You can’t take the sky from me.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chris Roberson
Art: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Karl Story
Colors: Wes Dzioba
Letters: Michael Heisler
What They Say:
If the Alliance’s operative reaches the Outer Rim before Mal and the Serenity’s crew can rescue their captive friend, there simply won’t be a rescue. An uneasy partnership is struck, preparations are underway, and there is no room for any unknowns . . .
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
When last we left our intrepid band of ne’er-do-wells, they were being held at gunpoint by a bunch of orphans. Thanks to River and Isis, the Serenity crew managed to extricate themselves without a shot fired and once they began talking to the lady that ran the orphanage, they managed to get on the same page and help one another.
Turns out the orphanage is a recruitment and training center for the Peacemakers—a splinter Browncoat group dedicated to taking down the Alliance no matter what. Although Bea—Isis’ girlfriend—wasn’t a Peacemaker, she did deal with them, and her capture by the authorities spells trouble not just for Bea and Isis, but for the Peacemakers as well. The Peacemakers offer to outfit the crew and provide them with information so they can find Bea before a Parliament Operative does, and they just might make it if they can stop fighting amongst themselves for two gorram minutes.
Tensions abound amongst the crew. Mal needs a score to keep his boat afloat, Jayne’s on the outs with Zoe after endangering little Emma, and Kaylee grows more and more frustrated with Simon’s constant comparison of his life now with his life back on Osiris. With all this on their minds, it’s no wonder that River gets lead into a trap.
No Power in the Verse does a great job of capturing the tone, the language, and themes of Firefly, and that alone makes it an enjoyable read, but the goal and the complications make this a solid story full of twists and surprises. The only issue so far is that it’s becoming clearer and clearer that this comic is referencing characters and events that happened in previous series and is assuming that the reader knows about them. While I could follow along well enough, I’m missing out on the significance of certain plot points, and that lessens the impact of the story on me.
The art does a fine job of capturing the look of this universe, but not such a fine job of capturing the likeness of the actors who played these characters. Mal and Jayne look all right, but Simon looks like a generic pretty boy and River doesn’t look anything like Summer Glau. The style also switches from photo-realism to cartoony, sometimes on the same page, and that doesn’t help matters either. If not for the clothes, I don’t know that I would be able to tell Kaylee and River apart.
Hopefully River’s capture will bring the crew together, but I’ve a feeling that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
In Summary:
Serenity: No Power in the Verse continues to be like visiting an old friend, albeit one that had plastic surgery and doesn’t quite look right from some angles. While the writing captures the voice and the language and the art captures the setting, the characters are definitely off model and inconsistently drawn. It’s not enough to truly hamper my enjoyment, but it does hurt it a little bit. Dr. Josh gives this a….
Grade: B
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 30th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99