Welcome back. It's the end of the month and that means another issue of halo escalation is out. Before we start I'm sure you've noticed the lack of a bobbing Spartan head in this video. Given the very next reception regarding this choice and the huge amount of time recording it adds to creating these reviews I've decided to try a few videos without my online avatar present and see what you guys think. Please, please let me know. I really want your input on this. Anyway onto the comic. How is it you ask? Let's find out. This is halo escalation issue 15. Our issue opens up with a recap of previous events, notably that a Mdamas fleet has engaged infinity. Flash forward 7 hours and infinity is still holding off the covenant fleet. They want you will about infinity to hold off an untold number of CCS class battle cruisers and RCS class armored cruisers is certainly an impressive feat. On actus 4, Palmer, Glassman and Majestic minus Hoyah are trapped inside the 4 runner's site and with all communication to infinity being blocked, Glassman is desperately working to find a way out. Luckily the planet has a translocation grid. Unfortunately Glassman doesn't know where the system will spit them out. To Glassman's credit he's actually being careful about where he wants to send them, and recalling his past experience on Requiem. Fucking finally. It only took 5 months for Glassman to learn his lesson. Meanwhile Joule continues his hunt for Selenion. I promise to never make that joke again. Is that a Bob? Yeah, that's a Bob. That's a Bob and Reach style zealot armor. You know they were the little easter eggs. White color deletes with randomly generated armor. They're called Bob's. This is one. I guess it's the same thing for the first and the next one. Anyway, that's just weird. But even we're still is that in the next scene the elite is drawn in normal Halo 4 style zealot armor. And yes, it is the same zealot. You can see how the conversation flows from panel to panel, clearly indicating that this is meant to be the same elite. So yeah. Anyway Joule gives orders to kill the sparsons on the site and to capture Glassman, Joel Wanning revenge and gets on board a phantom to deal with Salee personally. On board he makes contact with Dr. Halsey. They do a little back and forth before Joule informs her that he needs her on actus 4. We jump over to Hoyah now on his own and running from enemies. He's ambushed by a zealot but then saved inadvertently by Promethean Knight, the zealot apparently being part of Salee's forces. Taking advantage of the distraction Hoyah gets to cover. Then for some reason he removes his helmet and uses his DMR scope to scout the area. This is 2558 and he's in Gen 2 meal near armor. His HUD has an auto scoping feature and smart links to the DMR. I can't think of any reason for him to do this. Anyway, Hoyah scouts around and spots Dr. Halsey making landfall. Back with Palmer and crew, a literal army of zealots is slowly making their way past the small number of defenses the sparsons have been able to erect. Ray reports that Hoyah was able to make contact via a few channels the covenant had conveniently left open. In the comics credit they do explain that the covenant likely did this to pinpoint the location of the UNSC forces should they try to communicate. Ray relays what Hoyah discovered which of course angers Palmer. At another location we catch up with Salee and his forces and boy are they taking a beating. I'd like to pause a moment to discuss something of an issue throughout this issue. For whatever reason every Sangheely is wearing zealot armor and for some reason that armor is appearing in a number of different colors. I mean look at this scene alone. All very clearly zealot combat harnesses and in three distinct colors. It's interesting to note that among Jules faction the Storm and Commander ranks have been shown to support a number of different colored combat harnesses. While the different colors presumably denote sub rank or specialization the truth has never been known. However the zealot rank has never showed any such diversity until now. Whether this is an art error or done on purpose I really can't say. Anyway it seems that given the losses and the fact that the Prometheans continue to fight with Jules Salee's forces are beginning to lose faith. Salee quickly dismisses any evidence against his proclaimed right to take over, citing the Janiski as a sign that the gods are in his favor. One's Sangheely however clearly shows he has doubts. It's interesting to note that this particular Sangheely is actually sporting a Halo 3 style minor combat harness. Not only that but this isn't something that changes as the comic continues like we did with that reach Bob but one that continues through the rest of the comic. It's also weird that he doesn't have any sleeves much like Sangheely Storm Armor, a very strange choice on the part of the artists. So moving forward we jump back to Palmer in Coventy. Lassman is devised where the best place to teleport would be but at Palmer's request opens a second portal to a location in the jungle Palmer hoping to intercept Dr. Halsey. Taking Thorn and Ray with her she tasks the remaining Spartans to protect Glassman. On the other side of the portal the group is lucky enough to run into UNSC ground forces the first two have landed since the surprise attack in the last issue. Meanwhile in the jungle Thorn Ray and Palmer hunting down Dr. Halsey. They soon run into a Sangheely one of Sully's making contact with Jules forces. The Sangheely in question is the one sporting the Halo 3 armor and he's hoping to make a men's for his betrayal. He declars he wishes to return the stolen half of the Janiski and to lead Jules forces to Sully's camp. They agree decreeing that they will come to the traitor rather than the traitor coming to them. As Command is made by none other than Dr. Halsey. Lucky Palmer. Huh. So much to Thorn and Ray's protest Palmer says they're going to wait for Halsey to show up and spring a trap on her. And that concludes issue 15. So let me take a moment to discuss something that's bothering me about Palmer's recent character development. Her determination to kill Dr. Halsey. I've brought this up in past issues but it's really shining through in this particular one. I recently played through Sparrow Knops since it was added to the MCC and I was reminded of episode 9, chapter 1. The chapter opens with Palmer very much on board for rescuing Dr. Halsey so I don't get with Palmer's sudden obsession with killing her. Now if Palmer had only gone so gung ho after finding out that Halsey was directly helping Jules, that'd be another story. Hell, even if she weren't endangering the lives of other Sparrow, it wouldn't be so bad. However, this has been a thing since issue 13 and she is endangering the lives of others. I'll be honest, I never really hated Palmer in Sparrow Knops. Considering she was voiced by Jen Taylor, I was actually pretty on board with Palmer at the start. She was interesting, she was strong and it seemed like we were going to get a really good character out of her. Things only got better early on in Halo Escalation with Christopher Schler. How many Palmer detractors were on board with this new Palmer? But now she's become extremely one-dimensional, being little more than a Halsey hate machine. To be clear, there are plenty of reasons for characters to hate Dr. Halsey. Halsey, albeit under the sanction of Oni, kidnapped and brainwashed children and destroyed the lives of families. I like Dr. Halsey as a character, but a good part of me hates her as a person. Along with what I've mentioned, she also alienated her daughter and kidnapped Spartans under false pretenses during the Battle of Earth. While aware of the horrors she committed and determined to keep others from being stained, Halsey is at the end of the day a terrible person. The amount of good her work has done does not excuse the crimes she's committed. However, this is not why Palmer seems to want Halsey dead as far as I can tell. It all stems from the good doctors perceived betrayal during Spartan ops, a betrayal shown to be more than meets the eye. This was a fact that Palmer accepted at one point, but has since been ignored in favor of character traits that have shown to be negative in the eyes of many fans. It's not just hating Halsey that's the problem. Many fans loved Parangoski and Ghost Savonix before Kara Travis butchered the character. It's her disregard for fucking sense. It's almost like 343 are sitting Palmer up for some kind of fall, but I doubt that's what's happening. I guess that's enough ranting for this episode. Overall the comic is pretty good and I can't wait for the next issue. Despite my issues with Palmer, I am at the very least looking forward to a final confrontation between Sali and Jule. Someone may be seeing what will harvest or might play, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, thank you for watching as always. This has been Halo Cannon and I'll see you next time.