Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Serenity: Firefly Class 03-K64 - Leaves on the Wind #1
Dark Horse Comics
Whedon & Jeanty
The 2005 film by Joss Whedon gets a proper sequel in this comic book series. While the property has seen other comics emerge in this universe before, this comic book seems to be set immediately after the film ends. As a result, the fans of the film are going to ease into this book and fall in love with the characters all over again by the book's end. Those that are new to this universe might be hard pressed to find a lot in here to latch onto. There seems to be light introductions and not a whole lot of spelled out plot which makes this book largely inaccessible even with the lengthy recap. Overall, I think this is worth checking out and seeing where all of this heads.
The book opens with a debate-type broadcast where various parties bat around their opinions on the Reavers, the dominance of the Alliance and the validity of the broadcast that exposed many of these elements at the end of the film. When you couple these panels with the recap you pretty much have all the refresher you need from the film, even if you last saw it years ago. After this the book kicks into the plot: finding the Firefly ship, Serenity.
There are plenty of organizations and people looking for Serenity, specifically the special girl on the ship that was rescued in the movie. The motives aren't made explicitly clear in this comic but the importance is known. Various factions also seem to have some tricks that they are alluding to but not springing as of yet.
The book finally moves to the ship and her crew after a while and this is where the book hits its stride. The character's personalities and their interactions all feel familiar and spot on. The comic definitely brings the characters to life in a way that makes you feel like you've been following them all this time regardless of how long it's been since you've seen the film.
One of the key drawbacks with this issue is that character's names are spoken in the entire book. For example, Mal bickers with and then sleeps with a woman. Her name doesn't appear in the book at all. This is extremely frustrating because so much of the crew of the ship looks similar. Those familiar with the film will already know them though.
The artwork is good. There is a polished look to the book. It's detailed, wonderfully colored and conveys the character portrayals very well. The book does contain a little bit of re-use in some panels from previous ones but generally speaking the book is a very good artistic presentation of the story.
The opening issue of Serenity relies heavily on the reader knowing the film and its characters. It's not to say a new fan won't enjoy this but it does feel a lot like a tenth issues rather than a first. I liked the re-visitation of the characters from the film and found the plot to be a good starting point. Join that with some nice art and you have a good start to this series. It will be interesting to see where the Whedons take this.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
