Firefly at Boom Studios

Firefly
Boom Studios
Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Various
FC, 32pgs, $3.99 US

I was reluctant to try Firefly when it was relaunched at Boom Studios in November 2018. I had read the Serenity series for years (2005 to 2017) at Dark Horse Comics– first as material between the television series and the movie, then Shepard Book’s back-story, and then the adventures of the crew post-movie.

The later, after-the-movie material was the best of the bunch, with stories written by Zach Whedon initially and then Chris Roberson at the end. The writers’ handling of the crew, particularly Zoe, mourning Wash and floating on was an emotional draw for me. So, too, was the realization that there were more surviving “students” of the Alliance Academy, which was responsible for the extraordinary state of River Tam. This idea was just beginning to be explored in Serenity when it was announced the series would move to Boom and that Boom had no plans to continue the ideas presented in the Dark Horse series.

Ugh.

When Boom revealed the Firefly series would tell stories before the Serenity movie, I decided within my own fan mind that, for me, the Dark Horse series could exist in the same story ‘verse as the Boom series as long as Boom did not do something that would cover material already covered by Dark Horse.

So I bought issue #1 when it came out in November 2018. I did so grudgingly; but, damn, that was a fine debut. I’m ten issues in now and thoroughly enjoying every every page.

If you are a Firefly fan and are unfamiliar with the comics that carry on the adventures of the crew, the Dark Horse material is being republished by Boom in what they call Legacy editions. As for the new material under the Boom banner, the first four issues are collected in the Firefly: Unification War hardcover. Volume 2, which collects issues 5-8, was released in December 2019. (Chad Boudreau)