Comic Review – “Serenity #1”

The prequel to the Serenity movie has begun.
Just try to keep me from issues 2 and 3.

General Information

Title: Serenity #1

Author: story by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, with
a Brett Matthews
script.

Illustrator(s): Will Conrad (art), and Laura Martin
(colors)

Original Publication Date: This issue hit shelves on
Wednesday, July
13, 2005.

Cover Price: $2.99 US

Past comic reviews can be found here.

Premise

In what feels like the teaser and first act to a new
episode of
Firefly, Mal and crew try to escape a planet
that becomes
suddenly hostile after Mal, Jayne, and Zoe hit a snag
while doing what
they do best.

High Point

The Mal / Book interactions during the getaway.

Low Point

As this is based on a TV
series I happen to be somewhat familiar with
, I
have very clear
pictures in my head about what these characters should
look like.
Unfortunately, because of that, I have a hard time
focusing on what’s
good about the art, and instead end up noticing the
aspects that just
don’t quite look right, almost always in a character’s
face.

The Scores

As I said above, this feels like the next episode in
the series, which
doesn’t help the originality much. We’ve got
all the
main characters from the series here, and a couple
others we’ll
recognize that didn’t make every episode. (Hint: you
probably won’t
be recognizing them by their faces.) So far, it’s
just a good intro,
but the ball hasn’t really gotten rolling yet. I give
it 3 out of 6.

The artwork strikes me as being worse than it
really is, but
the reasons I explained above. When Mal’s chin sticks
out too far,
Zoe’s forehead doesn’t crinkle right, or some other
detail is wrong,
it jumps out. (Wash’s looks really bug me, actually.)
My insincts
tell me it’s worth a 3, but that could be my lack of
objectivity, so
I’ll give it 4 out of 6.

The story, as I said, it just getting
started. The last
pages convince me that we’ll have something
significant take place by
the end of issue three, and that fans will want to be
in on it, but
it’s just not there yet. I give it 3 out of 6.



The characterization is what this is about.
We learn enough
about who these people are in this issue to introduce
an unfamiliar
reader to the group, and to remind the existing fans
of one of the
best elements of the series. I suspect that the story
hasn’t gotten
started yet becuase of the time needed specifically to
establish that
characterization, and with that laid in place, the
pace of things will
pick up nicely when the next installment arrives. I
give it 6 out of
6.

The emotional response gets an automatic
boost from the “new
Firefly!” reaction. The writing is just as
good as the
series was, with a high action intro to get things
going, and a
cliffhanger that will really get the existing fans
pumped for the next
issue. The trademark Whedon humour is present along
the way, as well.
I give it 6 out of 6.

The flow is smooth, with no significant
timeline jumps, and
only one significant location switch. I give it 5 out
of 6.

Overall, it’s a good introductory issue, but
I don’t expect
it to be as good as the next two. This is about
character
introduction, not story instigation. I give it 4 out
of 6.

In total, Serenity #1 receives 31 out of 42.

3 replies on “Comic Review – “Serenity #1””

  1. Whitewater Ahead
    Nobody is a bigger Firefly fan than me, but I gotta say after seeing one of the Serenity previews in Memphis a couple of weesk ago, my enthusiasm is dampened for reading this comic. The movie crosses a threshhold, and once over the transom you don’t quite see Firefly the same way.

    My recommendation – get a new Serenity logo ready for future posts. It’s a fundamentally different animal than Firefly, to me. Kinda Mad Max, er, Mad Mal with Sidekicks.

  2. dag naggit
    Went to two comic book stores during lunch today: Sold out.

    This is the DVD hunt all over again ;-)

    • Re: dag naggit

      Went to two comic book stores during lunch today: Sold out.

      Make that 3…

      And Dark Horse now has the shipping date moved from july 13 to july 20. That confuses me somewhat.

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