Serenity: Better Days miniseries Review

This review was submitted by Hero 004
Publisher: Dark Horse

Writer: Joss Whedon/Brett Matthews

Artists: Will Conrad- Pencils, Michelle Madison-Colors

Serenity is one of my favorite movies. It’s one of those films that I suggest to everyone, even if they’re not into science fiction. It takes watching the fantastic preceding TV series, Firefly, to truly appreciate the cinematic level that Joss Whedon takes his genre-Defying story with the feature film. Serenity is so one of a kind, in fact, that the chances for a sequel look very dim. So when a three issue comic miniseries taking place in between the Show and movie, written by Whedon himself, and containing 150 pages shows up as the likes of Serenity: better Days, I am very much down for some satisfaction of my craving for more story.

At the start of Issue one, we find Mal and crew on a typical job robbing a museum, before being bombarded by an alliance-built , artificially intelligent roadster/robot and at the crew finds themselves in a freeway chase. With some gun work from Jayne and a sneak attack from Kaylee, the weapon is shutdown and in the Serenity crew’s hands. Meanwhile Inara is having sex with a client, but picturing Mal. The Client ends up being an Alliance War veteran and hunter of “Dust Devils”, independent terrorists who were radical about their views even after the alliance won. The crew decides to sell the weapon to a guy who tips them off to a hidden stash of money within a Buddhist temple as payment. When they get there, they find that there is a lot more than they expected: they’re rich.

Issue two picks up with some comedic fantasies from the crew on what they’re going to do with they’re wealth. They end up kicking it off with a vacation, checking into a high class hotel. The Client that Inara was within the previous issue finds out that Mal was a Dust Devil and asks for another night with her in order to get to him. Meanwhile the alliance has found Serenity’s location through tracing microchips that were scattered onto the crew’s bodies by the weapon. When Malcom goes to check on Inara, he’s knocked out by the Dust Devil Hunter and the crew finds out that someone is after them.

Issue three begins with Mal getting the crap beaten out of him by the hunter. Zoe being the first mate is now in charge of the ship with Mal captured and she reveals to the crew that she is in fact the Dust Devil that the hunters are after, not Malcom. Despite reluctance from the rest, Zoe transmits a message across the whole planet revealing that she is the Dust Devil and orders them to bring Malcom back to Serenity.