Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days

--- 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, 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 - show more 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

I'm a big fan of the short-lived television series Firefly and the related feature film Serenity. Part Western, part Space Opera, Americana with a smattering of Chinese culture thrown in, it was a witty, intelligent series with the ability to evoke hysterical laughter in one episode, or move you to tears in another. This comic is second in a series that falls chronologically into the gap between the television episodes and the film. The first one, Those Left Behind dealt with how and why Shepherd Book and Inara left the ship.

I'm not really a fan of comics, and certainly didn't feel the first one came up to the standard of any of the episodes or the feature film. I can't imagine it as an introduction to the Firefly universe, but I show more thought it better done by and large than the Buffy Season 8 series of comics and certainly better drawn. I liked this issue quite a bit more than the first however. While I wouldn't rank it with the top filmed episodes, I enjoyed it more than just for a chance to see these characters again. I was amused by the fantasies of the various characters were they to make it rich, it had a real theme, a touching ending, and a revealing look into Zoe's backstory. So if you liked Those Left Behind, well, I think this one is even better. show less

Like my favorite dinner-table game, "What would *you* do if you won the Powerball?," "Serenity- Better Days" allows us Browncoats another tantalizing glimpse onboard Serenity and at what each crewmember sees in their "mo' money" fantasies (or what they'll allow the other crewmembers to see of said fantasies.)

Again, the Whedon-Verse maxim of "Joss is Boss" is proven correct here- strong voice writing and oh, gorrammit, I laughed *hard* at the full-page artistic depiction of River's fantasy- no spoken dialogue could do this justice, just as no CGI on TV or film could be as apt- apparently River and Delirium (of Neil Gaiman's Endless) share some character-DNA!

Okay, so I went to the library to pick up a few dvds for a few days I had scheduled off work, and I just had to pick up new installments of Serenity and Buddha while I was there. As far as I could tell, this was the next Serenity graphic novel, so I picked it up. Started reading it on the bus and finished it before they called my name in the doctor's waiting room.

This story starts in the middle of action, and it was confusing to try to figure out just when this story was. The back of the book establishes that it was written after Those Left Behind, but it clearly takes place before it. Later, after I'd finished reading, I looked up a timeline on the internet and found that indeed, it took place after the TV series, but before Left show more Behind. Ok. Glad that's clear.

Although the credits claim the same artist illustrated Better Days as Those Left Behind, I had a totally different experience with the artwork this time. Maybe I got used to his style, maybe he hit his stride, I don't know. This time faces were the familiar faces that I loved, this time pages were sumptuous when they needed to be, gory when they needed to be, many individual expressions were so spot-on perfect that I had to stop and stare at them awhile to fully appreciate them. There was one action sequence where I'm still a little murky on what exactly happened and how, but I'm willing to let that slide.

As for the writing -- well, I defy any lover of these characters (and really, who else would be reading these?) not to delight in the crew's fantasies of what they would do if they were dirty filthy rich. The crew interactions in this scene capture much of what was best about the series.

Anyway. I'm not going to go on and on. I thoroughly enjoyed this. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1247391.html

A great nostalgia item, a new episode of Firefly in graphic novel form, set (obviously) between the end of the series and the movie. Another of the nominees for the experimental Hugo category Best Graphic Story, and so far my favourite of the three I've read. I tried the early Buffy season 8 comics, but didn't like the artwork on the characters; Will Conrad seems to have tried harder here, so that they actually look like who theyr are meant to be. Though really what makes it is the script; a fairly ordinary space opera story, shot through with those moments of wit and characterisation that made the original TV series such fun. I can't imagine this appealing much to people who hadn't seen Firefly show more or Serenity, but they are clearly not the intended audience! show less

Being a Firefly fan, i was very excited when, back in 2005, Dark Horse Comics announced and released Those Left Behind, the first of a possible series of Serenity comic books.

I am not much of a comics reader, i go through phases where months of absorption will occur, but generally, i stick to 15-20 issues a year. i help off on reading the Serenity comics knowing that 3 issues would only wet my appetite, with months before more would be available.

after three years, DHC released the next installment (three years folks, that was NOT a typo). Better Days came out, and again, i said, “bottom of the pile..”. i was itching to read them, but at this point, my browncoat soul was “okay” with waiting. i figured, eventually, i would borrow show more them from the bunny, or SamuraiShy.. It was again, put off. buried at the bottom of the “to be read” pile.

finally, i broke down and located a copy for consumption. good, goddamn.. how disappointing could these have turned out?

both comics exist in the blanks plot canvas between the end of the Firefly Series and the Serenity movie. with the number of questions fans were left with after series “completion” i was expecting to have a bone thrown to me, but.. nope. didnt happen. one of the tri-part comics was decent, the other was, well.. read on to get my true opinion.

Better days, the second set to be released, happens before Those Left Behind. so far as i am concerned, Better days should be renamed “better never made”. characters were thrown in that had no frame of reference. the story was loose and thrown out with no real cohesion. i had to read it twice through, then jump online and consult wikipedia to figure out the remainder i could not muddle through. instead of plot closure, new info was tossed in that opened plot doors. it is in essence, nothing more than firefly porn, with all of us fans providing the money shot directly into Whedon’s pocketbook.

seriously, never should have been made. the only saving grace of the thing was a single page image of River Tam, which i am including at the bottom of this post (see FNORDinc for image) to save everyone the waste of time getting to it. do not let it fool you. one page is not worth suffering through the rest. a job goes better than expected, and everyone is rich. they are all describing what they will do with their cut. River’s description of the perfect life was a single page and the only one worth looking at.

~~

Those Left behind, the first comic released, wasnt so bad,it was an enjoyable read. in all, it has a lot of the same issues Better Days had. there was no closure, new questions arise, but you do begin to understand why Inara and Book left Serenity and are separated in the film.. in the end though, it was a quick and mellow read with no real high or low points worth pointing out. it was almost like watching a well done episode, each character got some face time.

ultimately, nothing but geek porn, but enjoyable on a base level.

It was announced a few years back that there would be a new comic coming out focusing on Shepard Book and all of his mystery. this is yet to come to fruition after two years. to be fair though, if it ever comes out at all, following the above trend, it will be another year, and will not be worth picking up except to place on a shelf next to your firefly lunchbox and Mal Reynolds action figure. show less

Better Days strikes a better balance between narrative explication and fannish knowledge than its predecessor, Those Left Behind. While it is still mainly written for already-familiar Firefly fans, this instalment provides a full adventure for Serenity's crew. The full page character illustrations remain a highlight of this particular volume, and Adam Baldwin's introduction is a nice touch and a pleasant read. The entire crew is back in fine form, and tiny hints of backstory and (potential) foreshadowing dot the narrative to good effect. The reader is also treated to more information about at least one character that never truly had a chance to shine due to the premature cancellation of the TV series (and not through any fault of the show more writers or actor herself).

Where Better Days falls down, however, is in abrupt scene changes that leave the reader floundering to switch gears. These changes lack proper segues or markers past sudden background and character differences, leading to a choppy, jumpy feel to the whole. If these artistic decisions supported the action of the plot, it would be one thing, but often the reader is simply left to catch up without explanation or with a belated reason that stops the narrative mid-stream. Perhaps this is a problem caused by the one-volume format, as breaks between the original issues might more clearly delineate scene changes. There is some attempt to create these breaks through the full-page character illustrations and insert pages, but given the graphic novel format and the speed at which one can read such books, these pages tend to blur together and be forgotten in the forward thrust of the plot.

Regardless, Better Days replicates the speech-patterns and vocabularies of the various characters with impressive accuracy, leading to an authentic feel reminiscent of the original Firefly series. I much preferred having a full story in my hands rather than a gap-filler (as provided by Those Left Behind), and I hope to see more graphic novel adventures for Serenity's crew. My fingers are crossed that when that does happen, the series (within this format) continues to improve. show less