0% Chance Of Success: Firefly The Verse Trading Cards

The Good: Some decent autographs, Some good artwork
The Bad: Missing cast members, Erratic artwork, Basic autograph style, Impossible collectibility
The Basics: Firefly The Verse trading cards partially reward fans of Firefly for keeping the light burning, but then creates an impossible-to-collect art card set.


Every now and then, I review a product that puts me at odds with myself. The Firefly The Verse trading cards are one such product. Firefly The Verse trading cards are an art-themed Firefly trading card set that continue in me the conflict between the trading card collector/genre fan geek and the small business owner. As a small business owner who sells collectibles, I understand the Firefly The Verse trading cards; they have insane rarity to them that leads a handful of collectors worldwide to shell out incredible amounts of money trying to get exceptionally rare cards. Sets like Firefly The Verse are generally good for business for those who manage to pull one of the critically rare cards from the set and can generate a bidding war as a result.

As a collector and genre fan, I hate sets like the Firefly The Verse trading cards. Trading card collecting is one of the few hobbies I picked up as a teenager that stuck with me into adulthood. It is also one of the hobbies I have been a part of where I have witnessed the absolute destruction of the hobby and the industry. Trading cards used to be an amusing diversion that allowed fans to collects something very different from their beloved television shows and films. They take up less space than action figures, are less homogeneous than 8 x 10 photos and have - for years - had a wider variety of subjects and styles than virtually any other collectibles, whatwith foil parallels, autograph cards, sketch cards, and costume/prop cards. And while the concepts of so many trading card sets remain solid and interesting, the execution of some of the new trading card sets are problematic.

Firefly The Verse is one of the most troublingly-executed trading card sets to come out in recent memory with card rarities that make collecting a literal impossibility.

Firefly The Verse cards were produced by Upper Deck, Inc. in 2015 and it is virtually impossible to define how many complete sets of the trading cards actually exist. Because of the rather obtuse breakdown of sketch cards, it is hard to be certain of how man master sets of Firefly The Verse cards are actually available. With the inclusion of Printing Plate cards for each of the common cards, the Firefly The Verse cards might have only four true master sets that could be created; producing a trading card set that only four people could actually assemble is somewhat ridiculous.

As a collector, as well, the Firefly The Verse cards have mixed execution on two key points. The artwork is decidedly mixed in the set and while Upper Deck worked hard to get participation from all of key people involved with Firefly, they failed. For a set that is bloated with autograph cards (single, double, and triple signature cards), the fact that Upper Deck did not manage to get the entire cast of Firefly to sign cards - and/or get Joss Whedon, the creator of Firefly to sign cards - is a strike against the set.

Basics/Set Composition

The concept behind the Firefly The Verse cards is good. The set is an artwork set which features nine cards of new art for each of the fourteen episodes of Firefly, two sets of nine character based cards and cards of the ship, Serenity. There are incredible amounts of bonus cards in the Firefly The Verse set and the set represents the last (known) collectible for fans of Firefly that Ron Glass was able to participate in.

Like almost all of Upper Deck trading card products, the cards come with a UV protective coating to protect the trading cards from fading over time and to give them a nice satin sheen. This does appear to work as I've not had any cards from Upper Deck, Inc. fade. The autographed cards - parallel and flat-out autographs - and sketch cards do not have the UV coating on the front. Unlike some sets of trading cards, the Firefly The Verse trading cards are not consistently oriented; some are in portrait, some are in landscape orientation.

The Firefly The Verse trading card set is an impossible mess when it comes to attempting to define the number of cards in the set. There is no checklist that reliably defines how many cards are in the set. As near as I can determine, the practical number of cards one might want to collect would net a 986 card collection, though there are at least 1581 cards in what would be defined as an absolute, true, master set (if such a thing was actually possible to collect). Even for those trying to complete 986 card set would find it near-impossible to collect given that such a set would require one to track down one of four of each of the 171 printing plates. As best I can determine, the Firefly The Verse trading card set is 986 (or 1581) cards made up of 171 common cards and 815 (or 1400!) chase cards, all but one found in the packs and boxes of the cards.

Common Cards

The Firefly The Verse common set is a 171 card set of artwork cards that were produced exclusively for the set. Each of the 14 episodes of Firefly are given nine cards, each by a different artist. The nine-card episode cards are stylistically incredibly different from one another, from character-centered iconic shots for some episodes to cartoonish artwork that is a stylized representation of the characters and scenes being depicted. The painting style of artwork for the episode "The Message" by Rupam Grimeurve is some of the most compelling, though Mick and Matt Glebe once again produce incredible artwork for "Bushwacked."

The character shots of the main Firefly cast from David Hindelang and Tim Shay are interesting and they precede new renditions of ships and classic propaganda posters for the Firefly universe. The common cards have varying quality and they also have problematic orientation: cards are scattered between portrait and landscape orientation, which makes for a somewhat sloppy appearance when the cards are in a binder.

Chase Cards

The Firefly The Verse cards are chock full of bonus cards, including three styles of parallel cards. The set has 815 trading cards in the bonus sets (of 1400 if one is a stickler!), only one of which is not available in the boxes and sets. The problem with the 814 card number to try to define the set comes in the sketch cards (we'll get to that!), but the 814 bonus cards seems like the best way to define the set. The Firefly The Verse set is made up of green parallel cards, leather parallel cards, autographed parallel cards, autographs, patch cards, sketch cards and printing plates.

The Firefly The Verse chase cards have a green foil parallel card as the first-level chase set. The parallel set takes almost a complete case to complete as the foil cards are found almost every pack and replicate the common cards with green foil accents. The green foil accents on the front of each card feature a symbol, replace the standard copper colored foil on the common cards and most have an accent of Chinese symbols (which Firefly fans understand, even if they cannot read them.

Found about three per box is another replication of the common set in the form of leather parallel cards. The leather parallel cards are each numbered to 99 on the front of the card, which is very different. The leather parallel cards have a slight texture to them, which is very cool. Given how many cases it takes to assemble the full 171 card leather parallel card set, it is good that this parallel set actually looks cool!

The final parallel set is an art lover's dream, at least for those who appreciate the art for the trading cards. One per box is an uncoated replication of a common card that is hand-signed by the artist or artists who produced the original for the Firefly The Verse card set. Each gold-signed card gives the fans of the artists the opportunity to get their favorite piece in the set autographed by the creator. Personally, I like the fact that those who generated the material for the Firefly The Verse set are given something that shows they are appreciated for their contribution.

The Firefly The Verse set is augmented by 42 patch cards. The patch cards are trading cards, extra thick, that have manufactured patches embedded in them. The patch cards vary between simple patches with the character's name on them to things like a patch that commemorates Shepherd Book's hair, Jayne's Gun Vera, or the Alliance Ship. The patch cards vary widely in quality, though most have truly distinctive moments that they replicate in patch form, like Kaylee's fancy dress. Only Jayne In The Airlock truly stood out as one that I had to stare at and look at from multiple angles before I saw what it was supposed to depict. The patch cards are found one per box, so to complete the set, it takes four cases with ideal collation.

The autograph cards are also found about one per box. The autograph cards were created to mimic identification cards from the Firefly Universe and they feature a variety of main and guest cast members. The autograph cards are very weird in that the thirty main autograph cards are landscape oriented, but most of the autographs are on the side of the card! There are fourteen dual autographs, eight triple autographs and six cards that replicate the character cards from the common set. Herein is the fundamental problem with the Firefly The Verse set: with a slew of autographs, it stands out that the full cast is not represented. While it is wonderful that fans can now get something beautiful signed by the recently-departed Ron Glass, the fact that the Firefly The Verse set does not include autographs by Summer Glau, Gina Torres, or Alan Tudyk is noticeable. Also, with some of the weird dual-autographs, it seems ridiculous that Sean Maher and Jewel Staite were not given a dual autograph in the set.

Then there are the sketch cards and there are further problems with figuring out the Firefly The Verse set. Each of the Firefly The Verse sketch cards are individually numbered and there are thirty different subjects. The problem with the Firefly The Verse sketch cards are that it is impossible to figure out how many actual sketch cards there were for the set. The sketch cards range from characters to replications of moments from the episodes to ships. So, for example, all of sketch card FS-2 are of Zoe Washburn, all of FS-16 have moments from "Jaynestown" as the subject, etc. But, while there are thirty potential subjects on cards specific to the artwork on the front, there are 102 artists who contributed sketch cards. Usually, I define the sketch cards as one sketch per artist, but given that the Firefly The Verse cards include two and they are dramatically different numbers, it is tough for collectors to decide which way they want to collect the set. Does one collect one of each artist, one of each of the thirty cards or one of each card by each artist?! There is no real way to collect them the final way (if each artist even contributed one sketch per card), so the most practical ways for the collectors to collect the sketches is to go one per card, though I'd still say that die-hard collectors will want one sketch per artist, so long as they get one of each of the thirty subjects.

The impossibility of collecting the Firefly The Verse cards concludes with the inclusion of printing plate cards into the set. Printing plates are a delightful addition in recent sets as they are the original plates used to make the common cards, cut into trading card size and included for collectors in the packs. The printing plates are viewed as either unique or one of four of each of the 171 plates that replicate the common cards. The printing plates were found in black, yellow, pink, and cyan (blue) and there are either 171 printing plates or 684 printing plates, depending upon one's perspective. I've come around to the idea that printing plates are one per card (171 in this set) and that means that there might be only four complete sets of Firefly The Verse trading card sets that could be completed.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

Outside the boxes, there was a San Diego Comic Con promotional card; it is the only card int he set, not found in packs and boxes, which is nice.

Overall

The Firefly The Verse cards are inconsistently produced which is irksome even to common card collectors, incomplete in the way the whole cast was not included in the autographs and irksome in the impossible way the sketch cards were generated. But, the set has some good artwork and some of the signers are truly impressive and a couple of the sketch cards I've seen were actually amazing. But inconsistency and difficulty are keywords for the Firefly The Verse set, which makes them impossible to recommend.

This set is artwork based on images from Firefly, reviewed here!

This is a set of trading cards I sell in my online store (new inventory being added daily!). Please visit and purchase from the current inventory of them at: Firefly The Verse Trading Card Inventory!

For other art-based trading card sets, please check out my reviews of:
Star Trek 50 Years 50 Artists
Cryptozoic Justice League Cards
Marvel Dangerous Divas 2 trading cards

2.5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L .Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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R.I.P. Ron Glass: Tonight We Listen To The Firefly Original Television Soundtrack For You!

The Good: Musically interesting, Decent duration
The Bad: Incomplete, Short pieces, Poor album flow
The Basics: Greg Edmonson's Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is an accurate collection, but not one that allows Edmonson to show off his musical prowess for more than three at a time.


Today, news broke that acclaimed actor Ron Glass died and it only continues to reinforce just how terrible 2016 has been. Ron Glass had a long career, which had new life breathed into it when he appeared on Joss Whedon's sleeper hit Firefly (reviewed here!) as Shepherd Book. Glass guest starred on a couple of episodes of Whedon's Marvel Cinematic Universe spin-out Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., but rose to prominence on television with Barney Miller. Like innumerable fans of his work and Firefly, the only personal stories I have of Ron Glass involve encountering him at science fiction conventions. Still, he was one of the most gracious, kind, and articulate (I write that because one might be surprised how many actors have absolutely no opinions on their character or the work they are performing on - but Ron Glass did!) celebrities I ever met.

Tonight, as I contemplate the life of Ron Glass and fondly recall my brief meeting with him, I found that he was one of the casualties of 2016 who I wanted to write about and commemorate in my blog. The problem I quickly discovered, however, was that everything I have directly encountered with Ron Glass in it has already been the subject of a review! So, I thought I would sit and listen to the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack as I thought about Mr. Glass and his career and it occurred to me that I had never reviewed the album!

The Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is an interesting musical work that is intriguing to me as a fan of both Firefly and classical/modern classical music. It is also one that made me almost instantly regret using it as a way to commemorate Ron Glass. The Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is almost entirely the work of Greg Edmonson and the album is more than enough to make me want to track down an album of his original works. Sadly, Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is not a compelling work on its own.

It is not long into the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack that I was forced to recognize two things: 1. composer Greg Edmonson is hampered by his subject and 2. Firefly's soundtrack and themes might have been integral to the work, but they hold up very poorly out of context. The first point is a classic argument for television soundtracks, especially for works that have a lot of action in them. Composers like Edmonson create musical works to match scenes on a monitor and they work to heighten mood and convey a new emotional depth to subtly influence the viewer in other key scenes.

What Edmonson is not doing on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is creating well-rounded musical works. Unlike something like The Red Violin Soundtrack (reviewed here!), where the pieces are of significant duration that they can musically develop as their own works to stand up outside the context of the film, the pieces on Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack are largely short and fractured. Within the twenty-five tracks on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack, there are 44 titles and almost as many musical themes. Outside the Main Title theme, "River's Dance," "Inara's Theme," and "River Understands Simon," none of the tracks seem truly long enough to develop on their own into fully-realized musical pieces with their own development, themes and complexity. The song starts and before it can truly go somewhere transformational in the moment it was developing . . . we cut to commercial or worse, the song abruptly transitions from a soft, contemplative musical composition into a frenetic noisy piece that aurally shocks the listener.

With 25 tracks clocking out at 60:15, Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack accurately translates the music of Firefly to the listener. The music of Firefly is almost all present - Jayne's Cobb's bar tribute song is very noticeably absent from the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack. The average musical piece is in the two minute range and contains a blend of guitar, violins and mellow percussion. There are more noisy, cacophonic sequences that amp up the percussion and feature more aggressive guitars, but most of the more aggressive music is on the album's first half.

Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack fails to create a coherent musical expression and rather than beat that dead horse, it is germane to explore the second epiphany I had while listening to the album. There is very little music on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack that is evocative of the show. I've listened to a lot of television soundtracks and usually I run into the opposite problem; I hear the musical composition and all I do is react to how it was in the television show. The Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is a suite of musical clips that evokes shockingly little in the way of recall to the moments they were paired with on the television series.

In other words, the compositions on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack successfully enhanced the moods of the scenes they were present in, but in no way became so integrally linked with those scenes as to allow them to evoke them in the listener's mind. Perhaps the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is a good tribute to Ron Glass by contrast; his subtle deliveries and his mere presence enhanced every scene he was in, but his absence is keenly felt when he is absent.

For other soundtrack albums, please check out my reviews of:
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Soundtrack
An Inconvenient Truth Soundtrack
Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack - The Bee Gees

4/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Serenity: Better Days And Other Stories Combines The Lackluster With The New To Enhance The Permanent Library Of Serenity Fans!

The Good: Decent sense of character voices, Moments of story
The Bad: The artwork, Very simple stories, No huge character development moments
The Basics: Milking Serenity fans with another hardcover comic book anthology, Dark Horse presents the underwhelming Better Days And Other Stories.


For those who might not follow my many, many reviews, I am a fan of the Firefly/Serenity franchise. It's a clever concept that has been fairly well-executed both in film and in book form. Still, it is trying to become a property that can be merchandised and Joss Whedon and his licensees are still trying to figure out how to make it more profitable. Apparently having undersold their anthology Better Days (reviewed here), this month Dark Horse has released Better Days And Other Stories. The anthology is the original Better Days mini-series - with Adam Baldwin's foreword from the original anthology - along with three standalone stories. I've reviewed Better Days pretty extensively on its own, so this review will focus on the stories unique to this anthology.

Having read the hardcover anthology, I like the principle of what Joss Whedon and Dark Horse is doing better than the execution. I like the idea of Dark Horse assembling their one-shot comics (many of which are harder to find) for their readers and putting them in an elegant hardcover volume for their permanent library. I just wish the stories inside were better and, especially, featured better artwork. At least, unlike Better Days the "Other Stories" feel more in tune with the universe Joss Whedon created, without relying on strange advanced technology not seen in the show. In that way, picking up this volume offers readers the nostalgia quality they are no doubt looking from from a book based upon the series that has been off the air almost a decade.

"The Other Half" by Jim Krueger is a remarkably simple story. As the Serenity crew tries to get their valuable cargo to a rendezvous with a buyer, they fight off an attack. Inside the transport, though, River has a chance to read the mind of the person being transported and she makes a judgment based on what she finds in his head. Only a few pages long, the story has a decent sense of mood and pacing, but it is pretty much a one-note story with a ridiculously simple concept. Readers know that River can read minds and that the Alliance is hostile to traders like those aboard the Serenity. So, the idea that one might be laying a trap for them is pretty obvious. That Mal would use River to suss that out makes the story exceptionally low on the "repeatability" factor for reading the volume.

"Downtime" is a similarly simple story with even less going for it. While the Serenity is blanketed with snow and forced to stay grounded, the crew mills about. Wash and Zoe use the time to get intimate (possibly setting up the final story in the anthology), Jayne gets treated for an STD and while everyone else reconvenes to give Jayne a hard time, River goes for a walk in the snow and takes out "snow men." This is another ridiculously simple vignette that trades on the idea that River can read minds and has the ability to kick some serious ass. Unfortunately, readers get this already. We've seen Serenity and her confronting Book is no big revelation for those who have read The Shepherd's Tale. Worse than that, the artwork by Chris Samnee is decidedly subpar. For example when River goes out into the snow the artwork is so vague that it lacks recognizable form for the characters.

The book closes out with "Float Out," a one shot by Patton Oswalt. Following the events of Serenity, three former associates of Wash's sit around and tell stories of his terrible sense of humor and amazing piloting abilities. The stories, from before Wash joined Serenity, has the intrepid pilot flying the Meltaway and other ships to earn his living. The story goes for the big reveal which is of little surprise - or at least none to me as Alan Tudyk and I discussed the plotline that had been intended to be explored had Firefly had a second season. Again, the artwork is particularly bad, though this time the blame goes to Patric Reynolds. I cited page 109 as having artwork that had a particularly crappy rendition of Wash.

Ultimately, it is a wash for me. The book was worth one read, but I couldn't muster up the desire to keep it in my permanent library. I'm one who has been excited about watching the set yet again, introducing my wife to it and even reading Those Left Behind again. But this didn't have much in the way of character development, the stories were hardly essential and the artwork - outside the extensive cover galleries - was hardly extraordinary. Fans might do better to wait to buy this when the hardcover goes on sale right before the inevitable softcover release.

For other Serenity or Firefly works, please check out my reviews of:
Firefly - The Complete Series
Serenity
Serenity Those Left Behind By Joss Whedon
The Shepherd's Tale By Zack Whedon

5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale Fills In The Gaps On One Of Firefly’s Most Vital Characters (In A Mediocre Fashion).

The Good: Excellent character development, Great storyline/narrative technique
The Bad: ARTWORK is abysmal! Somewhat predictable in parts.
The Basics: An otherwise exciting and intriguing Serenity graphic novel, Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale is presented with such bad artwork as to distract from the quality of the story being told.


I have a lot of respect for the graphic novel medium now. Indeed, in the last few years, I have gotten more and more excited about the medium because so many movies have graphic novel tie-ins and so many canceled projects live on in the graphic novel medium. The doomed television series Firefly (reviewed here!) by Joss Whedon used the strength of the boxed set DVD sales to get fans Serenity (reviewed here!). But when it looked like there would be no sequel forthcoming to the big screen, Joss Whedon kept the franchise alive using the graphic novel medium. Right before Christmas 2010, fans of the Serenity franchise were “treated” to a new graphic novel:.

I write “treated” in quotes above because the book is an unfortunate mixed bag. Fans of Firefly who were shocked by the events of Serenity realized there was a huge narrative hole waiting to be filled. I'm writing this review with respect to those readers who might have seen the television show, but not yet (for one inconceivable reason or another) caught the film. The hole in the story, the mysterious backstory of Shepherd Book, the resident religious figure on Serenity, is finally filled in with Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale. While this should have been a huge treat – Book was my favorite character in the franchise – the artwork in the hardcover graphic novel is so sloppy that it guts the power and strength of the story being told. In other words, just when I have attained a real respect for the graphic novel medium, I run into one where the artwork drags the story down to such an extent that it exemplifies much of the worst of the medium.

Shepherd Book's life is told backwards in The Shepherd’s Tale. From his part in Serenity, Book recalls his life leaping backward through relativistic memories. Book remembers leaving Serenity, talking with Jayne and walking in on Mal and Zoe during a deal that went wrong, even back to his arrival at the foot of the Serenity from the series premiere of Firefly. From there, his exploration of divinity is relayed and then the events that drove him to the monastery ten years before are shown. Book is brutally beaten by the police and he has a bowl of chicken soup over which he has a spiritual awakening.

The allusion to the IKV Alexander is quickly followed up with the story of Book in command of the IKV Cortez during the war. As a battle goes south for Book, he orders the Alliance surrender in a key battle, for which he is dishonorably discharged from the military. How Book reached such a lofty position is explained by his training as a torture specialist in the next flashback. From there, the reader learns how he ended up working for the military and the childhood events that shaped Book's life.

First, Zachary Whedon – who wrote the book based upon the backstory Joss Whedon had plotted out – does an excellent job with the story in Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale. Whedon takes a character who was frequently marginalized and makes him a viable protagonist who is able to carry the entire book. The narrative technique of having episodes journey backward through time to illustrate how Book became the man he was when he first appeared on Firefly - and explain why he had left the ship by Serenity - works extraordinarily well. It might seem like a gimmick academically, but Whedon’s execution makes it feel like a remarkably clever retrospective script. It actually reminded me of one of Peter David’s Star Trek Annuals back in the 1980s where he crafted a love story for Scotty that went back in time the same way. What allows me to heap some praise on Whedon is that it never felt derivative of the story I had read years before and enjoyed quite a bit.

Beyond that, Whedon’s version of Book is enough to make one want to go back and rewatch Firefly. How convincing Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale is might well be measured in being able to go back through the series and pick out details in Ron Glass's character on the television show and in the film. Viewers who recall the show might well remember how Book managed to get the crew of Serenity out of a scrape or two by flashing his credentials at government officials. This book explains why they would treat him with such power and deference, but for fans to believe it, there must have been clues that were sprinkled throughout the series. The book is powerful enough to make one want to go do that.

Unfortunately, the presentation of Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale is where the graphic novel falls down. The artwork looks like paintings, but the presentation is so sloppy that the lines and sense of movement are blurred almost beyond recognition. In many of the panels, Book does not look like Ron Glass and one might only know the subject of the pages because he is the only black person on the page. This guts the emotional resonance of the book because readers spend far too much time trying to discern what is actually happening on the page as opposed to the flow of the story. In other words, the “effect” completely undermines the message. Chris Samnee does not do anyone a service with his presentation of the story.

That said, Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale is just on the underside of average and most fans of the Serenity franchise will enjoy the book, assuming they can overlook the style instead of the substance. This was one of the rare instances where I could not.

For other graphic novels that tie-in with contemporary films, please check out my reviews of:
Serenity: Those Left Behind
Serenity: Better Days
Star Trek: Spock - Reflections

4.5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Alone In A Dark Galaxy: Serenity Caps Off Firefly Well, If Depressingly.

The Good: Decent acting, Engaging story, Good dialog, Nice pace, Daring vision
The Bad: Glosses over a lot of character, Special effects
The Basics: In the distant future, one young woman is hunted by an oppressive government and protected by a rogue crew without any special abilities.


When I finished watching the movie Serenity, I sat in shock for a few minutes. I also sat hoping that the theme song to the defunct television show Firefly, upon which Serenity is based, would play during the closing credits. Alas, it did not. My shock that kept me in my seat was not at the rude idiot who called out lines from the trailer before they were delivered during the movie, but rather at how the universe of Firefly (reviewed here!) from the television show had been changed by the two hour event I had just watched.

For those who have not seen a single episode of Firefly, Serenity does an amazing job of catch-up, making this a very accessible movie for all audiences. Instead of being a "Screw you for not watching my show!," Joss Whedon opens with a very clear establishment of the universe of Firefly to get the audience engaged. It is very effective, eliminating in the opening moments of the film the big leap the television show required audiences to make.

In the future, Earth has been mostly abandoned for planets in points further out. The authoritarian Alliance governs from a position of power on high, leaving outer colony worlds to mostly fend for themselves. The Alliance does not forgive mistakes and it works hard to maintain its sense of power and control. To that end, it recruits the best and brightest minds for its intelligence and combat divisions. River Tam was a gifted young girl who was part of an ultra-secret program that left her mind virtually destroyed. Unfortunately, her big brother broke her out of the program, leaving the Alliance and its secrets vulnerable. An Operative of the Alliance begins a hunt for River.

River, for her part, is now a weird passenger on Serenity, a consistently-falling-apart space ship on the frontier doing mercenary work. While working on a bank robbery with her new crew, River is sighted by the Operative and a gruesome, bloody chase ensues that will leave River changed and the crew of Serenity in the greatest amount of peril it has ever experienced.

For fans of Firefly, there is much enjoyment in seeing some resolution to the stories from the television show, though there is likely to be some disappointment among hard-core fans over the speed of much of the resolutions. Things happen very quickly in Serenity and in order to squeeze in the massive plot, much of the comfortable pacing of Firefly is sacrificed.

Also sacrificed are important character relationships. The marriage of Zoe and Wash, for example, shows none of the cracks it had when last we saw the characters. The interweavings of Inara and Mal are sacrificed in order to keep the plot focused on River and her story. And Shepherd Book is, sadly, almost entirely absent from the movie.

That said, Serenity delivers and it does so quite well, with a bit of flair. This is an entertaining movie and it wraps up a lot of loose ends from Firefly, while still being a very complete story on its own. Thus, fans of the show will appreciate learning more about what has been going on with River and actually seeing Reavers. People who have never seen the show will get a movie about a twisted young woman who has been abused by the government and her attempts to rediscover all she has lost in a universe filled with menace.

This is not a clean, sterile universe. Joss Whedon keeps the tension in Serenity high and is remarkably unpredictable. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty and to shock his audience, especially the hard core fans.

Fortunately, Whedon has an awesome cast to work with. Summer Glau comes into her own, moving much of the movie as River. In The Simpsons, there is an episode where there is an adaptation of Hamlet and Lisa says "No one out-crazies Ophelia." Well, no one out-performs Glau when it comes to weird, crazy and strangely fun. Glau is awesome and she pulls off the physical stunts incredibly in Serenity.

Jewel Staite is great as Kaylee, the heart of Serenity and Sean Maher has an incredible amount of screentime given how neglected his character was in Firefly. Adam Baldwin is a great source of comic relief, as is Alan Tudyk is great as the wisecracking Wash. And Gina Torres is, yet again, impossibly beautiful as Zoe. Torres reminds us that she has created a character with immense personal strength and her ability to play Zoe as passionate and hardened within an eyeblink of each emotion is rather incredible.

Much of the movie hinges on the movement of Nathan Fillion who plays Mal. He is strong and sensitive and has great range for his character. In Serenity, Fillion balances his inner character struggle with a great deal of physical exertion in combat scenes and he does it without any sense of conflict. The movie moves on his movements and he does it rather fluidly.

The only serious problem with Serenity (outside the obvious compromises for time and the general audience) is in the special effects department. What worked on the small screen in terms of speed and changing camera focus comes across as jumbled and confused on the big screen. So, while Whedon and his team create an intense and extraordinary battle for the climax of the movie unlike anything they had the opportunity to do on television, most of it happens with a speed and lack of focus that comes across as clumsy rather than artful.

On the balance, Serenity is a fast-paced adventure that serves nicely as a coda to the television show Firefly or as a nice stepping stone for future adventures in this weird Whedonverse.

For other films featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor, be sure to see my reviews of:
Salt
2012
Love Actually

7/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Plot Heavy And Largely Pointless, Better Days Adds Little To The Story Of Serenity!

The Good: One or two panels of artwork, Moments of character
The Bad: Plot intensive, A lot of poor artwork, Adds little to character, Very "science fictiony"
The Basics: Light on character development and populated by poor artwork, Serenity: Better Days is not the best Joss Whedon endeavor to date.


I have recently - within the past three weeks - re-watched the entire television series Firefly (reviewed here!) and one of the things that continues to impress me about it is how truly different it was from everything else that was on the air at the time or since. One of the children of Joss Whedon, Firefly is one of the most impressive franchises in the last ten years as the television series was quickly canceled, fans rallied with the DVD boxed set sales, funded a movie and now the stories continue on in the comic books. In fact, to bridge the gap between the television series and the cinematic endeavor, Joss Whedon penned a series of Serenity comics that were anthologized in Those Left Behind (reviewed here!).

Now, Whedon and Brett Matthews have returned with another anthology of Serenity comics, a trade paperback entitled Better Days. When I first saw this tiny trade paperback, I was excited. After all, I appear to have become one of those people who is asking the question (from the t-shirt) "How much Serenity crap do I need to buy before they'll make another movie?" I was eager for something new in the Firefly/Serenity universe. Unfortunately, with Better Days, there is the feeling that Whedon on some level knows this and he is just churning out . . . well, crap. Better Days is - overtly - a poor endeavor and fans of the series (even those of us desperate for something new in the Whedonverse) are much more likely to be disappointed than thrilled by this outing.

As part of Serenity's regular activities of thieving, the ship funds itself on a core planet where a new weapon's system is being tested, as they steal some artwork. The weapon is a drone with impressive killing power, though it doesn't seem to be able to hit Mal or any of his team as they flee it. In fact, they are able to incapacitate it and in the process, discover they might have an even more valuable item than the stolen artwork. Despite it missing its logic core, Mal is able to sell the drone to a buyer for the contents of a second heist, a Buddha filled with Alliance credits . . . millions of them.

Of course, things are never quite that easy for the crew of Serenity. Inara's latest customer, Sanda, turns out to be an Operative who is hunting down browncoats who kept fighting after the end of the war. Dust Devils, as they are known, are wanted fugitives and Sanda is hunting Mal while the drone builder hunts Mal and his drone. And the rest of the crew, faced with being absolutely rich, takes to vacationing on Pelorum, where they fantasize about what they will do with their money.

And, to be fair, there is something amusing about River's fantasy about marrying a whale, but the one panel certainly does not justify the rest of the book. Most of the characters - including River - are overlooked largely in Better Days. Indeed, there is little in this book that works on its own. Most of Better Days is preoccupied with setting up character elements for Serenity (reviewed here!) that were never even implied in the film. In fact, much of Better Days is a big jerking around of the fans.

First, because the book is set before Serenity all nine of the principle characters are alive, well and where they were before Those Left Behind. The moment Mal strikes it rich and realizes they have more money than they will ever be able to use, the reader finds themselves just waiting to see how they will lose it. After all, the ship is falling apart in the opening frames of Serenity. The wealth cannot last.

But the best two aspects of Better Days are both character elements that were never even implied in either Firefly or Serenity. Inara has a liaison that puts some strain on her and Mal and it is implied would be the source of Dr. Tam's discord with Mal present at the opening of Serenity. And Zoey is given a bit of backstory, in regards to the Dust Devils that enhances her character.

Only, the problem is, that Zoey's sudden missing chapter being filled in makes no real sense. Zoey and Wash have marital problems from the outset, largely to do with how Zoey has followed Mal during and after the war where the Browncoats were defeated. Wash feels like there is another person in his marriage and he struggles with that. As well, in the flashback sequences shown in Firefly, Zoey is always with Mal. The idea that Zoey had a great bit of independence where she might have been a terrorist following the war, then gone back to Mal makes no real sense. It is a good idea, but it falls apart in light of several of the other (canon) elements that were presented well before this.

As well, the artwork is not all the best, with many of the panels being less detailed or less precisely colored than in many other comic books or graphic novels I have read. Characters like Simon Tam suffer in this incarnation as there are many panels where he looks nothing like the doctor.

The other big element for me was the artwork for the chase scenes. Whedon seems to have hit a creative wall here. Fans of Firefly and Serenity are well-acquainted with chase scenes. Firefly had many and Serenity opens with two chase scenes. In the films it is easy to create tension and movement and make a chase scene interesting. As Mal and the heist team flee the automated drone, Better Days plods along in a visually uninteresting way that might have worked in an episode, but flops completely on the page. The artwork is not compelling and there is no real sense of pace or danger to the chase, making it more blase than exciting.

Ultimately, Better Days does not add anything vital to the story of the crew of Serenity. Mal makes explicit one character element that viewers and readers will already know about him, but mostly the character elements are somewhat forced and make little sense in the larger narrative. Given that there are nine characters in the series, most of them are neglected in this story, though all of them appear.

In the trade paperback omnibus edition (I refuse to call these compilations of previously released comic books graphic novels anymore!) there is an introduction by Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne and that conveys virtually the same sentiment that Nathan Fillion presented in his foreword to Those Left Behind. So for those who bought the original Better Days comic books, there is little incentive to buy this again.

Then again, it's hard to muster up the enthusiasm, even if one only wants this compilation book. Serenity fans: hold out for the next (hopefully better!) thing.

For other graphic novels tied to films, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Star Trek - Nero
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra Official Movie Prequel
Heroes Volume 2

3/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Before Watching Serenity . . . Why Firefly Is Must-Watch Television!

The Good: Excellent acting, Good character development, Intriguing "universe"
The Bad: Takes serious investment of faith in Joss Whedon, Simplification of special effects.
The Basics: With a wonderfully diverse cast, Firefly tells the compelling story of smugglers in the future on the run from an authoritarian government.


Once upon a time, there was a show by Joss Whedon on the Fox network. Fox did not promote it and soon it was canceled. Fans of Joss Whedon's work were sad. But then, television shows on DVD became the highest grossing entertainment source in the United States and all sorts of television shows made it to DVD. DVD sales were responsible for the return of Family Guy. And DVD sales were responsible for a movie called Serenity!

Serenity (reviewed here!) is the movie that continues the story that was begun on television in the series Firefly. Firefly is a fairly unique view of the future. Unlike Star Trek's utopian vision or Alien's dystopian vision or Star Wars' vision of somewhere else entirely, Firefly's basic view of the future is this: humanity survived long enough to visit the stars. But then, the bureaucracy and governments stretched too far and a civil war broke out. And in the end, the powerful government - the Alliance - won and the outlying colony worlds basically get shafted. Left on their own to fend for themselves, the places most distant from Earth are basically rogue, making do with what they can. It's the West. Firefly looks and feels like a Western. With spaceships. And curses in Mandarin Chinese.

Captain Mal Reynolds is a man who was a leader on the losing side of the civil war which has been over for over half a decade. He has become a smuggler, soaring around the galaxy in his Firefly-class ship Serenity. Barely making ends meet to keep fuel in the ship, Mal and his crew take whatever work they can get, usually moving illegal cargo. When they take on a fancy doctor and his deranged sister, Serenity becomes targeted by the Alliance and is forced to flee deeper into space, where opportunities are fewer and the threats are more horrific.

The series is about the flight of the ship and the interactions of the characters who are forced together. As Serenity flees from the Alliance, the crew's lives are complicated by the fugitives in their midst and the secrets River has locked in her head.

One of the most intriguing and well-conceived aspects of Firefly is that this is a show with great range and appeal. It is hard to define as it takes place in the future with a space ship, but everyone looks like cowboys. It's a work without real genre and that takes a lot of faith to stick with. Joss Whedon has a lot of street credibility with the successes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel; it's easy to see how he got the pilot made based on that. However, unless one is a fan of his earlier works and willing to take on that faith that the show will continue to go somewhere that is going to pay off, it's easy to see why network executives would be freaked out by it and not know what to do with it.

Fortunately, I am a fan of Angel and Buffy The Vampire Slayer and I was willing to invest some of that faith Whedon had built up in watching this series. It was worthwhile. Firefly succeeds because of the distinctive character interactions and the compelling situations those characters are put into. As Serenity flees the Alliance, various characters have their mysteries explored and revealed. Mal thinks twice about some of the jobs he takes and the straight-laced Simon illustrates he will do anything to save his sister by mapping out one of the most dangerous jobs for the crew; stealing medical supplies from the Alliance. And while they work together or fight, there are other threats. On the frontier, there are insane, mutilated humans who fly around in ships killing anyone they find. They are called Reavers and one of the most impressive aspects of Firefly is that the viewers only see their effects, never the actual villains.

In fact, one of the most impressive leaps Whedon takes is to create a barren universe for the viewer. Humans are it in this vision of the future. There are no aliens, no mystical portals. We're out there, we are the heroes, we are the villains. Fortunately, Joss Whedon is clever enough to pull it all off.

Like all Whedon shows, this is a character-driven story and here are the principle characters:

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds - The leader with moral ambiguity. A striking anti-hero, Reynolds is devoted to his crew and keeping his ship safe and as independent of the Alliance as possible. He still feels loss over the outcome of the war and while he does not always do the morally correct thing, he always does what he thinks is best. With wit and charm, Reynolds is the one who runs the boat,

Zoe - Mal's first officer. She served with Mal in the war and is loyal to him and Serenity in a way that almost borders on love. She is married to Wash and her loyalty to Mal creates some tension between her and her husband. Efficient and clever, she is Mal's right hand,

Jayne - Mal's security officer and a big, dumb brute. Jayne is the most treacherous of the crew whose purpose seems to be effectively the muscle. He is always prepared to take the ship away from Mal and sell the crew out for more money. With his love of weapons and conflict, Jayne is a dangerous man to know,

Kaylee - Serenity's chief engineer and the heart of the ship. She is shy and charming and an expert in what keeps a Firefly flying. What Mal is to the crew, she is to the ship and her down-to-Earth demeanor leads her to an awkward attraction to Simon,

Wash - The ship's navigator. He has a sense of humor and a quick wit. His marriage to Zoe is one the rocks over their lack of privacy and time alone,

Inara - A Companion (high-class hooker, a very reputable position in this universe) who has a great deal of dignity. Despite herself, she finds herself often attracted to the oblivious Mal. She brings an air of class and legitimacy to the scoundrel crew and is useful in more than one pinch,

Shepherd Book - Essentially a traveling priest. Despite Mal's devout atheism, Book pays his way and joins the crew as a moral compass. However, Book seems to have a past and a certain amount of influence with the Alliance that makes others question if he is all that he appears,

Simon - The brilliant doctor. He is an amazing physician and his love and compassion overflows for his sister, River. He has sacrificed everything for her and while he loves her and seeks to protect her, he finds himself attracted more and more to Kaylee,

and River - A genius with a shattered psyche. River is an enigma. She is apparently a genius of amazing proportions who was the subject of cruel and invasive experiments at the hands of the Alliance. Her mystery leads Serenity into most of its difficulties.

The characters are very distinctive and very likable and interesting. Unfortunately, they are also not entirely segregated from other Joss Whedon characters. Mal, for example, has several lines that could have come from Angel and, sadly, Nathan Fillion delivers them in a way very reminiscent of the other show's star.

Truly, though, the cast is extraordinary. Veteran actor Ron Glass portrays Book with dignity and charisma. Summer Glau, formerly a ballerina, is surprisingly good as the awkward and crazy River, managing to create a unique performance that is not based on anyone else's work. Adam Baldwin plays Jayne with great physical presence and a subtle wit that is a great deal of fun to watch.

Gina Torres is absolutely fabulous as Zoe. Torres is a wonderful character actress and must be one of the most beautiful people on the planet. The irony of that is that at many times, Torres is supposed to look haggard or weary in Firefly, but she's unable to pull it off because of her flat out beauty. That is not to say Torres is simply a pretty face. Indeed, she has a great deal of character and ability that is utterly convincing in this role. She can make her eyes sag and her shoulder's slump to look exhausted, but she's still Gina Torres and she's still gorgeous.

Jewel Staite is wonderful as Kaylee. She brings a youth and exuberance to the role that keeps the mood of the show from descending into utter depression or futility. Staite has awesome ability to light up a scene with her smile and her control for the expressiveness of her face and eyes is amazing. As Kaylee, Staite is required to go from expressing simple joy to disappointment (usually in differences with Simon) within an instant and Staite executes such turns impressively and with utter convincing. She's a treat to watch and while her character is the soul of the ship, this actress has much of the soul of the show.

But the one who moves the show and makes it work is Nathan Fillion. As Mal, Fillion projects a casual air mixed with a strange, all-consuming authority. There is not a single moment of the show that the viewer does not believe that Mal is the king of his own little realm and much of that comes from Fillion's portrayal. He is tough and likable in a way that makes for compelling viewing.

Who will like Firefly? Certainly anyone who likes Joss Whedon's other works. Anyone who likes Westerns and science fiction will enjoy this show. Anyone who enjoys strong character-driven works and is willing to give the show a chance to build where it is going, will find much to enjoy in Firefly. And the show is going somewhere.

It's too bad it got canceled before it could get there. At least it will continue in the theaters . . . and in graphic novels like Those Left Behind (reviewed here!)

For other shows that originally aired on FOX, please check out my reviews of:
Family Guy Presents: It’s A Trap!
Glee - Season Two, Volume One
Fringe - Season Two
Arrested Development
Wonderfalls
The Lone Gunmen
Millennium
VR.5
The X-Files
The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr.

8.5/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Bridge Between Firefly and Serenity, Serenity: Those Left Behind Is A Worthwhile Journey!

The Good: Decent writing, Some real nice panels, Cover art gallery
The Bad: Some of the artwork isn't great
The Basics: In between the television series Firefly and the big-screen Serenity, are the events of Serenity: Those Left Behind which allows fans one more opportunity to enjoy Joss Whedon's universe.


One of the problems with Joss Whedon's creations are that they tend to be dense, layered. This works very well for a television show (Angel's serialization in the third and fourth season helped make the show as great as it was), but poorly for a cinematic adventure. So, when Whedon's Firefly (reviewed here!) was canceled and he won the right to produce the film Serenity (reviewed here!) one of the serious problems with the endeavor was that Serenity had so many plot lines and character threads to try to wrap up. Fortunately for fans of the series, Joss Whedon created a bridge between Firefly and Serenity, a series of comics that were assembled in the trade paperback Serenity: Those Left Behind.

The crew of Serenity, led by Malcolm Reynolds, is in one of its standard bad places. When a bank job goes awry, while Shepherd Book distracts the townspeople of the planet the crew is robbing, the intrepid crew finds themselves once more on the run, low on funds and fuel. As they seek more work from Badger, an enemy from Mal's past allies himself with the blue-gloved agents who are hunting River and Simon Tam.

And the resolution to that conflict leads to the character choices that establish where the crew of Serenity begin the film. This is a smart bridge between the television series and the movie, filling in the important gap between the two. Essentially, this answers the three big questions from the outset of Serenity: Why did Book leave, when did Anara get dropped off and why did the Alliance hire bounty hunters to go after River and Simon when they had the blue-gloved men?

The nice thing about Serenity: Those Left Behind is that because it is written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, the characters all sound like they should. The dialogue reads just like an episode of Firefly. There is not a moment in the trade paperback where the reader feels "[X character] would never say that" or "X does not sound like that." Instead, it's very easy to read this graphic novel with the voices and timing of the actors resonating in the mind of the reader. The writing is crisp and the dialogue reads as correct for the characters and universe created in Firefly.

Moreover, the action in the book is as realistic as it was in the television series. There are no leaps here that use the conceits of comic books. No one suddenly develops special powers or abilities that were not indicated in the show. Instead, this feels very much like the series. And it's a decent story. It satisfies the reader and fan of Firefly.

The only real drawback is some of the artwork. Dark Horse kindly included the covers to the three comic books that this work anthologizes, but both the cover art and the interior art in some cases leaves much to be desired. So, for example, the cover with River is just plain terrible, looking nothing like her. Inside the trade paperback, there are panels that are amazing, like the panel showing Serenity engaging its engines (there are no page numbers, but it's near the end - this was always an awesome effect on screen). But then there are some real duds, like the frames introducing Wash into the story.

I suppose that's standard with comic books, but it's still disappointing to see.

Because this is an anthology of only three comic books, there is not much more to say on Serenity: Those Left Behind without giving everything away. That ought never to be done. On the balance, this is essential for those who are fans of the series, but easily overlooked by those who have never seen Firefly or Serenity.

For other graphic novels that tie-in with films, please check out my reviews of:
Star Trek: Countdown
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon - Foundation
The A-Team: War Stories

7/10

For other book reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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