The ‘Verse in Comics: What’s Next for the Crew of Serenity?

(NOTE: The following cap’n’s blog contains spoilers for Boom! Studios’ Firefly comics, though the cap’n himself would argue that you can’t spoil somethin’ that wasn’t really any good to begin with!)

Browncoats all over the ‘verse got an early holiday present on November 21 of last year, when comics publisher Boom! Studios announced it was relinquishing the license to publish Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics.

Boom! Studios’ tales of the crew of Serenity started off promisingly as an ongoing monthly series, but as the company tried more and more to put its own spin on the ‘verse created by Joss Whedon, it released a number of one-shots, original graphic novels (such as Watch How I Soar and The Sting) and spin-off series for which the quality (corelative of their faithfulness to the characters and spirit of the original series and its follow-up motion picture) was much more hit-or-miss. Perhaps most perplexing was the mini-series Firefly: Brand New ‘Verse, which suggested a future for Serenity and her crew that seemed forced and improbable given the original story and characters we saw on screen in the early aughts— but was nonetheless being suggested as canon.

Once things went sideways in Boom! Studios’ version of the ‘verse, it was almost like they were eager to double down on the crazy, und readers were soon seeing things in the ongoing series like guns on Serenity (even though Jayne would tell you everyone but a “damn yokel” knows “… a transport ship ain’t got no guns on it…”), Mal suffering from PTSD and going AWOL, Kaylee (not Zoe, but Kaylee?) taking over as cap’n, the crew traveling back to Earth-that-was (which was apparently not so much “was” as “still is”), and what might very well have been the last straw for many— the death of Jayne Cobb.

We can only assume that Boom! Studios decided to let the Firefly license lapse (and cancel the upcoming Zoe Alleyne comic they had already solicited) because the comics weren’t selling well. (Their official statement was simply that they had done it “for business reasons.”) If that’s the case, then it might be because the stories really didn’t resemble the ‘verse Browncoats know and love. At best they were on the level of glorified fan fiction, but it’s probably more accurate to say that it felt like they concocted random sci-fi stories and then sprinkled in some Firefly references, artwork and lingo before packaging them with some very shiny cover art. No matter how they dressed it up though, they still couldn’t hide the fact that the writers just didn’t know or understand the ‘verse they were working in.

So, good riddance, Boom! Studios. Now what? Have we seen the last of the crew of Serenity in comics? That’s very unlikely. So, where might we see them next? Here are some likely candidates:

1. Marvel Comics— We need to start here, since Marvel’s parent company, Disney, now owns the rights to the 20th Century Fox archives, and that includes Firefly. The Mouse is all about the bottom line, and if Disney thinks it would be profitable to publish Firefly comics through Marvel like it already does with several other sci-fi properties that it owns, then perhaps the license won’t be sold off to anyone else moving forward. Personally, I don’t think that would be the best outcome for Browncoats, because Disney will likely prioritize preserving the ‘verse as we know it about as much as Boom! Studios did. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at what they’ve done to Star Wars! However, part of me also thinks that if Disney were really interested in publishing Firefly comics, then the license would never have been allowed to pass from Dark Horse to Boom! Studios to begin with, because even though Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox didn’t officially happen until 2019, they could have easily outbid Boom! Studios for the license to an IP they would soon own anyway had they really wanted to.

2. Dark Horse Comics— Dark Horse was the original home of Serenity comics going back to a time shortly before the motion picture made its cinematic debut. The comics that were published by this company are still considered canon by most Browncoats, if for no other reason than the fact that nearly all were written either by Joss Whedon himself or by one of his brothers. The mini-series “Those Left Behind,” written by Joss Whedon (along with Brett Matthews, who was his assistant on the television series) bridged the gap between the series and the movie and explained the fate of the mysterious agents with hands of blue. The mini-series “Better Days,” again written by Joss Whedon himself, was perhaps the first Firefly story in comics that read like a lost episode of the series. The original graphic novel “The Shepherd’s Tale,” written by Joss and his brother Zack Whedon, finally gave Browncoats a window into Shepherd Book’s enigmatic past. For a dozen years, Dark Horse consistently offered readers comics that contained solid stories that were extremely faithful to the spirit of the ‘verse. If the comics license for Firefly landed back at Dark Horse, Browncoats would have every reason to be confident that it would be in good hands.

3. Dynamite Entertainment— Okay, this one might be a bit of a long shot, but I can see where Dynamite would possibly be interested in acquiring the license. The publisher has a proven track record of very successful comics adaptations of film and television properties, such as comics series based on animated shows from both Disney (Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Gargoyles, Lilo & Stitch) and Hanna-Barbera (Space Ghost, Johnny Quest, The Herculoids, The Powerpuff Girls). Their James Bond comics have been nothing short of superb, and they are actually more faithful to the character as originally envisioned by 007 creator Ian Fleming than anything Hollywood has produced in the past 40 years. They have a list of comics adaptations of other classic, television and cinematic fantasy/sci-fi that is as long as my arm, including Evil Dead, Buck Rogers, Highlander, John Carter of Mars, Flash Gordon, Game of Thrones, Green Hornet, Tarzan, Robocop, Sherlock Holmes, Stargate, Terminator, The Lone Ranger, Voltron, Xena, Zorro and more. The knock on Dynamite in comics circles is that their books contain a ridiculous amount of advertising pages relative to story pages, but as someone who regularly reads a number of Dynamite titles (most notably their James Bond, Red Sonja and Bettie Page books), I can personally attest to the fact that the quality of the writing on those story pages tends to be as good as anything Marvel Comics is doing. Based on my experience with their James Bond stories alone, I can honestly say that if the license for Firefly/Serenity isn’t returned to Dark Horse, then I wouldn’t mind seeing Dynamite have the chance to show what they can do with it.

4. Titan Comics— The logic behind the inclusion of Titan Comics among candidates to land the license is that Titan Publishing, the parent company of Titan Comics, also includes Titan Books, which has already proven with its successful series of Firefly novels that it knows how to publish solid stories that are faithful to the spirit of the ‘verse and the characters that inhabit it. I have said many times over that Titan Books’ series of Firefly novels are the best stories set in the ‘verse that we Browncoats have had since Serenity was still in theaters. If Titan Publishing can treat us to Firefly novels of that quality, why couldn’t it do the same with Firefly comics? The publisher currently holds the comics license to Conan the Barbarian, Dr. Who and Blade Runner, and adding Firefly would surely be a shiny feather in the cap of a relative newcomer to the comics publishing game.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Browncoats had to wait a while before they see more adventures of Serenity’s crew in the form of new comics. It might not exactly be a bad idea to give readers some time to forget about what Boom! Studios did with the property, and the negotiations for the license itself probably won’t happen overnight. But the medium has far too many advantages when it comes to telling stories set in the Firefly ‘verse (such as an unlimited special effects budget and the ability to use the original characters without having to recast them) for the license to remain in mothballs for too long. As for which publisher’s name and logo will appear in the upper left corner of the next Firefly comics that show up on the shelves of local comics shops, though, all we can really say for certain are the words of the old French proverb: “Qui vivra verra” (“He who lives, shall see”). In the meantime, those who haven’t read the original Serenity comics that were published by Dark Horse and the series of Firefly novels that were published by Titan Books still have a whole passel of shiny stories from the ‘verse to tide them over, and if you’re one of those folk, you got some readin’ to catch up on, so I reckon’ I should let you go get started.

Keep flyin’,

Chris

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