"Serenity: Those Left Behind" review

Title: Serenity: Those Left Behind Volume(s): 1 Author(s): Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will Conrad Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: Dark Horse Comics MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Science Fiction Rated: Teen (13+)   Buy From Amazon.com: Complete Series

Fans of Joss Whedon’s critically acclaimed (but canceled) science fiction series “Firefly” are a dedicated bunch. They are responsible for the show getting on DVD, those DVD’s selling well, and getting a movie named “Serenity” made as result. This is all very impressive when you consider millions of fans and billions of dollars can’t even convince George Lucas to release the original cuts of “Star Wars” on anamorphic DVD. Despite the quality of the show and movie though, fans can’t seem to get the show revived. Though it’s unclear whether Whedon doesn’t want to continue the show with Fox or Fox doesn’t want to continue the show at all, Whedon has now turned to continuing the “Firefly” story in comic form.

The first of these comics was a three issue mini-series called “Serenity: Those Left Behind,” a prequal to the movie of the same name. So what happened before the movie that is so urgent? Well, nothing really. Most of the story involves the Alliance making a deal with a bounty hunter that wants to kill Malcolm Reynolds. Since this an in-between story there isn’t much new story you can introduce without risking conflicting with the movie, so most of the characters don’t do much of anything. Irana and Shepard are still on the ship, but aside from arguing with Malcolm they don’t do much. Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is a bad book. The artwork does a wonderful job at recreating the characters from the TV show, and the story is fun (if not completely disposable).

Frankly, the fact that Wash plays a major part in the story is reason enough for fans to read it. But there’s the sad fact that knowing that this is leading up to the movie, and knowing that some of these characters are going to die...well, it makes you wish a more substantial story would be on display here. Chances are this will become a full length series somewhere down the line, and this is just a testing place to see whether or not that series would be worth investing in. Judging by the release of additional prequal mini-series that are being released a monthly serial is not too far off into the future. Here’s hoping that series will continue the franchise properly. As for this book, eh, I guess if you’re a hardcore Browncoat you’ll eat it up, but more casual readers are bound to be disappointed in it’s lack of progress.