Artwork is excellent. This covers the time between Firefly and Serenity. It does a fairly nice job, though I'm most excited for Shepard's story and we're not there just yet.

This felt like a lost episode of Firefly, and helps bridge the gap between the series and the movie, Serenity. I love these characters. This is definitely not a standalone story, as the characters are not fleshed out at all - you have to know them before you start reading to fully appreciate them. As I am a fan of the series and movie, it felt like coming home to see some old friends. Thoroughly enjoyable.

I don't usually enjoy graphic novels, but I'll read anything that lets me live once more in the world of Firefly/Serenity, even for a little while. Since Joss Whedon himself wrote the story, it's like my favorite show came back to life for a half hour or so. (It's a very short novel.)

This episode fills in a little of the gap between the end of the tv show and the movie, which was helpful. It's about a job that goes wrong (don't they always?) and takes place when both Inara and Shepherd Book are getting ready to leave Serenity. There isn't time for much in the way of character development, of course, but the story is exciting, and the dialogue cracks me up. The artists from Dark Horse Comics (Go, Milwaukie!!) do a pretty good job with the artwork. The characters usually look pretty much like the actors, and I had no trouble telling who was whom or what was going on. The spine label says this is volume 1, so I will be finding out how many others there are and where I can get them!

For readers' advisors: setting and story doorways, primarily

I think the biggest problem with this for me is that I just now got to read it; it may have had more of an impact if I'd actually read it BEFORE watching Serenity, but alas. Post-movie, it's kind of pointless: it fills in some of the gaps between the series and the film, but not in any way the film fails to. The plot resurrects a character that in my mind should have stayed dead, only to kill him again, and makes very poor use of the Two by Two, Hands of Blue guys. Also, the art annoyed me. Some comic book artists are very good at conveying action, but the way the fights were drawn in this I couldn't actually figure out what was happening. I mean, I'm glad to have finally read this, I guess, but it was really not worth the desperate efforts to get it over the last several years.

4 Stars

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, this comic vividly shows Serenity’s crew still fighting to make a living and being quite ruthless about it. Set between the end of the TV series and the movie, this foreshadows Book and Inara’s departure, and the “hands of blue” make a sinister appearance.

Note: the afterword is particularly interesting explaining how the Alliance came to be and the resulting power grab that led to war, while further explaining Reynolds’s past and why he is who he is. Illuminating.

Anything Firefly is awesome

If you are a fan of Joss Whedon's TV series Firefly and its cinematic follow-up Serenity, then this is a comic that is right for you. Chronologically, it takes place after the series and before the movie. Unfortunately, it does seem that prior knowledge of the universe and the characters is necessary for full understanding of this book, but it would still be an enjoyable read even without that knowledge. Captain Mal and his crew are, as always, running low on cash in their spaceship that needs fuel and repairs, and willing to go against the law to get what they need. The comic opens with Mal and several crew-mates facing up against another group of bandits after the same stash of loot. Showing himself to have honor, Mal agrees to let the others take the prize, until they press their luck too far by demanding his gun, too-- the gun that got him through the war. The two groups clash, and their opponents end up getting away with the money, but not Mal's gun. Our heroes make their escape from the enraged townsfolk empty-handed, and so can't afford to pass up the next opportunity that comes along to make some cash. Unfortunately, that makes them fall into the trap set for them by a former adversary of Mal's, who has teamed up with the corrupt government agents who have been trying to get their hands on two of Mal's passengers: Simon and River Tam, siblings on the run ever since Simon rescued River from a life of government testing. Always gifted, River is now a bit unhinged, with psychic abilities that no one really understands, as well as deadly martial arts skills. The art style portrays the characters faithfully and recognizably as they appear on-screen, though with a comic book twist: slightly more muscles on the men, slightly slenderer waists on the women, and similar subtle distortions. As in the show, foul language is replaced by Chinese, and there is a decidedly Western, cowboy feel to the colonized planets they visit-- the townsfolk chase them on horses and on futuristic hovering machines. In the back of the book there are concept drawings and preliminary writings for Serenity to help give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into that universe. Recommended for Firefly or Joss Whedon fans grades 8 and up.