: Really, this story and all others in Escalation would be so much better in a
: short story anthology. The comic medium for Halo seems to rarely provide
: us with an intriguing and engaging tale, and Escalation is shaping up to
: be no exception.

It's like I said before, they need to fire Brian Reed and hire John Ringo or someone else who knows how to write military sci-fi. I guess they should also look for a decent artist, but I'm not sure who a good candidate would be. He would have to be very knowledgeable of Halo's art style, able to articulate details like the shape of Spartan armor. And I guess it wouldn't hurt if he'd already drawn a fan comic of Halo.

Good luck finding someone who fits that criteria.

: Honestly, this series is making
: me think that comics are a very poor way to tell a story.

Don't blame the format. Comics can be a great way to tell a story. The problem is the 22-page monthly update schedule. If every comic has to be produced to that schedule, then the stories aren't allowed to expand and fill the room with which they need to be told.

Take the webcomics that follow a comic-book format, like Girl Genius or Looking For Group. They're made with an eye toward a print collection somewhere down the line, but they have the freedom to develop their stories as needed. Hell, LFG's problem is that it has more padding and kuzdu plot than the Wheel of Time series. The art for both is also of a higher quality than you see in superhero comics. It may not look as true to life, but the characters are more expressive and the action is easier to follow than most comic books. Well, I guess the characters in LFG spend most of the time wearing an expression of neutral bemusement, but...

You know, maybe I should have used Schlock Mercenary as an example instead of LFG.

The tradeoff is that those webcomics don't update as fast as Marvel and DC publish comics. Girl Genius updates three times a week, LFG updates twice a week, which works out to twelve and eight pages a month, respectively. Schlock Mercenary updates every single day. Seriously, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor elder gods being summoned into the server room will stop Howard Taylor from updating on time. But he posts individual strips, and full pages on Sundays. That totals to three pages a week, same as Girl Genius.

Back to the comics, I think I'd take a 48-56 page quarterly comic that tries to tell a single story over three 22 page monthly comics that try to tell several.