Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: Brett Matthews
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

This week is kind of a dead week in comics, which happens occasionally, and both my brain and my wallet look forward too. However, since the most exciting books from Marvel and DC are Wolverine #64 and Countdown #3 respectively, I had to dig a little bit deeper to find a book to talk about. Fortunately, Dark Horse didn’t let me down with this Wednesday seeing the release of Serenity: Better Days #2 of 3.

In a past posting, I went on about my absolute love of all things Firefly and Serenity related, so I won’t bore you with all that again. I also won’t turn this into what one e-mailer called “another Whedon-suck fest.”

All I can say about this book is simply, buy it. Licensed comics are so hard to pull off that when one gets it right, it’s worth buying. I am a huge fan of multi-medium storytelling. While I was geeking out over Star Trek: The Next Generation as a kid, I was also reading the books, the comics, and anything else I could get my hands on. I loved that the story didn’t end when the credits rolled, which is a sign of some great characters and stories being told. Star Wars fans know what I’m talking about.

Serenity: Better Days takes me back to that time, because it is a story about just that. Those familiar with the Firefly and Serenity show and movie know that it ends on what could be argued is a monumental downer. Better Days is the opposite of that, set well before the movie (that wrapped up the questions left at the end of the canceled-before-its-time TV series) takes place. Better Days is as close to a new episode of Firefly we are likely to get, and as a fan of the “‘verse” that Whedon has created, I can’t wait to get my hands on new stories from inside it.

In terms of a comic, Better Days wins as well. It’s a well scripted, well drawn affair, and unlike so many mini series’ out today, it’s being told in a quick and timely manner. At only 3 issues, the arc isn’t huge, and therefore easy to digest, as well as afford. These days a lot of comic companies have been nice enough to match Canadian/US prices given the current exchange rates, but all that really does is gouge the US buyers. Us Canadians are still paying $3-4 a book regardless. But in that context Better Days is a great buy because it’s fun, adventurous, well put together and affordable. I hate to boil reasoning for buying comics to the price, but as we all know it’s the reality of the situation.

Wow, I got a little political there. Sorry. I’ll keep that in check in the future.

-JM

Related posts

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Tags: Dark Horse, Firefly, Futurecasting, Joss Whedon, Serenity

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Future-casting, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.