Yet, "Halo: Uprising" seems to have the potential to equal or even surpass those projects as a vehicle to attract people who have never picked up a comic book in their lives.
For the uninitiated, "Halo" is a white-hot video-game series that stars a faceless space marine known only as the Master Chief. The only-one-of-his-kind super-soldier is equipped with battle armor powerful enough to make Iron Man jealous.
The Master Chief's odyssey occurs 500 years in the future, when humanity is fighting the Covenant, a group of alien religious zealots. The Master Chief begins the first "Halo" video game by crash-landing on a strange space artifact, which turns out to be a planet shaped like a ring instead of a sphere and called Halo. Before long, he winds up slugging it out in three-sided battle with Covenant troops and a formidable, ever-evolving race called the Flood, which find themselves imprisoned on the planet. He learns about the mysterious and ancient race that built Halo called the Forerunners.
The response to "Halo" was so great that when "Halo 2" came out in 2004, it did $125 million in retail sales its first 24 hours. Since then, almost a billion hours have been logged by people playing "Halo 2" online.
This willingness of so many fans to part with so much money and invest so much time in Master Chief's adventures has made "Halo" a true cultural phenomenon.
"Halo 2" is exclusive to the Xbox 360, making it Microsoft's biggest weapon in its war with Sony for video-game console-market supremacy. Indeed, a special edition of Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console carries the "Halo 3" (due to hit shelves Sept. 25) logo.
Additionally, Pepsi has come out with "Game Fuel," a "Halo" themed soft drink similar to Mountain Dew but with even more caffeine. (Hey, those nearly billion hours playing "Halo 2" weren't logged by people getting a lot of sleep).
