Yeah, more reminders of why I love Mal/Inara :) Her whole scene was great... but I didn't really get the impression that that Dust Devil thing really applied to Mal. He doesn't seem to still be fighting the war other than on the most philsophical level, not so much hunting people down and all.

Also, Simon? With the glasses? You got *made* on Persephone, boss.

KingofCretins | March 12, 20:09 CET

I am so thrilled to see my BDHs again (and looking very pretty in these wonderful drawings). I am even more thrilled that the Hero of Canton is real! I love that Inara fantasizes about Mal when she is with paying clients. This has gotten off to a great start, and my comic book store ordered plenty of copies, and all is right with the world!

edited to add: I just read the letters to the editor:
"Joss Says, "He met her as he checked out the ship. So he could have taken the job 'cause of her. and Warren was dead! He was dead for 1/40th of a second, okay?"
LOL

[ edited by embers on 2008-03-12 20:51 ]

embers | March 12, 23:01 CET

It was great to see the Hero of Canton reference and I admit the romantic in me was beyond thrilled to read the Inara scene. I also loved the conversation between Wash and Kaylee. Their voices to me were dead on. I look forward to the next one!

piggiesfly yay | March 13, 01:12 CET

Let's see... the Dust Devil thing excited me because I was playing around w/ basically the same idea in my Serenity RPG game. Sort of a play off the Klan rising from the disappointed Confederate soldiers after the American Civil War. Now I don't have to make up a name and can expand from the little tidbits we were given here.

I liked the trademark switcho-changeo "they weren't after the art after all!" moment. I can't help but fall for those every time they come up in whedonverse stuff. And the revelation about the iris-scan-blocking, innocuous-looking-enough glasses was super pleasing as well.

MonkeyJoe | March 13, 01:17 CET

This was a pretty great issue, much better than Those Left Behind in my opinion. The art was pretty top notch also (with the exception of Wash in a couple of scenes)! Should be a great series, and it's good to hear about the Book miniseries Joss is doing, too.

archon | March 13, 02:19 CET

The dialogue was just spot-on this time around, much more so it seems than for Those Left Behind. Loved seeing Jayne with the big guns! But since when does he wear a blank tee shirt? We were hoping for something new and fun! But definitely, hooray for the Hero of Canton reference.

Al, Bill and David | March 13, 03:05 CET

embers I saw that in the letters as well and I actually went back to the letter to see when they brought up the Warren thing. hah!

I too, was a fan of the "the hero of Canton is real" comment. And I also fell for the "why are they stealing art?".

Looking forward to the next issue.

ninjapigeon | March 13, 03:53 CET

My, we are getting a lot of nakedness in Joss's comics these days! And my first thought was "Inara and Spike!"
Great humour, nice action scenes and I loved the intro of Jayne.

Lioness | March 13, 04:55 CET

I want an ongoing SOOOO badly. Every time I see more in the 'Verse there's a little cloud hanging over it because I know I have to wait (and wait and hope and pray) for more. For the time being, I'm enjoying it, though.
The Inara/Mal thing was... surprising. Interesting and surprising. How has Mal not capitalized on that, yet?
Will Conrad's Kaylee is so close to Jewel Staite's. I love it. Keep up the good work.
Tons of Serenity comics ordered by my comic shop, too. All's well.

[ edited by leafblown on 2008-03-13 02:19 ]

leafblown | March 13, 05:19 CET

I love that Inara thinks about Mal sometimes while on the clock. Also, Will Conrad... damn. Pages 14 and 15 leap to the top of "sexiest panels in canon Jossverse comics", with all due love to Jeanty and Urru.

I was also kind of surprised to see Mal concede to Book's suggested donation, but even by his standards, he wasn't quite the hard boy he was then as he was by the time Serenity starts.

KingofCretins | March 13, 05:30 CET

Yes, page 14? Definitely the hottest page yet. If only it wasn't a fake out...

Loved it. Felt just like Firefly. I'd love some more of these. Now I feel like watching the show.

Millions? How did they spend it all before the movie? Did Wash dump the cargo because he wanted to be the hero of a crappy town? Might be enough cash for a crappy planet even. Speaking of, aww, Wash. Loved his conversation with Kaylee.

hacksaway | March 13, 06:22 CET

I liked the very subtle slip-in of how the original thieves turned on each other before they could collect. That's some good gorram foreshadowing I bet.

I kinda hope there's an "Ariel" reference in the second issue -- I'd like a sense of scale for the haul here vs. the booty from the hospital job that they had to trade in for those two bruised guys.

[ edited by KingofCretins on 2008-03-13 03:30 ]

KingofCretins | March 13, 06:30 CET

It was wonderful.

Anonymous1 | March 13, 06:43 CET

I am so glad to have more Serenity again! I really enjoyed this issue. Thought the art was great, and I could clearly hear the characters voices in my head as I was reading. I especially loved the Mal/Inara scene, (hott!!) and I love the idea that Inara fantasizes about Mal when she is with her clients, hehe. I also loved the "hero of Canton" moment at the end. :) I look forward to next issue. My only wish is that this could be more than 3 issues.

[ edited by Jossfan_21 on 2008-03-13 03:56 ]

[ edited by Jossfan_21 on 2008-03-13 03:57 ]

Jossfan_21 | March 13, 06:50 CET

Chinese translations on my site.

This one seemed to have a lot more story than the first issue of Those Left Behind. I wonder how much plot there will be total. I had to reread the Wash-Kaylee part, as I first took the "built it up in your head" to be a relationship between the two of them (colored by the awkward falling-on-top-of-each-other scene in "Heart of Gold").

Ying | March 13, 07:09 CET

Thank you for the translations, Ying!

Pointy | March 13, 07:29 CET

Loved it.

Though Will Conrad does not seem to be able to draw Alan Tudyk. Though the Wash/Kaylee conversation was still beautiful.

Also, Scott Allie responds to a letter asking for more Serenity and, after mentioning the previously announced Book thing, says to the effect of "we won't keep you waiting for another two or three years next time..."

Here's to hopin', y'all.

UnpluggedCrazy | March 13, 08:14 CET

I agree that the Wash likenesses falter a bit, but that's a nit I'm comfortable leaving unpicked, when the book is as good as this.

Ghalev | March 13, 09:20 CET

That was Firefly! It read so much like the first act of an episode. When Mal said, "we're rich," I half-expected the screen to go black and a commercial for Hot Pockets to come on.

[ edited by Dizzy on 2008-03-13 06:28 ]

Dizzy | March 13, 09:23 CET

The line that struck me the most was at the end of the letter column ... the bit about "Joss and Ron Glass" having announced that there will be a Shepherd Book series. Does this just mean that Ron Glass is happy to help out promoting a book about his character, or that he'll actually be co-creating it on some level?

I'm excited about it either way, but that would be an extra-cool bonus if The Man Himself were co-creating it with ... The Man Himself. So to speak.

Ghalev | March 13, 11:21 CET

Awesome! Loved it, was just like watching the series. Some of the gems I liked were Mal and Inara (so hot...) and the Jayne reference when Kaylee was talking to Wash (a shout out to the crush that never happened). I was totally taken in by the art thing too, but it is such an obvious Firefly-esque twist I can't see why I didn't spot it...

Again, loved it!

Vortigun | March 13, 18:34 CET

I actually thought they were being hired to test the thing out, see whether it was actually evadable (or just pretend to get caught) and that would be where the big payday would come from. Should've remembered Mal never does things the easy way. Guess that guy will be coming after them now.

That was the mule 2.0, right? Did we ever get an explanation on how/when they got it?

hacksaway | March 13, 20:30 CET

It was perfect, and worth the wait!!! Like a day in heaven - new Serenity!!!!!!!!

refuge5 | March 13, 20:35 CET

Didn't someone fanwank (or if it was Joss, just settle) that they bought the new mule with their take from eventually managing to fence the Lassiter?

KingofCretins | March 13, 20:40 CET

What a lovely issue! That's my Firefly, it really felt like an episode of the show (the beginning of it). Everyone was spot on, it was like meeting old friends. I like it so much better that Those Left Behind - which suffered from having to be a bridge to the movie, I think.
Ah, what's not to love: Mal-Simon-Jayne snark, level-headed and sceptical Zoe, Jayne and his guns(!), the everpresent moral ambuiguity and tough questions, great Inara, and that Mal/Inara scene - yum. It was about time Mal/Inara shippers got some visuals - as Simon/Kaylee shippers of course got theirs at the end of the movie. Wash and Kaylee banter was sweet, and the art was wonderful - I'm also ready to forgive less-than-perfect Wash and some out-of-proportion (too small) heads on small figures.

Some neat stuff which jumped to me:
After this escape on a mule I could see why Simon was so adamant against River going on it on a job in the movie.
It was nice to see the confirmation of Tams being buddhists. There was a glimpse of Buddha statues in "Safe" in Tams' estate, but it's easy to miss.
"Hero of Canton!" - hee!
Inara held onto her professional ethics and didn't do anything to that soldier. There's a script of unfilmed 15th episode where Simon gets in a similar dilemma, trying to save life of a wounded Alliance general who's hunting River. In the end the general dies...
Mal as a dust devil, continuing his fight after the war was over? Interesting twist.
Shooting and chasing each other ona busy highway? What about innocent bystanders? hard to believe no one was hurt in that chase. Also it's a Rim planet, but it looks fairly advanced and industrial. Is it Persephone, maybe?

Nata | March 13, 20:50 CET

I wouldn't consider Mal a "Dust Devil," since he doesn't go around purposely murdering people he has a war-related grudge against, but I could see how some of the characters (like the guy with the adaptable vehicle thingy) would think he was one.

UnpluggedCrazy | March 14, 01:27 CET

By the definition given by Inara's soldier boy, Mal would not have to go around murdering people for war related grudges in the 'current' time to be a dust devil. He would have been doing that more immediately following the war. As the soldier said, most have scattered by now and many have become theives and that his job was to make sure these people knew they were still on the s**t list. It seems likely Mal could have been a Dust Devil, as the end of the war took quite a traumatic toll on his life. He was looking for a purpose after the war (when it started, when he was quite young, it became his purpose), and he still believes six years later without question that the independents were on the right side of it. So I can totally see him going after people immediately after, but later "scattering" so as not to be caught and to continue a search for purpose.

The soldier's description seemed so natural to me I didn't even read it as any sort of revelation. I looked back later and noticed the realization on Inara's face, which I took as more of an awareness that this guy or another like him might go after Mal sooner or later, or even sooner rather than later.

Also, I don't think they ever said the planet was a rim planet. Simon suggested the art was intended to be sold on the rim and seemed surprised there was any market. If there's little interest for art on the rim (though there could be plenty), then why would all this art be on the rim to begin with? Also part of that whole mislead could be that the art was already stolen, perhaps by the private company with shady intentions that built the death-bot. This would make the art a great target to attract the attention our crew wanted.

bobw1o | March 14, 01:50 CET

No responses at all to the Ron Glass thing? Am I the only one this jazzed about it, or is it just that we're still in the dark apart from the announcement in the comic?

Ghalev | March 14, 03:31 CET

I had known about it for about three months now. Ron announced the Shepherd Book Comic at the Browncoat Cruise. I should know, I was there.

crazygolfa | March 14, 03:36 CET

I commented on it as did someone else, Ghalev.

archon | March 14, 05:28 CET

ahahahaha the funniest part of the whole comic was Joss in the lettercol explaining about the Wash/Zoe thing and then being like "And Warren was dead! He was dead for 1/40th of a second, okay?"......im only just now recovering from my near fatal laughter at that.

Oh, and the actual comic part of the comic was extremely shiny too, especialy the Hero of Canton thing :D

[ edited by shpedoinkel on 2008-03-14 02:43 ]

shpedoinkel | March 14, 05:40 CET

archon, my page search is failing me then, alas. What was the answer? Must ... know ... the answer! :)

Ghalev | March 14, 06:21 CET

Firefly: Out of Gas episode (Firefly The Official Companion Volume 2 )

"MAL
So you'll take the job, then?

As Wash sits into the pilot's chair, gives it a little swivel

WASH
Might do, might do. Think I'm startin' to get a feel here.

MAL
Good..."

Now go look at the episode. When WASH says Might do, might do. He gives a significant glance at Zoe.

So yeah, he took the job because of Zoe.

I would like to point out at this time, that I always thought in the Firefly Pilot episode Serenity that the guy Inara was with had hair of a "kind of brownish color". I think we were supposed to think it could have been Mal there for a second.

Now, wonder if she sometimes picks clients who remind her of Mal.

Anonymous1 | March 14, 07:30 CET

I love reading new firefly stories!
Really enjoyed it, it's easy to fall into the characters again.
We must be finding out something important for them to take us back before Serenity and Those Left Behind? ..or unless it's just a rockin story they wanted to tell.

alexa | March 17, 11:27 CET

I picked up this issue today. It is very, very good.

I ♥ the hovermule. Firefly is so back.

Also: Is that fruit on the kitchen table? Were there good days before the better days, then?

Sunfire | March 30, 06:20 CET