Must have for any Browncoat Well, I may be biased as a huge fan of anything Firefly, but as there are many of us out there, this is a must have for all of you. Joss has created a post-apocalyptic world that is unique, filled with characters you can't help but love. If you've followed the story of the crew of the Serenity thus far, you're yearning for more, and here it is. The biggest hitch is that the story does not continue here, but fills in somwhere left behind ;). But where, or more appropriately when? If made into a TV episode, it would have made sense to be post Jaynestown and Heart of Gold. It need not be, but you wouldn't get a couple of the gags Wheadon throws in (as he is prone). Overall I am just glad to see the charaters devealoped more, so that we all may keep flying.
Not quite a home run, but a solid beginning Warning! Some spoilers below!
I'm both a fan of graphic novels (i.e., comic books for grown ups) and FIREFLY/SERENITY, so this was, of course, a must read for me. I was very disappointed in the first Whedon/Matthews/Conrad collaboration on SERENITY, entitled THOSE LEFT BEHIND. The story completely lacked the magic of the television series or the movie. It also wasn't as gripping as the subsequent BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8 and ANGEL SEASON 6. So I was a tad uncertain on picking this one up. Would it be as excellent as the BUFFY and ANGEL efforts, or more like the earlier SERENITY? Luckily it is more like BUFFY and ANGEL.
I want to offer some speculation why SERENITY is a prequel rather than a sequel as with BUFFY and ANGEL. There is simply no question that at this point BUFFY and ANGEL are finished except possibly as a movie. Well, and as a comic. Perhaps someday we'll see BUFFY SEASON 9 and ANGEL SEASON 7. But FIREFLY/SERENITY never came close to exhausting the possible stories. I read pretty widely on movie and TV boards and the current word is that Universal, which has been extremely impressed by the strong and ongoing DVD sales of the film SERENITY, might have interest in another movie. The issue seems to be whether it would be a mainstream release or a direct to DVD release. The latter need not put fear in the hearts of SERENITY fans. The recent STARGATE: ARK OF TRUTH showed that a direct to DVD release could be both interesting and pretty good-looking. Given the way that Whedon has refused to give out certain bits of information about FIREFLY/SERENITY characters (for instance, at a recent forum he refused to allow Monica Baccarin to reveal why Inara had left her home planet -- in his DVD commentary on SERENITY he revealed that Inara, who got shorted in the first SERENITY movie, would play a much more significant role in an additional film), I think it safe to say that he retains hopes of continuing the story of the crew of Serenity. In other words, he is writing a prequel right now because he hopes to do a sequel to the film later.
Specifically, this prequel takes place before Inara has left Serenity, but several months before the timeframe of the film.
OK, entering spoiler realm!
The first issue is not spectacular, but it definitely shows promise. It starts off with the demonstration of what is obviously a crime-fighting vehicle. It is dispatched to capture perpetuators of a crime-in-progress, who just happen to be Mal and Co. But it quickly turns out that the crime was a honey trap to lure the high tech vehicle to a spot where Serenity could snatch it. The hunter was the prey. We then cut away to Inara plying her trade. Her customer is an Alliance agent who is charged with catching what he calls Dust Devils, who are former Independents who often turn to petty thievery while resisting assimilation into the Alliance. The illustrators do a good job here of conveying without words that Inara immediately realizes that Mal and his crew fit the description of Dust Devils. The last bit of the comic deals with their attempt to get the money for stealing the crime-fighting vehicle in the first part (the contractor had no actual money, but told them where to get some). The final panels show them with absolutely astounding quantities of money.
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