Matters ramp up for the next story arc, as Jaclyn King skirts the edge of violating IO’s treaty with Skywatch. Meanwhile, Jacob Marlowe, head of the Halo Corporation, offers an explanation to Angela Spica – what Halo is and how it has influenced mankind’s development since ancient times. It may not be the whole truth (or even close), but it’s a starting point for both to achieve their end goals. All in all, it’s a trippy issue, with a brief interlude of psychotropic hallucinogens, all in the name of “healing.”

As I said, it almost feels like a fresh story arc, but it’s so hard to tell with so many players from the various factions that inhabit the book. The sheer volume of the4 cast is burdensome to a newer reader like myself, unfamiliar with the franchise as I am.

But the answers presented her (for Angela Spica’s benefit) are enough for the reader to go on, offering a point of reference for a new reader to get his/her bearings. I can appreciate moral shades of gray, but too many characters seem beholden to the same shade. Or, in some instances, radically different shades that only cloud the issue.

Hunt’s artwork is fine, in it’s simplicity, which I personally find refreshing. Too often these days, artists and their colorists will overwork a page. He presents the story in basic panels with simple, clear lines. The hallucinogenic scenes were delightfully trippy, without a lot of needless Photoshop effects to convey its other-worldliness.