There’ve been several comics set in the world of Firefly over the years, but only one so far that took place after the events of the 2005 Serenity movie. The events of that film resolved most of the major plotlines from the tv series, and dramatically changed the status quo for Serenity’s crew and for the entire rest of the universe as well. The aforementioned post-Serenity story, Float On, was a smaller story that served more as an epilogue to the film than a continuation of the characters and their adventures. Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #1, then, feels for the first time like the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of Mal and co., and it could not be more welcome.
Writer Zack Whedon does a great job of setting up the new status quo without it feeling too much like exposition. Most of that introduction is done in the first couple of pages in the form of a televised news program, a fairly common but very effective technique. It allows Whedon to get to the meat of the story quickly. It certainly helps that the characters are already established, but several of the dynamics between the characters have changed substantially, and the book sets it all up with ease for both old fans and new readers.
The art from Georges Jeanty is solid as always. He’s no stranger to licensed books, having drawn a fair share of Buffy comics. His likenesses aren’t what one would call photo-realistic, but he always does a nice job of capturing, for lack of a better word, the essence of the actors. Faces are recognizable as their characters without looking like the actors posed for pictures.
There’s a lot of potential for future stories on display in this first issue. The premise of the series has always had a built-in mechanism for stories to come about, with Mal and the crew of Serenity taking jobs and on the run from their enemies. With the new status quo the stakes for these characters have never been higher, and it’s wonderful that, just like the show and movie were, these situations are still entirely character-driven. At this point Mal and his aim to misbehave are what got the crew into the mess they’re in. If Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #1 is any indication, watching them try to work their way out of it should be a really great ride.
