Broken Frontier

The Serenity crew pulls off another not-quite-flawless heist but this one might lead to the mother lode.

Two years ago Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews teamed up to pen a story that would bridge the gap between the end of the Firefly TV series and the big screen movie Serenity. Now Whedon and Matthews return to this crew of misfits to explore what might happen if something finally went right.

Mal, Jayne, Zoe, and Simon are, as usual, committing a crime. Also as usual things go a bit wrong… or do they? When the crew turns over their prize to the person who hired them to steal it they get a tip to a hoard of stolen cash. What they find there… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?

The wonderful thing about this title is that Matthews perfectly nails the voices of each and every character. He also nails the whole atmosphere and ideas of the series – even throwing in Chinese characters to represent the original series’ endearing trait of everyone swearing in Chinese. The whole story and its situations reads like a script for an episode of the TV series; although with Joss Whedon plotting along that should be expected. Fans of the show and movie should be very pleased with this outing from Dark Horse. Unfortunately, the title’s greatest strengths are also its greatest weaknesses. There is little here that will make people new to the franchise feel welcome. The story assumes that readers are already familiar with Firefly so someone who might be inclined to check out the comic book to get a better idea about the series will likely find themselves lost.

Whedon and Matthews’ pages are ably illustrated by Will Conrad, who manages to capture all the fast-paced action while keeping the figures on-model. It is never easy for artists who must attempt to keep their work original and true to style while at the same time making the characters resemble the actresses and actors who played them on TV but Conrad handles this with ease.

For fans of a TV series that ended far too soon Serenity: Better Days is a godsend – a chance to see more smart, funny, and complex stories that feel like extensions of the TV series. There were a great many tales that went untold and now readers can get a chance to experience those stories. Welcome back aboard the Firefly class starship Serenity… please stow all luggage securely because it’s going to be a wild ride.