Post-Serenity Adventure: Serenity: Leaves On The Wind Leaps The Firefly Story Forward!

The Good: Engaging story, Decent character progression, Some of the artwork
The Bad: Last chapter is terrible, New characters lack the familiar charisma from Firefly.
The Basics: Serenity: Leaves On The Wind continues the story of the crew of the Serenity after the film and the birth of Wash and Zoe's daughter.


The longer fans of Firefly (reviewed here!) go without a new series, the longer fans have to rely upon the graphic novels and fan fiction to get their fix. And the more graphic novels that are released set in the Firefly/Serenity universe, the more convinced fans are becoming that Firefly was actually lucky to get axed when it did. As much as it might seem to be heresy to say aloud, part of the success of Firefly came from the fact that it was cancelled before it could go bad. The latest graphic novel from the beloved television show that I've gotten my hands on is Serenity: Leaves On The Wind.

Serenity: Leaves On The Wind is the most significant graphic novel set in the Firefly after the events of the film Serenity (reviewed here!). Foreshadowed in previous volumes, Serenity: Leaves On The Wind includes the important plot event of the birth of Zoe and Wash's child. The rest of the story involves tie-ins to both the film and significant episodes of Firefly, most notably the return of the fairly crazy bounty hunter Early.

Eight months after the crew of Serenity exposed the secrets of the planet Miranda to the universe, Zoe gives birth. Her daughter, Emma, is born healthy, but Dr. Tam discovers that she is bleeding internally and the Serenity does not have the supplies needed to save her life. Since the outing of the events on Miranda, the Browncoats have risen to start a de facto rebellion against the Alliance and they want Captain Mel Reynolds to be their leader. Unfortunately, in the attempt to save Zoe's life, Zoe is captured by the Alliance and imprisoned.

When Early once again finds and boards the Serenity, the New Resistance comes into play. Working together, the crew of Serenity and the New Resistance intend to deal a blow to the Alliance and save Zoe. But their efforts are complicated when they run into a young woman experimented upon much the same way River was and their plans go to hell, forcing them to improvise.

Serenity: Leaves On The Wind blends new characters with recurring characters from Firefly and Serenity, but the book only serves to prove how right the show Firefly got it with its original character blend. Lacking Book and Wash, the book is forced to rely upon Early and the Operative from Serenity to try to find the right chemistry. Fans of relationships might be excited that Inara and Mal are making a serious attempt at a relationship now that she is disbarred from the Companions, but Tam and Kaylee are having sex throughout the book with little in the way of spark.

The concepts in Serenity: Leaves On The Wind largely work; the idea of a Resistance is a good one and the idea that Jayne left Serenity makes real sense. The artwork is good enough throughout most of the book to make all of the characters, including the Operative and Early recognizable. Ironically, Dr. Tam is not recognizable. Much of the banter - when it is present - in Serenity: Leaves On The Wind is decent, but the book has a lot of exposition it needs to deliver to explain to readers exactly what the Firefly Universe has become.

The final chapter of the book is a one-shot from Free Comic Book Day and it is pretty terrible on the artwork front and not nearly as vital on the character/story fronts.

Ultimately, Serenity: Leaves On The Wind has the potential to be like the graphic novel continuation of Angel, but this is an early chapter and it is unclear how well the new mixes of characters and relationships actually works. The Serenity becomes a colony ship briefly in Serenity: Leaves On The Wind and that helps illustrate a glimpse of the potential that a rebellion against the Alliance might truly mean. How the Firefly gang fits into all that is potentially a disaster, but Serenity: Leaves On The Wind is actually a decent-enough start to it.

For other Firefly-based books, please check out my reviews of:
Serenity: Those Left Behind
Serenity: Better Days
Serenity: The Sheperd's Tale

6/10

For other book reviews, please visit my Book Review Index Page!

© 2015 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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