Penned by Whedon and Brett Matthews, who wrote several episodes of Firefly as well as Dark Horse’s final Angel comics series and the animated Chronicles of Riddick feature “Dark Fury,” Serenity follows a ship full of mercenaries, fugitives and one law-abiding prostitute in their pursuit for fast cash and a little peace along the fringes of space. The ragtag crew of Serenity take on a scavanger mission with the hopes of earning enough dough to disappear for a while. Only too late do they realize the whole gig is orchestrated by an old enemy eager remake their aquanitance with the help of some covert-operatives known only as the Blue Gloves.

Artist Will Conrad (Marvel’s Elektra and Witches) and colorist Laura Martin (Astonishing X-Men and The Ultimates) paint a rough and wild world of adventure across a strange and dangerous universe, in this not-to-be-missed tale straight from the brain of pop-culture mastermind Joss Whedon!

Who didn’t love Firefly when it was on TV? Oh right, most everyone since Fox mixed up all the episodes and then cancelled the show before most people discovered it. Trust me, it was painful watching this show get Foxed.

The basic idea of Firefly was: A western – in space. The problem: The shows were not shown in order and so it was fairly confusing. Why Fox is Dumb: Duh, don’t mix up the order of shows so that the storyline is mixed up and also, don’t cancel things so fast.

To make matters worse, I think this show had a death slot. I really can’t remember. I do remember reading the preview and thinking, “Neat! I’m so gonna watch it!” Then I watched what served as a pilot. After some head scratching, I decided to go ahead and tune in the next week despite the strangeness of the show. Sorry, but an episode meant to be three or four into a season just makes for a strange feeling when it is shown first.

I struggled along, liking what they showed but just feeling very disjointed. As a result of that feeling, I just couldn’t tell if I liked the show or not. They FINALLY showed what the creators meant for the pilot and things clicked. Of course, I didn’t realize that was the original pilot. I remember telling people how amazing it was.

If only they’d shown THAT first.

Sadly, the show ended before any of the awesome storylines could even get halfway to conclusion, let alone anything else. Thankfully, fans pushed and we got a feature-length movie! Huzzah!

We still wanted more. So much more story to tell, so little time to tell it.

What did Joss do? He made a comic book! I can’t say as I blame him, after seeing so many of his shows receive terrible treatment, I think this gives him a great medium to continue those story lines. Finding this one in a bargain section on super discount of a closing bookstore, that was just a bonus. I ripped through it, loving the art and the Firefly adventure.

Oh Serenity, how I love you. You are a beautiful ship!

Just like the other Joss graphics, you enjoy a mix of lovely art with compelling story lines. Joss just wins at character creation and world building. I love how he can make so many statements in something that most people would consider fluff. He works in so much social commentary that it makes his various works shine.

I only wish that the store had more of the graphic novels.

–Lady O