scenes involving cryosleep in visual Halo media. Han's trip to Eridanus II is also truncated, and the shuttle's gravitational slingshot maneuver around a local gas giant is omitted.
• Eridanus II is depicted with two moons. In the Bestiarum, the planet is established to have a single natural satellite, Ehilend.
• In Issue 1, Vice Admiral Ysionris Jeromi sends Halsey his results on the SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures just after the children are kidnapped in 2517. In the book, he sends the results in 2525, just before the surgeries begin.
• In the novel, CPO Mendez gives John no answer when the Spartan asks if the dead candidates' lives were wasted or spent. In the comic, he avoids the question by telling John to get some rest.
• In Issue 3, John pushes Sam out of the line of fire and is wounded during the assault on Eridanus Secundus, and then in issue 2 of Covenant, Sam returns the favor and receives the wound which seals his fate during the Battle of Chi Ceti. In the novel, both their wounds are received by random chance, and neither pushes the other.
• The specifics of the Spartans' capture of Colonel Watts differs from the novel. In the comic book, Watts is shown entering a safe room before the Spartans capture him, which does not occur in the novel. The crate Watts is forced into is thrown off his apartment's balcony in the comic, whereas in the novel, the Spartans slide it down by a rope.
• The first transmission from the Covenant to humanity that tells them their destruction is the will of the gods is an audio message in the novel. In the comic it is a video, with the Prophet of Regret personally appearing to announce it to them.
  • In the same scene, the Covenant ship first encountered at Harvest is depicted as a CCS-class or CRS-class cruiser, presumably Rapid Conversion. Halo Wars: Genesis shows and The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole explicitly states that the ship encountered by Battlegroup 4 was a super-destroyer.

Covenant

• Unrelenting is depicted as a traditional cruiser in the comic, while the book describes it as a sleek ovoid a third the mass of the Commonwealth, with a single lateral line running fore to aft.
• In the comic, the Damascus Testing Facility is depicted as a space station orbiting Chi Ceti IV; the source novel and Dr. Halsey's journal describe it as a base located deep underground.
• Longsword Squadron Delta survives the detonation of the Shiva missile fired at the Unrelenting, whereas in the novel the Longswords are consumed by the explosion, as they were intentionally sacrificed as a diversion.
• The Spartans' assault on Unrelenting is decidedly different.
  • The comic depicts John, Sam, and Kelly jumping toward the ship—shown within clearly visible distance—without apparent thrusters. The three approach the Unrelenting in a tight formation while discussing their entry strategy and simply glide into the ship. In the novel, the distances involved are much greater. Even though the Spartans use thruster packs, there is a high likelihood of missing the ship which is traveling at a high velocity, forcing the Spartans to conduct careful maneuvers to intercept it. In the novel, the Spartans do not approach Unrelenting in a closely packed group and do not converse until regrouping on the Covenant ship's hull.
  • In Covenant, only John, Kelly, and Sam take part in the assault on Unrelenting, as they are the only three able to don their MJOLNIR armor in time. In the novel, all the Spartans take part in the assault, but only John, Kelly, and Sam are able to get aboard the enemy vessel.
  • In the book, Commonwealth fires a salvo of Archer missiles as decoys to cover the Spartans' approach; this is not depicted in the comic. The warheads used by the Spartans during the boarding operation are also different; in the comic, the Spartans use nuclear missiles, perhaps Shivas. In the book, they use ANVIL-II Air-to-Surface Missiles, which have conventional warheads. As seen in this image, the missiles used in the comic are far too large to be ANVIL-IIs.
  • While escaping the Unrelenting, John and Kelly encounter several Jackals; this is not described in the book.
• In the novel, there are four surviving Marines in Corporal Harland's fireteam at the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. Private Walker freezes, forcing Private Cochran to shoot down two pursuing Banshees with Walker's rocket launcher. In the comic, Cochran is not present. Instead, Walker is able to break out of his fugue and shoot down the lone Banshee pursuing them.
  • The choice to remove Cochran was very likely due to the difficulties of drawing four men in a three-seat Warthog.
• The initial skirmish above Sigma Octanus IV, the Keyes Loop, and Keyes' promotion to captain are omitted from the comic.
• In the novel, Blue Team's fight with the Hunters in the Côte d'Azur Museum of Natural History is won by using shredder rounds to break the floor beneath their feet then pushing a stone monolith into the hole to crush them. In the comic, the battle is won by using two grenades to crack the monolith, then breaking it, so that the upper half falls and crushes the Hunters.

Invasion

• In the novel, John meets Cortana for the first time when she is plugged into his neural interface, where the two have a short conversation. In the comic, Cortana is introduced to John via hologram.
• In Issue 4, a Sangheili Zealot impales Linda on an energy sword. In the novel, she is shot five times with plasma projectiles.
• Invasion adds a subplot with Red Team being deployed on Reach to defend Orbital Defense Generator Facility A-331; this sequence is not present in The Fall of Reach but is instead loosely adapted from Halo: First Strike with significant changes from the original narrative.
  • The Spartans' Pelican is piloted by Fred and Kelly with Joshua manning its troop bay gun; in First Strike, no rear gun is in evidence and the Pelican is piloted by a Naval aviator.
  • The dropship is pursued—and shot down—by Banshees. In the book, the Covenant craft are Seraph fighters instead.
  • The Pelican crashes with the Spartans still on board; in First Strike, the Spartans exit the Pelican at a high altitude before it crashes into a mountainside at a supersonic velocity. The subsequent part of the book detailing the Spartans' regrouping and advance on the generator complex is also omitted in the comic.
  • The events at the generator facility are portrayed with notable differences, including the Spartans encountering a single delirious Marine as opposed to the four moderately shaken survivors of Charlie Company.
  • In the comic, all the Spartans of Red Team remain at ODG A-331 when the Covenant launch their second major assault on the facility; in First Strike, only Team Beta remains at the complex by the time of the Covenant attack.