Firefly Original Graphic Novel: The Sting

I was expecting a fun caper starring the female crew members and the seductive, brilliant and utterly incorrigible "Saffron". I looked forward to seeing how she'd convince them that THIS time she could be trusted, her intricate plan, and how everyone was watching for sudden (but inevitable) betrayals amid Whedonesque dialog.

What we got was several mopey women who outwardly resemble Serenity crewmembers forced into a simple but poorly-planned robbery by someone who outwardly resembles "Saffron" (a one-note mustache-twirling villain who threatens to blow up Serenity repeatedly even while the women are doing exactly what she wants). The Serenity women aren't particularly needed for the job (River isn't even wanted but tags along, because show more criminal masterminds bring unstable bystanders along on jobs?) except that "Saffron" is clueless about what security is in place and how to overcome it, other than to throw Kaylee at it (she's good with engines, so why not have her overcome security systems she's never seen before and open a high-security safe in the seconds available?).

There's a potentially interesting side story involving nuns that doesn't entirely make sense. "Saffron" exits the story in a unsatisfactory (and unlikely) manner. There's a deus-ex-machina that surely would have changed life aboard Serenity completely.

The artwork (except where it occasionally strays into Manga territory with huge eyes and detached jaws) looks good, characters are recognizable throughout.

The story would have been ok if it wasn't pretending to be about characters we already know: none of the dialog (barring one late exception with River) sounds much like something they'd say and nowhere is the clever banter present throughout the show and film. It's sprinkled with uninspired call-backs (e.g., River swallows another bug).

This could have and should have been so much better, given the premise. I was very disappointed.

Gaming the book:
There's a Firefly roleplaying game with a number of missions available, including Out in the Black, an adventure that includes characters like "Saffron" from someone who is actually familiar with them and the setting. In fact, just reading through the adventure was a more enjoyable experience than reading "The Sting". show less

An all right little standalone story featuring the return of one of (if not _the_) most beloved guest starts of the television show blackmailing the female half of the crew into helping her with a heist. The character voices are pretty close (not perfect, but better than they often are in spin-off materials), and the switch of illustrators for each chapter, a thing I normally hate, is actually reasonably fine here as the styles aren't too dissimilar.

The decision to spend each chapter from the point of view of one of the five protagonists also works quite well, though by their natures, that means some chapters are more interesting than others -- but thankfully, River gets the conclusion, hers also being the more compelling viewpoint, show more meaning the final chapter is among the better ones. The pacing is a bit off, though, and I found Zoë and Inara's chapters (2 and 3) to be particularly slow going. I also never really felt properly invested in the story, somehow, except perhaps during Inara's predicament in chapter 3, which hampers my enjoyment. And the heist itself is such a minor part of the scheme, done in its entirety during chapter 4, to the detriment of the earlier chapters where you're mostly just waiting around for the heist to start.

The plot isn't all disappointing though, as Saffron turns out to have a specific reason for including each of the women on her scheme (excepting River, which is a plot point in its own right), and I thought that was rather well executed. This central core of the story worked well, even if some of the execution fell a little flat for me.

All in all a decent read for any Firefly fan, I should think, with some great character moments and lovely interactions, but perhaps not worth the time of a less invested reader. show less

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S FIREFLY: THE STING ABOUT?
While Mal and the Serenity are tied up, Inara takes Zoë, Kaylee, and River to a luxury spa. The ladies are having a wonderful time when they're essentially taken hostage by Yo-Saff-Bridge who wants them (or at least Inara, Zoë, and Kaylee) to help.

It's a great scheme, even if she has to threaten the lives of the rest of their crew to get their cooperation.

After the setup, we get four chapters showing how Saffron's plan goes, each chapter focusing on one of her accomplices. While we see them carry out the plan (and as it goes horribly awry, as all plans we see with this crew do) we get the chance to get into the minds of the women of Serentiy. Zoë show more and Wash are having some troubles as they consider having a child (more her troubles than his at this point) and she's thinking about what they're going through. Inara's decided to leave, but she can't bring herself to tell Mal. Kaylee's focused on her friends, thinking about them.

The best chapter is River's chapter (which is a tautology, I realize). Part of that is because that's the action's climax and River gets the chance to shine, part of that is because it's about River.

HOW WAS THE ART?
There was a different artist for each of the five chapters, which was an interesting approach. It kept things from getting stale, it helped ensure that each chapter was easily distinguished from the others, and you could probably make the case that each art style used was the best way to capture the primary character for that chapter.

I didn't love all of the art, but a couple of the chapters blew me away, the characters have rarely looked better.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT FIREFLY: THE STING?
I appreciated this approach to storytelling and Dawson has a good handle on each character, and captured the voices perfectly (I could really hear Jewel Staite's voice as I read Kaylee's thoughts/speech bubbles). I'm not sure it was the best story, but the way that Dawson and the artists told the story more than made up for it. And it's always fun to see Yo-Saff-Bridge try to dig herself out of trouble. show less

I loved this fun caper, with some interesting character focus.

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/M9Vwww9qYqw

Enjoy!