Written by Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews
Art by Will Conrad
Colours by Laura Martin
Published by Dark Horse
$9.95
Published 25 Jan 2006
If anything ever gave a real example of the disparity between online, niche fandom and real world popularity of a property, it’s Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity. Set after a civil war of galactic proportions between the Alliance and Separatists, the TV run of Firefly centred on the crew of the Serenity, captained by Malcolm Reynolds. A former military man on the losing Separatist side of the war, he and his crew – Zoe, his lieutenant; Wash, ship pilot & Zoe’s husband; Jayne, mercenary manly man and Kaylee, mechanical wunderkind – take on any freelance job available, regardless of its legality, in order to survive. Their “comfortable” existence takes a turn for the dramatic when they take fugitive doctor Simon Tam on board, on the run from the Alliance with his autistic savant sister, River. With religious man Book and ‘Companion’ Inara along for the ride, much of the series was spent exploring the pasts of the characters and just what the Alliance had done to River.
Launching on Fox in the USA in 2002, it was subject to network revisions, schedule alterations and three episodes out of the 14 made were never even aired. Needless to say, it was soon cancelled leaving many questions unanswered. Then, after phenomenal DVD sales, Universal picked up the rights for a theatrical movie. After months of viral marketing, publicity drives and other mainly online-driven hype, the movie Serenity came out in September 2005 (in the US) and, well, didn’t exactly do as well as the online fandom would have had you think it should have done. Having (to date) taken $38m worldwide, chances of a sequel are looking thin. Unless DVD sales of the movie are equally phenomenal as the TV series DVD were, of course.
This mini was released on the run up to the movie to bridge some of the gaps between the end of the TV show and the beginning of the movie. While Serenity the comic was scripted by both Whedon and Matthews, it seems that Whedon’s influence was minimal after part one – the dialogue isn’t as snappy and the pace changes quite drastically for the final two parts. Some parts feel forced and unnecessary, such as a never-before heard of rival of Mal’s vengeance quest eating up page time, while regular characters such as Simon, Kaylee & Book are barely seen. In other places it feels rushed, such as a long standing threat from the TV show being literally scraped away. However, it does an ample job of setting the stage for the movie – Inara and Book both leave the ship in keeping with their status at the start of the movie and the villain of the film, The Operative, is sent on River’s trail.
I found the art to be the biggest attraction here. Will Conrad has succeeded in something I’ve found to be an annoyance in every other licensed comic I’ve ever read – he’s managed to capture the actual appearance of the actors. Usually, artists seem to try too hard to make the characters on the page look identical to the real-life actors but somewhere in the process everything falls apart and everyone ends up looking bland and featureless. Here though, the crew of the Serenity are clearly identifiable without sacrificing anything. Everything else too, from the expansive vistas of space to cold desert planets and the lush forests of Inara’s home, is beautifully detailed. Laura Martin – universally lauded for her work on Planetary and Astonishing X-Men, amongst others – provides colours, bringing the artwork to life. It’s somewhat unusual to give high praise to the colourist, but in Martin’s case it’s truly deserved and makes the imagery, to turn a cliché, leap from the page.
I fear the Serenity comic was a victim of its own hype. After selling out instantly upon its release, then becoming part of the online hype machine for the movie, it was never really viewed on its own merits. Overall, despite being an enjoyable sci-fi yarn, this feels like a sub-par episode of the TV show, one of Whedon’s leftover scripts, rather than something suited to the medium of comics – the use of Chinese phrases in particular, having been a wonderful touch in the show and movie, simply don’t work in print. (Unless you can read Chinese, of course.) However, it’s not terrible by a long shot and the low price of the trade makes it worth checking out for completist Firefly fans.
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Matt Kamen is a freelance writer for a number of magazines in the UK who probably spends more time and money on assorted geekery than is advisable, healthy or financially sustainable. On the plus side he sometimes even gets paid to watch anime and play video games, so it’s not all bad.