Over the last three months, a 3-issue special comic series of Serenity has been gradually unspooling. It has an official story supplied by Joss Whedon (though the dialogue is not), bridging the gap between the conclusion of the Firefly series and the opening of the film Serenity.
I picked up the other two issues when they came out, but held onto them until this week, when issue #3 arrived. Today, I read all three.
The artwork is terrible. I'm not a comic book lover, and in those few comic books I have read in my life, I've been doing so for story and totally ignoring the artwork. So it should be telling you quite a lot that I noticed this artwork, and how bad it is. The characters bear very little resemblance to the actors.
The story is alright, but nothing special. Pretty pedestrian "run afoul of the bad guys" stuff that moves on at too quick a pace so that it can fit in the limited 3-issue format. It ends up providing little important information you can't just assume from watching the movie. (It gives a little more detail on how Shepherd Book comes to leave the ship between the series and the movie, but it's arguable how important knowing any of that really is.)
The bottom line... I can only recommend the comics to fans of the series. Now, that's not exactly a negative review, given that I think anyone and everyone should be a fan of the series. The point I'm trying to make is, if I were trying to hook someone into the Firefly/Serenity 'verse, I'd be making apologies and explanations for it if they started with the comic: "no, really, it's much better than this if you give it a chance."
2 comments:
I guess I'll just have to read them in a couple of weeks... I really can't get over the artwork, though... But I'm an art snob... I admit that...
Sounds like it's a bit of an ordeal for people who are already fans of the show, too! I trust your judgement on plot and dialogue, but the art doesn't look so terrible to me. I found some sample pages and three of the four main cast portrayed look right to me. (Mal's not so good.)
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