This was a fun story, a nice bridge between the TV show and the movie. What boosted it from a 4 to a 5 was: 1) some the artwork was breathtaking, and 2) I like the little wrap-up essay at the end.

Even though the story seemed a little rushed, all of my Firefly-to-Serenity-Gap questions were answered, with great art and Whedon's trademark comedy to boot. Hooray!

This was a nice story in additon to the TV series and movie. I felt it was just another episode to the show. I loved the artwork as well. My hope is that they do not stop there and continue to create more stories. Very well done.

As a fan of Firefly, I was naturally disappointed that it had such a short life as a tv series, and ecstatic when it was given a second shot at life with the movie. However, there were a lot of plot points which got established in the tv series, but never had a chance to come to fruition. The movie wasn’t able to resolve everything, so I had high hopes for this comic.

Mostly I was very satisfied with this book. It did a good job of rounding up the unanswered questions for the series, and giving them a bit more room to breath. Not everything gets resolved in this book, and some stuff I felt got resolved a little to quickly, but there’s another volume, Serenity: Better Days, so more questions may be answered there. Overall, it sets the movie up well.

It also includes an intro by Nathan Fillion, who Whedon fans will recognize as Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly/Serenity and Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which was really entertaining.

This book is definitely intended for a pre-established fan base, and doesn’t really serve as a good introduction to the series as a whole. If you’re intrigued by Serenity: Those Left Behind, I highly recommend the tv series, Firefly, to fans of Science Fiction, Westerns, and witty writing.

You know, just once I want these to be a full sized graphic novel. Sure, its 100 pages but most of that is forwards, and information about the groundwork for the movie/ show, and its pages that are not spent advancing the story. And I LIKE learning about the concept art, and concept history for the Whedonverse, BUT I am reading these for the stories.

Maybe its unfair to downgrade the rating simply because I wanted more. I'm just disappointed, yes, this is a bridge between the end of the show and the movie, but the plot here was stunted. Time passage was never dictated in the movie so Whedon could have taken as many pages as he wanted to tell the story.

Simply put, it was rushed. The story was rushed, the characters were rushed, there was a lack of characterization in some of the most vibrant cast that was ever created. I just really felt that, while this was pivotal, and answered some questions, he had room to do more, and should have because you could see Whedon attempting much. It fell short in the end.

Still I give it three stars, because I cling to Firefly. I still love any chance to be with these people.

Good... but not as good as the show *cries*

Read this in a lil over half an hour. Checked it out from the library then went upstairs to the "quiet study" area and read that while waiting for 3:15pm to roll around.
This was cool though not what I was expecting because I hadn't realized it was a prequel to Serenity. I wonder where #2 starts out from.

Nice little story for bridging the gap between "Firefly" and "Serenity". I'm giving it 3.5 because it felt as though it all ended too quickly! But the characterisation was spot on. Overall, an enjoyable read, especially for fans of "Firefly".

***SPOILERY PLOT OVERVIEW***

Those Left Behind serves as a deleted episode from the TV series, falling somewhere between the episode Objects in Space and the film. After being screwed over on a job and cheated out of payment, Badger gives the Serenity crew a job extracting treasure from the floating graveyard of The Battle of Sturges: a notoriously bloody battle during the War of Independence. At the same time we see the "Hands of Blue" men approaching Dobson, the Alliance agent that attempts to arrest River and Simon in the pilot. He's grown increasingly resentful over the years, cursing Malcolm Reynolds for shooting out his eye and leaving him for dead. The blue men propose an alliance: he gets Mal and they get River and Simon.

Mal, Zoe and Jayne are ambushed by Dobson and friends while searching one of the empty ships, while the blue men sneakily dock the Serenity in an attempt to snatch the Tams. This leads to a bloody standoff, with Zoe, Mal and Jayne decimating Dobson and co. Kaylee and Simon work to prevent the blue men coming on board, while Wash dislodges the blue men's ship and sweeps in to save our Big Damn Heroes. River, Inara and Book are seemingly useless during the entire ordeal.

We also see both Inara and Book approach Mal about their need to get off the ship. Inara disembarks on the nameless planet from the film (I'm going to assume Sihnon?) and has a wonderfully awkward "I'll miss you" moment with Mal. The book then cuts to a senior figure of the Alliance addressing the Operative from the film. Turns out the Serenity unintentionally incinerated the blue men's ship during the escape, and their work now falls to the Operative.

***END SPOILERY PLOT OVERVIEW***

I'm biased as I adore anything Firefly/Serenity related, but this book was just so wonderfully faithful to the show and film. The likenesses of the characters were incredibly accurate, which is something I don't generally see with TV and film tie-ins. I worried that Jayne in particular would look weird, since hot-as-hell Nathan Stark was made to look like a bearded sexual predator in the Eureka comics. Admittedly Badger and Inara looked a bit dodgy at times, but the likenesses were accurate for the most part. Dobson's likeness was so spot on that I recognised the actor before I realised which character he'd portrayed on the show!

It's such a small detail, but I also think the artists really captured the tone of the show/film when it came to the colouring. The wonderful brown, red, ochre, gold and sepia tones came through in the opening firefight and scenes set in Serenity's galley. They also captured the contrast between sunny Wash and his cold steel surroundings on the bridge, with tones of grey, gunmetal and blue. I really enjoyed the full-page character portraits scattered throughout the text, and the image of the Serenity powering up to escape the blue men was just beautiful. :3

The dialogue was one of my favourite aspects of the text, with the writers managing to perfectly capture the intonation and mannerisms to the point that I was reading along in each character's voice. Mal in particular has a very odd way of speaking which I wasn't sure they'd be able to portray, but they did. I was practically able to hear Book lecturing Mal, and Badger's dialogue seemed to reflect his accent. The illustration and dialogue for Zoe also came together nicely to really represent her dry, sarcastic deadpan sense of humour.

In terms of the storyline, I LOVED seeing more of the "Hands of Blue" men! They were my favourite unexplained element of the show, and I was always disappointed that they weren't incorporated into the movie. There is a reason for this though, as they're killed by Serenity's "burn" during the Big Damn Heroes' escape. We also learn that they're private contractors for the Alliance, and we can speculate that they're from the Blue Sun Corporation. I have to wonder if there are any more of these private contractors working the 'verse though, since the Alliance immediately delegates their failed mission to the Operative. We also unfortunately don't get any word on how they're able to withstand their deadly sonic technology.

I also loved how this tied the TV series and film together, since I felt there was a bit of disconnect between the two. It's hard to articulate, but it just felt so random that Inara and Book weren't on the ship at the beginning of the film. Though Inara had told Mal she wanted off the ship and Book often disapproved of Mal's criminal antics, it felt like there was something larger going on that we didn't get to see. This ties the film and TV show together a little more, though still there appears to be something else going on with Inara (which you can find out if you peruse Wikipedia ;])

Overall: I frakkin love Firefly and Serenity. If you frakkin love Firefly and Serenity too, READ THIS NOW. This is totally awesome, and I'm not ashamed to admit I'm 100 biased. :D

After reading this graphic novel I want to re-watch Firefly and Serenity. I don't think I'll ever get over the way Firefly was cancelled.