Serenity: Float Out

I don’t tend to troll the Internet for new sources of Firefly / Serenity awesome, because these days they’re few and far between.  Hence when I found Wash’s face (which actually makes me think more of Alpha these days) staring back at me on the shelf I grabbed it immediately with the intent to buy without even opening the cover.

I was initially disappointed by reading ‘one-shot’ on the cover because, hey, who doesn’t want to see a regular Firefly comic?  Even another miniseries (although perhaps more substantial than three issues, Mr Joss?) would be kick-ass.  And, yes, at the end of the day, even a 24-page one-shot is better than nothing.  Well, usually.

The story revolves around three business partners about to christen their new ship, the Jetwash, named in honour of the late Hoban himself.  Unsure of a fitting toast, the trio instead each recount a tale of a past adventure with Wash, presumably their most exciting or fondest memory of him, and it is these three stories that make up the very fatty meat of the book, loosely held together by their conversation in the spacedock.

It’s these three stories that the comic is supposed to be about, but it’s hard to know what the writer’s intention for the book is.  None of the stories expand the Serenity universe, nor fill in anything that already existed, except to name a new planet.

They also don’t tell us anything new about Wash himself that we didn’t already know from the series or movie, and doesn’t give us any greater insight into his personal development before joining Mal and Zoe.  They even try to drum into us that Wash is a kickass pilot, but someone needs to tell the writer that, yes, that’s kind of the whole point of his character and something I didn’t need to be told once he pulled off a Crazy Ivan in the pilot episode.

And at their most basic level, they’re not even that interesting to read.  I can appreciate a short story, I can appreciate (and love) a vignette, but Oswalt gives us nothing to work with.  There’s no real tension because we already know Wash makes it out of every scrape with all ten fingers and toes – as well as the fact that we already know these stories are highlights of his past – and there’s no build-up of drama because they only last a few pages each, which isn’t really a valid excuse.

The writing itself is okay, and didn’t leave me cringing, but I did find myself internally commenting with the word ‘lame’ a bit too frequently for my liking.  Oswalt attempts to mimic Joss Whedon’s typical Buffyverse whit and lingo, but doesn’t even use so much as a ‘Gorram’.  And what he does use comes off as out of place and out of character and that he’s trying way too hard (eg, “Sure you don’t want to brood sexily for a few more seconds?”) to imitate what’s usually one of the best parts of Whedon’s writing and shows.  And given how little the three characters are actually developed (besides titbits about their joint pasts with Wash), being able to say that one seems to be talking out of character is really saying a lot about the overall quality of the writing.

The highlight for me was actually the two small strips at the end titled “Augie, the Littlest Reaver.”  In two panels Augie is able to tell more story (about visiting a family during Christmas) and exude more excitement and terror and emotion than any of the three short stories in the main book.

At the end of the day, all I can really say about this is what I did in the first paragraph: the only reason I bought this is because I am a Firefly / Serenity addict and this comic had a picture of Alpha – err, Wash – on the cover.  The only reason others will (and should) buy this is if they’re Firefly / Serenity fans too; all others, including hard-core comics readers, need not, and will not, apply.

~~

Serenity: Float Out is a one-shot Dark Horse comic set in the months after the movie Serenity, but contains three flash-backs set well before the original Firefly TV series.  It is written by Patton Oswalt with art by Patric Reynolds, with Joss Whedon credited as Executive Producer.

http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/17-163/Serenity-Float-Out-Frank-Stockton-Cover