By Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will Conrad & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-162-1

Just like the TV show and movie, comics about the crew of the Firefly Class 03-K64 trading ship Serenity are remarkably good and pretty addictive. This slim tome collects second 3-issue miniseries Serenity: Better Days, continuing in rip-roaring style the unlikely exploits of a nomadic semi-piratical bunch of lovable yet lethal scofflaws in a world not unlike our own…

After they used up Earth, Humanity migrated to the stars and settled another star-system packed with hundreds of more or less hospitable planets and satellites. Now it’s the 26^th century and mankind is living through the aftermath and reconstruction period of a vicious internecine conflict known – by the victors – as the Unification War.

This still-fresh, tender and, for far too many, unfinished system-wide conflagration saw the Outer Colonies crushed after attempting to secede from the authoritarian Alliance of first-settled Inner Planets. Captain Malcolm Reynolds fought valiantly and passionately for the Rebel/losing side and now spends his days eking out a living on the fringes of an increasingly repressive and dangerous universe: a fiercely free agent skippering a small cargo vessel filled with surprisingly capable misfits and odd sorts.

Hopefully work means just shipping cargo and people from world to world whilst trying to avoid the ever-expanding Alliance’s oppressive representatives and security forces, but occasionally survival means bending the law a mite….

It’s hard, risky work: often illegal and frequently dangerous – especially since the outer regions are where the insane cannibal berserker savages dubbed Reavers restlessly prowl.

Life changed forever after Serenity gave passage to fugitive Alliance doctor Simon Tam: on the run after stealing/rescuing his apparently psychic sister River from a top secret research project.

The Government spared no effort or expense to get her back, hounding the fugitives from pillar to post until one day Mal and his crew finally pushed back. After too many close shaves and at the cost of too many friends, Reynolds and Co at last uncovered the horrific secret the Alliance were so desperate to keep hidden in River’s head and broadcast it to the entire ‘Verse…

Before that moment, however, and for this saga, the restless voyagers are back at the daily grind of making money without getting killed. Without preamble scripters Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, illustrator Will Conrad, colourist Michelle Madsen and letterer Michael Heisler launch right in, revealing how a simple heist goes explosively wrong and the merry mob are once more running for their lives with a dangerous chunk of ambulatory weapons tech.

Life being what is they get away with the loot but still get stiffed…

Their long-term paying passenger Inara the Companion is busy with a client whilst all that shooting is going on, learning from former militia man Ephraim of the rebel terrorists known as “Dust Devils” who retaliated against the Alliance long after the War ended. He has been tasked with routing out and eradicating their last remnants but for the moment has more pleasant actions in mind…

Stuck with a weapon they don’t want, the Firefly crew grudgingly accept a tip from the client who fooled them once already. He tells of a vast amount of money just waiting to be picked up by the right team. All they have to do is get the forgotten fortune out of the fully occupied temple where it was stashed by the thieves who first acquired it…

Incomprehensibly, the raid goes off without a hitch or even any weapon being fired by or at them. Before long the astounded spacers are sharing increasingly bizarre daydreams of what they’re going to do with their share of more money than they ever dreamed existed…

As they all kick back, Inara questions Mal about Dust Devils and gets the uncomfortable impression that he has first hand knowledge of their activities, but doesn’t push the matter as the ship is about to land on Pelorum, resort world of the mega-rich.

As the windfall-drunk crew start splurging, however, elsewhere a certain arms dealer has at last located down the bandits who swiped his favourite death-machine and Ephraim prepares his hand-picked taskforce for the moment they bag themselves a vile terrorist Dust Devil…

The Serenity crew’s strangest caper continues as they become acclaimed and feted heroes to the filthy rich after stopping a planet-wide heist, but the unlikely afterglow of the approbation only puts Malcolm off-guard long enough for Ephraim to spring his trap…

With his prize brutally in tow, the hunter prepares to escape but there’s a slight snag. There is indeed a dreaded former Dust Devil aboard Serenity, but it isn’t Malcolm Reynolds…

Moreover before Ephraim can get his head around that faux pas a very ticked off death-merchant and his private army turn up, looking for revenge but happy to just kill everybody and let God or Accounting sort it out…

Proving the hard – but extremely entertaining – way that money doesn’t buy happiness or even an ounce of security, this power-packed digest-sized rollercoaster romp is supplemented with stunning cover/chapter breaks of the crew from Adam Hughes and a crisply hilarious Introduction from Adam (don’t call him Jayne) Baldwin.

Crackling with fun and attitude, blackly sardonic and riotously daft between bouts of breathtaking action and delivering a thrilling, scary and supremely satisfying resolution, this is space opera of the very best kind.

Flash forward, go above and beyond and get lost in Space with this magical taste of things to come…
Serenity: Better Days © 2008 Universal Studios Licensing. The movie “Serenity” is ™ and © Universal Studios. All rights reserved.

By Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will Conrad & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-449-4

For those far-too-few folks who actually saw it, Firefly remains one of the best Science Fiction TV shows ever created. It was cancelled after one season. Buy the box-set or seek it out from an on-demand, streaming media outlet as soon as you possibly can.

That crushed yet select fanbase were eventually reassured and delighted by the superb Serenity – one of the best science fiction movies ever released.

Rent it, buy it, watch it however you can.

You don’t really need to, but it will be fun and afterwards you’ll be even more properly primed to enjoy this delightful digest-sized full-colour paperback continuation which bridges the period between the show’s end and the film, offering further details and moments in the eventful lives of reluctant freedom fighter Malcolm Reynolds and his oddball crew of reprobates aboard an independent trader starship of the Firefly class.

Collecting the 3-issue miniseries, Serenity: Those Left Behind, this is the first volume of comic adventures starring the nomadic, semi-piratical outlaws, and if you aren’t au fait yet – did I mention the live action iterations are readily available and extremely entertaining? – here’s a little help.

After they used up Earth, humanity migrated to the stars and settled another star-system packed with hundreds of more or less hospitable planets and satellites. Now it’s the 26^th century and mankind is living through the aftermath and reconstruction period of a punishing internecine conflict known – by the victors – as the Unification War.

This still-fresh, tender and, for far too many, unconcluded clash saw the Outer Colonies crushed after attempting to secede from the authoritarian Alliance of first-settled inner planets. Reynolds fought valiantly on the Rebel/losing side and now spends his days eking out a living on the fringes of an increasingly repressive and dangerous universe: a fiercely free agent skippering a small cargo vessel.

Hopefully that’s just shipping cargo and people from world to world and trying to avoid the ever-expanding Alliance’s representatives and security forces, but occasionally survival means bending the law a mite….

It’s hard, risky work: often illegal and frequently dangerous – especially as the outer regions are where the insane cannibal berserker savages dubbed Reavers restlessly prowl.

Life changed forever after Serenity gave passage to fugitive Alliance doctor Simon Tam: on the run after stealing his apparently psychic sister River from a top secret research project.

The Government spared no effort or expense to get her back, hounding the fugitives from pillar to post until Mal and his crew finally resolved to push back. After too many close shaves and at the cost of too many friends, Reynolds and Co finally uncovered the horrific secret the Alliance were so desperate to keep hidden and broadcast it to the entire ‘Verse…

Before that moment, however, for this yarn the unhappy wanderers are back at the daily grind of getting paid and not getting caught, as scripters Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, illustrator Will Conrad, colourist Laura Martin and letterer Michael Heisler, open this stellar rollercoaster ride with the rovers indulging in a spot of bank robbery on a frontier world, only to stumble upon a much nastier gang of desperadoes with the same idea…

All too soon Malcolm’s party have surrendered the loot to their far-more-bloodthirsty rivals and are fleeing for their lives from the irate homesteaders to make another astounding hairsbreadth escape, but as the captain apologizes once again to long-term passenger Inara the Companion for the slow, agonizingly torturous and oft-diverted passage to her intended destination, they have no conception that more Alliance manhunters have just latched onto their trail…

The stalkers have devious plans which involve recruiting another deadly maniac Reynolds has made a lasting impression upon, but by then the oblivious crew of Serenity are already embroiled in another bad idea. Vile criminal fixer Badger has convinced them to go after millions in lost cash, left to rot amongst the uncounted dead and wrecked, vacuum-blasted ships lost in the cataclysmic and legendary Battle of Sturges…

And in a hidden bunker, the hunters of River Tam inspect the ship that maimed, mad Agent Dobson plans to use in killing Reynolds and Serenity and feel extremely confident that their prize will soon be back in their hands…

Voyage time aboard the Firefly passes as it usually does, with crew and passengers sniping, sparring or just plain fighting, but all too soon the ship eases into the horrific debris field and the amiable bandits-turned-grave-robbers are cautiously searching for the loot. At that moment Dobson launches his blistering attack and the Alliance hunters make their own move, surreptitiously boarding Serenity to capture River.

They know all about her incredibly lethal capabilities and think they’re ready for anything, but have severely underestimated the power of a brother’s love or engineer Kaylee’s devious ingenuity…

As that particular Alliance plan goes to crap, back amongst the dead men, Dobson and his cohorts are so obsessed over settling accounts with Reynolds they completely forget how dangerous his shambolic, cantankerous crew can be…

This power-packed good thing in a small package is supplemented with stunning cover-art portraits of the crew from John Cassaday, Joe Quesada, Tim Bradstreet, Brian Hitch, JG Jones, Jo Chen, Leinil Yu, Josh Middleton and Sean Phillips plus a wistful, funny Introduction from Nathan (the man Reynolds himself) Fillion and comes sporting a tone and sensibility that is pure Jonah Hex (back when the bounty-hunting gunfighter was as blackly funny, sardonic and socially critical as he was thrilling, scary and action-packed), delivering astoundingly terse dialogue and winning characterisation plus all the intoxicating bonhomie and sense of wonder any starstuck reader could want.

This is a book no lover of space opera shoot ’em ups can afford to miss.
Serenity © 2005, 2006 Universal Studios. Firefly™ and Serenity: Firefly Class 03-K64™ Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

By Zack Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Fábio Moon, Karl Story & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-489-7

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Furious Fun, Cosmic Class and Stellar Suprises… 9/10

For those far too few people who actually saw it, Firefly remains one of the best Science Fiction TV shows ever created. It was cancelled after one season. Buy the box set or seek it out from an on-demand, streaming media outlet as soon as you possibly can.

That crushed yet select fanbase were eventually delighted by the superb Serenity – one of the best science fiction movies ever released.

Rent it, buy it, watch it however you can.

Once you’ve done those things you’ll be properly primed to enjoy this superb and lavish full-colour hardback compilation which further details the troubled lives of reluctant freedom fighter Malcolm Reynolds and his oddball crew of reprobates aboard an independent trader starship of the Firefly class.

Collecting the 6-issue miniseries Serenity: Leaves on the Wind and a short story from Free Comic Book Day 2012: Serenity/Stars Wars, this is actually the fourth volume starring the nomadic, semi-piratical outlaws, but since the previous three all featured material bridging the end of the show and start of the film, it’s safe to start here and catch up with the rearguard action some other time.

I certainly intend to…

If you aren’t au fait yet – and did I mention the live action iterations are readily available and extremely entertaining? – here’s a little help.

After they used up Earth, humanity migrated to the stars and settled another star-system packed with hundreds of more or less hospitable planets and satellites. Now it’s the 26^th century and mankind is living through the aftermath of a punishing internecine conflict known – by the victors – as the Unification War.

This still-sore and rankling clash saw the outer Colonies crushed after attempting to secede from the authoritarian Alliance of first-settled inner planets. Reynolds fought valiantly on the losing side and now spends his days eking out a living on the fringes of an increasingly repressive and dangerous universe: taking cargo and people from world to world – and hopefully avoiding the ever-expanding Alliance representatives – as a free agent skippering a small cargo vessel.

It’s hard, risky work: often illegal and frequently dangerous – especially as the outer regions are where the insane cannibal berserker savages dubbed Reavers restlessly prowl.

Life changed forever after Serenity gave passage to Alliance doctor Simon Tam who was on the run after stealing his psychic sister River from a top secret research project.

The Government spared no effort or expense to get her back and hounded the fugitives from pillar to post until Reynolds and his crew finally decided to push back.

At the cost of too many friends, Reynolds and Co uncovered the horrific secrets the Alliance were so desperate to keep hidden and broadcast them to the entire ‘Verse…

Now although the whole system is rumbling with renewed mutterings of rebellion the survivors of Serenity are more hunted than ever…

Written by Zack Whedon, illustrated by Georges Jeanty and Karl Story with colours from Laura Martin & Lovern Kindzierski and letters by Michael Heisler, this rousing romp opens with the Alliance in full media attack mode: spreading disinformation and counter allegations to remove the sting from the twin revelations that the government has been for years conducting experiments to create slave super soldiers (like River was supposed to be) and their previous pacification experiments in fact created the unstoppable bloody Reavers…

As their demagogues demand the Firefly “terrorists” come forward to substantiate their preposterous claims, the real backbone of the Alliance is concentrated on finding Reynolds and his shambolic friends who seem to have vanished into the void…

On a huge military space station Operative Denon and the enigmatic woman he takes orders from confer and send out their most cunning agents to scour the rat-runs of the ‘Verse whilst setting in play plans to end the popular risings called by the idiotic “New Resistance”…

In one such enclave of rebellion, a passionate girl named Bea outlines a bold plan: using the vast funds provided by the movement’s shadowy financiers she will track down the legendary Mal Reynolds and ask him to lead a unified pan-planetary revolt…

As Bea searches, in the uncharted unknowns Reynolds and his occasional lover Inara argue as usual. With money and supplies critically low, Serenity needs to take on a charter of some kind no matter what the risk.

The battered, weary survivors are also terminally bored. Simon and engineer Kaylee spend all their time having sex, enhanced, creepy River is now chief pilot and ferocious second-in-command Zoe spends her days trying to come to terms with husband Wash‘s stupid, stupid death whilst bringing their baby to term.

Things are so desperate they even miss brutish thug and professional butthole Jayne Cobb…

The situation alters drastically after Zoe gives birth. Newborn Emma is perfect in every detail but the labour has resulted in obstetrical haemorrhage for her mother. Painfully aware of the risks, Mal takes the ship in-system to the rough-and-ready medical facilities of the isolated Paquin asteroid mining station…

The aforementioned Jayne has meanwhile been plucked from his preferred occupation as an excessively violent if inept bandit; hired by the unswervingly dedicated Bea to take her to all Reynolds’ favourite hiding places. The Alliance too have turned to an old acquaintance of the much sought after captain. Bounty hunter Jubal Early has a big score to settle with his “one who got away”…

Unfortunately, even the most remote outpost is subject to government oversight and no sooner is Zoe registered for surgery than the Alliance are rapidly en route. Mal only leaves his old Unification War comrade after she begs him to keep baby Emma safe at all costs…

On the run again and frantic, the crew’s doldrums are countered by River who suggests a dangerous procedure to allow her to tap into her suppressed powers.

A genius and psychic, before Simon rescued her she was part of an Alliance project which included lethal martial arts training and brain-augmenting surgeries. The result is a strange hybrid creature with too many personalities who often scares the willies out of her shipmates, but in her head are all manner of secrets she doesn’t know she knows.

If she can recover some fact or scrap of clandestine knowledge valuable enough from inside her consciousness, they can use it to blackmail the government into freeing Zoe…

As the terrifying teen sinks into a chemically-induced coma, Bea and Jayne show up, but just as Reynolds is refusing the earnest newcomer’s offer to lead her revolution, Early – having slaughtered Bea’s entire crew – infiltrates Serenity and begins taking out the fugitives one by one…

The third chapter begins with a peek inside physically dormant River’s broken mind where she consults her other selves, before waking to discover the bounty hunter in control of the ship. Jubal however has neglected – and most crucially underestimated – the least of the crew and quickly learns to regret it…

The mind-walk has been shockingly successful and River now knows the location of other subjects like her. The chance to rescue more helpless victims from a place stuffed with invaluable stores, secrets and supplies whilst tweaking the Alliance’s nose is more than any of them can resist and soon Serenity is heading out to pick up another extremely unlikely ally…

For Zoe, however, life is not so appetising or upbeat. Barely recovered from surgery, she has been dumped on a hellish penal world where she has to literally battle every day just to stay alive. Luckily she’s always been good at fighting…

With a supposedly “turned” Alliance operative as guide, the crew lay their plans, but need Bea’s help to obtain a less recognisable ship to invade the facility in. Things seem to be going well until the New Resistance backers reveal themselves and the team stumble into a perfect trap.

It wouldn’t have been so bad but for one thing. River Tam is the most dangerous creature the heroes have ever met, but Simon got her out before her augmenting was complete. Now they’ve all burst into the one place where the horrifically finished models are ready and waiting…

With one single war-girl wiping the floor with the outgunned unwilling rebels, the gloating arrogant Alliance officers have not allowed for one small thing. Malcolm Reynolds is a wily, distrustful old soldier who has already lost one war and he didn’t come to fight without having one hell of a back-up plan…

Following a blockbuster battle, stunning reversals of fortune but an essentially Pyrrhic victory, the escaping heroes finally settle some old business before one last hurrah finds the Firefly heading to an anonymous prison planet to execute the most spectacular jailbreak ever seen…

With chapter-break headings utilising the powerful variant covers of Dan Dos Santos, Leaves on the Wind is pure explosive escapist enjoyment, but this splendid yarn will be far less effective if you haven’t seen the film it grew out of. The same simply can’t be said of the short story which closes the book on this voyage of the Firefly Serenity – after a large and enticing cover gallery by Jeanty, Story, Martin, Ian McCaig, Jenny Frison & Joe Quinones.

‘It’s Never Easy’ by Zack Whedon, Fábio Moon, Cris Peter & Heisler originated in Free Comic Book Day 2012: Serenity/Stars Wars, a supremely approachable and engaging yarn set during Zoe’s pregnancy which graphically and hilariously demonstrates how Malcolm is the kind of man who can get into trouble even whilst just standing around watching other people work…

With atone and sensibility that is pure Jonah Hex (back when the bounty hunting gunfighter was as blackly funny, sardonic and socially critical as it was thrilling, scary and action-packed), astoundingly terse and winning characterisation and all the intoxicating bonhomie and sense of wonder of Babylon 5 and the original Star Wars trilogy, this a book no lover of space opera shoot ’em ups can afford to miss.

Firefly™ and Serenity: Firefly Class 03-K64™ and © 2014 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.