Will Conrad

Marjorie Liu is a good writer and I enjoyed her take on X-23. Laura is a confused little duck and doesn't want to be a killing machine. She is being pulled in all different directions and I felt that. Laura feels alone and I found myself relating to her in that regard.

This could have easily been a 4 star if the artwork was better. A lot of the characters looked the same, some panels were blurry, and there wasn't any emotions on the characters face. Due to this, I won't be reading the next show more volume. show less

--- 3.5 stars --

Wait, so Inara had sex with Simon? What? How? Why? When? I AM SO CONFUSED.

...which basically sums up my experience with Better Days.

In short, the crew is pursued by a high-tech, top o' the line drone while robbing a ... museum? Mansion? Since they can't outrun it, they bring it on board and try to sell it to a ... colleague ... in exchange for a hot tip on where a giant stash of money is hidden. When it turns out to be even more than they expected, Wash, River, Jayne, show more Simon, Kaylee, and Shep fantasize about what they'll do with their share. (Cue comic relief. River's is like a fever dream meets a Fruity Oaty Bar! commercial. In other words, the best.) The drone's owners are hot on their tail, as is some military guy - a client of Inara's, incidentally (or is it?) - who's still hunting "dust bunnies" from the war. There's a Gozilla vs. Mothra sitch, yada yada yada, and ooops! Money's gone.

The colors on the art are lovely - lots of rich browns and gold - but the likenesses are hit or miss and pretty inconsistent, even across individual characters. River's got mousy brown hair in one panel and in another, on the same page, it's black. Many of the secondary dudes look interchangeable, which made the action hard to follow ... especially when there are three separate groups (or maybe four? Hard to tell!)

The daydream sequences are pretty sweet, and it's great to see badass River show herself for a change.

Total dick move on Mal's part, though. Seriously Captain? show less

After the cruel and heart-wrecking cancelation of Firefly, many of us were left desperate to know about how our anti-heroes fared in the ‘verse. Thankfully, Whedon and Co. stepped in to tell us. These four volumes, spanning the time before Firefly to long after Serenity, are extensions of the bigger story. From the Shepherd’s background, to general mayhem, to what happened after Serenity, these stories carry us back to that world and those people whom we loved so much.
Most reviews are show more meant to either deter would-be readers or entice – but truthfully, I seek to do neither. If you are a Firefly fan, you’ll read these, because they are cannon. They are the stories we would have seen on TV and didn’t get to because FOX is an asshole. show less

After the cruel and heart-wrecking cancelation of Firefly, many of us were left desperate to know about how our anti-heroes fared in the ‘verse. Thankfully, Whedon and Co. stepped in to tell us. These four volumes, spanning the time before Firefly to long after Serenity, are extensions of the bigger story. From the Shepherd’s background, to general mayhem, to what happened after Serenity, these stories carry us back to that world and those people whom we loved so much.
Most reviews are show more meant to either deter would-be readers or entice – but truthfully, I seek to do neither. If you are a Firefly fan, you’ll read these, because they are cannon. They are the stories we would have seen on TV and didn’t get to because FOX is an asshole. show less