Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Echoes

by Nathan Edmondson, Marc Laming (Artist), Ian Herring (Colorist)

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Echoes is set between the events of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. The story bridges the gap between the two games with a realistic, original story that sets the tone for the opening events in Splinter Cell Blacklist. Available as part of the Paladin Collector's Edition of Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Video Games, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Comic book and screenwriter Nathan Edmondson is a native of Augusta, GA. His Eisner-nominated book Who Is Jake Ellis? will soon be a major motion picture from 20th Century Fox, and The Activity film will come soon from Paramount Pictures. NPR has listed his work among the “Top 6 Comics to Draw You In” and USA Today and CNN are among those who have listed him in their Top 10 lists.

Nathan currently lives near Los Angeles, USA.

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be more like the Splinter Cell novels, but I think this one was just strictly for the game continuity. I was a little lost since I've only played the first 2 games and this story is set later. It wasn't bad as a standalone, but as I said, I was a little confused.

Not a bad story, and the art's decent as well, but I really was expecting a little more from this franchise. Fans of the game will still probably enjoy this series.

[TK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall the story was good and moved along nicely all things considered. Although not my favorite medium for an action story it will still definitely appeal to Tom Clancy fans. Despite the text getting choppy at certain points this didn't detract from the story for me. Worth the read even if not quite amazing.
arc from NetGalley

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can't keep a good operative down. Even retired, Sam feels more confortable stabbing, shooting and torturing bad guys than mowing the lawn. The sheer dedication is applaudable. This action-packed story deserved a good artist and it got one. It's easy to get into if you enjoy solid action movies, but less so if you can't do without emotions and feelings and love-dovey stuff. Ick.

Sam Fisher is retired, but his expertise is needed to advise and oversee the younger operatives on a mission to retreive information from a hacker. The mission is a near bust until Sam steps in. The sensitive information is related to Central American politicians and it looks like some of it was already used for blackmail. Meanwhile in Georgia a terrorist group named Krowe is readying to blow up a cruise ship.

The terrorists have kidnapped a colonel for his JSOC security codes. Sam disables the bomb that was supposed to cover up the colonel's kidnapping, when a second bomb goes off. Sam goes through a bit of torture at Krowe's hands in the next leg of his journey before he gets saved by his friends.

All bets are off at this point and nobody gets to live when Sam Fisher gets pissed. Unfortunately, the Krowe's leader gets away. She doesn't live for much longer, though. Even without her leadership the terrorists are already planning more hits.

[Wilco Born · Rating 4 out of 5]

Het is jaren geleden dat ik voor het laatst een stripboek heb opgepakt en hem daadwerkelijk ben gaan lezen. Opgegroeid ben ik tussen de Donald Duck-verhalen, maar toch had ik nooit de behoefte meer om terug te gaan. Vijf jaar geleden kocht ik een speciale editie van Splinter Cell: Blacklist, want daar zat een cool standbeeldje bij, een dik stripboek en het kostte geen drol. Dat stripboek had ik nooit uitgelezen. Tot nu.

Ik nam de tijd, las de teksten, keek de plaatjes, en ik genoot intens. Een medium, eentje waar al jaren goed spul voor wordt gemaakt, lag nieuw voor mijn neus, klaar om ontdekt te worden. Eentje waar ook hele interessante verhalen vertelt worden. Een medium waarbij actie, prachtig visueel, centraal staat. Nog meer dan bij het medium film.

Dat kon ik gelijk merken aan Splinter Cell: Echoes, die er fantastisch uitziet. De stijl is mooi, het verhaal een beetje cliché, maar het zorgde voor de brute momenten die je graag in films ziet. Maar wat weet ik er nu van? Ik kan er nauwelijks wat zinnigs over zeggen. Dat is het mooie. En dat het lekker snel leest, dat vind ik ook prachtig.

Op meer stripboeken lezen!

[Adam Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm usually not at all a comic book person, but I love Splinter Cell. The art in this looks really great, but I think the story is just ok. It's meant to be a bridge between the games Conviction and Blacklist, but the timeline within this book is a bit confusing. But that may be because I'm not used to the comic book style setup. I loved seeing Sam drawn in some really cool action scenes, but I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a single time he snuck by stealthily or incapacitated enemies... he just kills all of them. Personally, I prefer the books and, of course, the games, but this was still a pretty fun read for fans.

[Bret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, it was an enjoyable comic series. The artwork was great, but the story was okay. It felt a bit rushed and could've been better if the story was fleshed out in a few more issues. It was nice to see Sam Fisher again since the IP for the most part has been shelved in the past few years. Definitely worth a read if you enjoy the Splinter Cell-verse.

[Lloyd W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great supplement material for the series! I wish this was a game! So good and good story!

[Ramona DeLorme · Rating 3 out of 5]

First comic book

I didn't realize it was a comic book paperback. Length was short; visuals was good. I prefer books rather than comic.

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm Splinter Cell"

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Echoes' takes a video game character and gives him a graphic novel. It's a bit tricky because the story takes place between a couple games, so those new to the series may find themselve, as I was, a bit lost at first. The action and pace keeps the story moving along.

Sam Fisher is a newly retired elite operative "one man army." He is trying to reconcile with his daughter, but finds himself being pulled back in to his old life to help tend a mission that ends up going wrong. At one point, he even finds himself captured and tortured by an old enemy he's made along the way. The new ways of terrorism and warfare come into play with the introduction of Charlie Cole, an elite hacker, who joins the team. Sam finds that operating outside of the government is challenging, but manages to make his way and prove that one man or a thousand can do the job.

Sam is a good character, but he falls into that James Bond kind of invulnerabilty. He's got all the cool gadgets and the bad guys can't seem to hit him with a bullet even though he is hopelessly outnumbered. However, it's a fun read and works well as a comic book. Included are interviews with the creators of the comic and the video game.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Dynamite Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic seems to put a lot of weight on its own shoulders, as it redresses how the whole game franchise just resumes and doesn't actively show any of the rebooting whatsoever. But it just about manages to do what it wants to. The storyline is very fractured at first, and not being a fan of the games I don't know all the relevance of all the flashback scenes, but sooner or later we're in an escalating struggle to defeat one gang. So all that's left for the hero Sam Fisher is to keep in touch with the world he thought he'd left, where he's always able to get given just the gear he needs – and still win the day by knocking heads together and shooting people, without any use of the special equipment the script was creaming itself over. The look is good, suitably moody and grainy, although the big bad looks too much like Fisher, and the script is decent enough, if showing our hero as always at the behest of bosses, and never his own man for long enough. Still, for fans of the franchise the world is suitably opened out – even if it's into domesticity – and this is much better than the usual bridging, prequel/sequel comic.

[Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Echoes' es uno de esos productos transmedia que están tan de moda en el mundo de los videojuegos, en el que se usan otros medios para ampliar y mejorar la narrativa. En este caso, este cómic nos sirve de perfecto puente de unión entre los dos últimos videojuegos de la afamada saga.

En él, encontramos un Sam Fisher que tras abandonar su trabajo vive con su hija. Sin embargo, esta rutina se ve interrumpida cuando Vic, un viejo conocido, le pide ayuda en una misión, la cual Sam acepta. Tras esto, se irá descubriendo una trama en la que EE.UU estará en peligro y provocará el regreso puntual de Fisher para solucionar lo que otros no son capaces.

Además, al final conocemos al que será villano en Blacklist, la cabeza visible del enemigo en este videojuego.

Realmente me cuesta comprender por qué no hay más cómics basados en esta saga ya que por temática se adaptaría muy fácil a este medio. Y en este caso, los autores han hecho un trabajo notable que aporta bastante al fan de la saga. Todo ello además con un apartado artístico muy similar al del videojuego. Sin duda, queda totalmente recomendado para los seguidores de las aventuras del bueno de Fisher.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam Fisher is a former Splinter Cell operative who is talked into one easy job that just kept growing. Sam went from saving Vic's company's bacon in South America to Georgia (the country) to South Africa. The action is straight-forward and explosive while the art-work matches the story mood with washed out colors, and grim expressions relieved by flashes of humor. This is a link tale explaining what happened between to Splinter Cell video games as explained in the extended interviews included. I have not played the games, but the tale is decent and stands on its own merits.

[Elle Markov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was fun and exciting and it had everything we love about Splinter Cell. We have Sam a retired special operative getting back in the game to stop a terrorist attack and kill a bunch of bad people.

The illustrations were cool and action packed, plus I don't know why but explosions always look cool in drawings, they have such intricate detail. Definitely worth checking out and that ending all but guarantees we will be seeing Sam kicking some major terrorist ass.

Rating 4 out of 5
Read@Book

[M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

"A thousand man or one" Seriously?

Who would imagine Sam Fisher to say something as vile as this statement! and "you know I don't work for money" Oh you're a spy for charity?
This is the most horrible attempt of turning a video game hero into a comic book, it is a cheesy mediocre writing that depicts how goofy uncle sam can be.

[MrsPyramidhead · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't as bad as I feared. The story was decent, the art was pretty well done and it didn't feel too rushed. If you enjoy the games you probably would enjoy this it has the Splinter Cell feel. It's a quick read and a good way to get a little more Sam Fisher.

[Anthony Lombardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome graphic novel, hope they make more.