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Firefly Lives - New Comics in 2008

Posted by Zonk on Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:16 PM
from the told-you-they-couldn't-take-the-sky-from-me dept.
Sci-Fi Media Movies Television
gambit3 writes "'Serenity: Better Days' will be released as a 3 part comic in early 2008. The series is a step back in time to the early years of the Firefly crew, and the fledgling gang's turbulent attempts to cope with success after they pull off their first successful heist. It features the same creative team as Those Left Behind, with the story by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, art by Will Conrad, and Adam Hughes providing all three covers this time." Ironic, considering today's brand-new poll.
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[+] Joss Whedon Back on TV 289 comments
tokenhillbilly writes "Joss Whedon of 'Buffy' and 'Firefly' fame has signed on to do another TV series on Fox starring Eliza Dushku (Faith from 'Buffy'). The series is going to be called Dollhouse, and the story surrounds a group of people 'programmed' to do missions out of a sort of high-tech dorm. '[The series] follows a top-secret world of people programmed with different personalities, abilities and memories depending on their mission. After each assignment -- which can be physical, romantic or even illegal -- the characters have their memories wiped clean, and are sent back to a lab (dubbed the "Dollhouse"). [The] show centers on Dushku's character, Echo, as she slowly begins to develop some self-awareness, which impacts her missions.'"
Submission: Serenity Lives--New Comics in 2008 by gambit3 (463693)
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  • Blah (Score:3, Funny)

    by cephalien (529516) <benjaminlunger&gmail,com> on Friday December 07 2007, @10:32PM (#21621029)
    I seem to be the minority, but I didn't find this series particularly engaging. In that context, I'm not surprised that they decided to go with a format that certainly costs less than a movie or a series, yet will still bring diehard fans in to buy it.

    • Re:Blah (Score:5, Insightful)

      by wizardforce (1005805) on Friday December 07 2007, @10:45PM (#21621103) Journal

      I'm not surprised that they decided to go with a format that certainly costs less than a movie or a series, yet will still bring diehard fans in to buy it.
      Indeed if it fails they are not out much except the respect of many of their fans. What concerns me is that the only thing worse than no Firefly series is a badly re-animated Firefly series.
      • I have to second the motion. There is something to be said for letting something go out with a bang. It had it's run, and while we might have wished it was longer, it is done. Dragging it on has nowhere to go but down.
        • It's not like Whedon's a spring chicken when it comes to storytelling. And it only went for 13 episodes (and a movie) out of a few planned seasons, so there are obviously still stories to tell.
          • If it's anything like the ones already produced, this should rock.

            The last ones told a good story, and bridged the gap between the series and the movie. The way the characters were different in the movie actually made sense.
          • Except for Serenity pretty much slamming the door on future stories.

            The comic book series is going back in time, just like Star Trek did. I probably won't read them, not really into comic books. I'll have my kid tell me how it went.

            And for the record, I own the DVDs for both the Firefly series and Serenity.

    • Re:I bet you really didn't see the series (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Macrat (638047) on Friday December 07 2007, @11:23PM (#21621317)
      You only caught it on TV, right? When some episodes were dropped and played out of order? Go rent the series and watch it for real. I think you'll be surprised at what you missed.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by ghostunit (868434)
        I'm of the same opinion as the gpp and did watch the entire series and the movie (I was sorta bored).

        My theory is that most fans just really like Whedon's characters, cliches and style of dialogue. If you don't know what that is, you can see it repeated exactly in Angel, Buffy and Alien:Resurrection. Examples: no one can say anything straight, it's all got to be "witty". Martial arts are for some reason the greatest power in the universe. Every character is "bad" but would do all sorts of heroics to save a
        • I don't know. I loved most of Buffy and Angel, and I was completely bored by Firefly.

          But I am also a big fan of the Aaron Sorkin years of West Wing, so I guess that fits into your witty dialog theory.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Fnkmaster (89084)
            Weird, I'm not much of one for Buffy and think I watched one episode of Angel, but I loved Firefly.
          • Funny - I loved Firefly. Started watching Angel and bought the entire series, loved it. Went back to Buffy, bought the first 3 seasons, got bored mid-season 3 and quit watching. I would catch Buffy every once in a while when it was on the air, but it didn't catch my attention then either.
        • Yeah, count me another one who never saw the series until the DVD, saw them in order, whatever. I found it hackneyed and corny. Space-guns that make laser sounds, but look exactly like period Western firearms? Every space hooker has a heart of gold, particularly if they work at the Heart of Gold in an episode called "Heart of Gold"? And what the hell was with that assassin dude in the last episode? ("Am I a lion"? What? I was as confused as the doctor guy. Who the hell wrote that shit?)

          Space/western fusion could be cool, and is, but Whedon seemed to only combine the parts of space opera and westerns that were lame and didn't make any sense outside of their genre. And also - yes, we've all seen Gina Davis in "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and watched "Dark Angel." We know that crazy amnesiac chicks who escape from government facilities have always been trained as assassins. Was there anybody in the entire world who didn't guess everything about River's back story after the second episode? That person is an idiot, if so.

          Hackneyed, predictable, cliched, generic. There was nothing about Firefly that ever deserved its praise, which is why it had one season and BSG's coming back for a fourth. Cowboy Bebop is still the best space western show out there.

          • Re:I bet you really didn't see the series (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Fweeky (41046) on Saturday December 08 2007, @09:27AM (#21623697) Homepage

            Space-guns that make laser sounds, but look exactly like period Western firearms?
            They didn't make me think "laser", they made me think "guns in the future use a different mechanism to propel their bullets". *shrug*.

            Every space hooker has a heart of gold
            Hm? There are maybe 4 fleshed out enough to make a vague assessment; two of them are trained "Companions" and not exactly hookers, one's a double-crossing bitch and one shoots the father of her child in the face at point blank range in front of him.

            "Am I a lion"? What?
            He's a nutcase. Like many nutcases he probably has some sort of auditory processing or sensory integration disorder (which would explain much of his other odd behavior). He mishears Simon and thus a non sequitur is born when he repeats what he thought he heard back. This isn't uncommon in real life.

            Interesting characters like this was the entire point of Firefly for me. If you wanted a western, I can perhaps see why you were disappointed; I've never liked westerns.

          • "Am I a lion"?

            I'll grant you many of the episodes were really corny, and some were poorly done, but honestly I found "Objects in Space" to be one of the most well-written pieces of television I'd seen in years. Jubal made a fantastic counterpoint to River in that show, which itself was an exploration of the way in which we bring meaning to ourselves and the people and things we interact with -- as well as the ways in which that existentialism can be twisted when applied towards an end. The bounty hunter

            • Space/western fusion could be cool, and is, ...

              No. It isnt, never was and never will be. It is utterly ridiculous bullshit. Being assimilated by the Borg would be a better concept for future than cowboys in space. 'One cant eat as as much as it makes you want to vomit' or something like that...

              Funny you should mention that. Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek to Desilu & NBC by basically calling it 'Wagon Train in Space'. At the time, westerns were big bucks on tv.

        • Martial arts are for some reason the greatest power in the universe.

          Ok, this one I take issue with. Did you not see the gunfights?

          And River is not a weapon because she's good at martial arts. She's a weapon because she can read minds, even unconsciously -- her martial arts (and gunplay, when she has a gun) are impossibly perfect.

          So the rest of your points, I could debate for quite awhile, but it's really more a matter of opinion. (Example: Everyone does not always have to say it "witty", they do because

          • That was one of my favorite seens in the show. Those few minutes showed more about their characters than most shows display in a season.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by samkass (174571)
        There was only 1 episode out of order, and I happen to think The Train Job made a better first episode than episode 1. The "dropped" episodes weren't dropped from the middle of anything... they're the ones that never aired because the show was canceled.

        I agree-- buy the DVDs. Best DVD set evar, and great commentary (I love that they brought the costume designer in for a couple of them). But still, don't oversell its presentation of the storyline. It's pretty much the same as you saw on TV (right down to

      • Re:I bet you really didn't see the series (Score:5, Insightful)

        by unsigned integer (721338) on Saturday December 08 2007, @01:38AM (#21621911)
        Also, the director commentary (Joss) for many of the episodes is great to listen to. I enjoyed 'Objects in Space' *more* after watching some of the hows and whys coming from Joss as the episode played along. It was really quite engaging.

        You can see the basis for the long opening continuous shot in 'Serenity' at the end of this episode - something you don't /appreciate/ until you realize there were no cuts, no different cameras ... all one take. It was so subtle and well done that I hadn't realized what Joss was doing (had done) until he mentioned it in the commentary.

        Firefly, canceled before finishing a full season. Does that seem right to you?

    • Christina Hendricks on AMC's Mad Men (Score:4, Informative)

      by mosel-saar-ruwer (732341) on Saturday December 08 2007, @02:38AM (#21622155)

      Most slashdotters are probably aware that Morena Baccarin showed up on Stargate SG1, and that Jewel Staite is the new doctor on Stargate Atlantis, and some might even be aware that Summer Glau did a stint on CBS's The Unit, but the one who really caught my eye was Christina Hendricks, as the ne'er do well called "Saffron":

      http://www.entil2001.com/series/firefly/season1dvd/ff1-6p2.jpg [entil2001.com]

      So if you liked her work on Firefly, then you might be interested to learn that she's now got a gig as "Joan Holloway", the head of the secretarial pool, on AMC's "Mad Men":

      http://weblogs.variety.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/31/joan.jpg [variety.com]


      Let's just say that she's everything you remember from Firefly and then some.

      Hubba. Hubba.

      • and some might even be aware that Summer Glau did a stint on CBS's The Unit,

        True story:

        Last week I had the television turned on to Fox (I think NFL football) and wasn't paying attention to the commercials. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Summer Glau (speaking in a "not quite right" way) in a promo for a new Fox science fiction-y type show. My hopes shot up through the two apartments above mine.

        Could it be true? Is Fox bringing back Firefl...

        It turned out to be a promo for Fox's new show Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles [wikipedia.org] . Glau plays a Terminator sent back in t

      • Hendricks has also done a couple episodes of NBC's new show Life. She's playing Damian Lewis' soon to be trophy wife stepmom.
  • An electric bugaloo... is that like a cattle pod with more interesting options?

  • Better Days (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cybrpnk2 (579066) on Friday December 07 2007, @10:55PM (#21621167) Homepage
    I wish with all my heart they had made "Better Days" as a movie and "Serenity" as the comic. Firefly was the very best SF show ever on TV. To have short-circuited its comeback as they did with making the movie so very harsh was IMHO a wasted chance at a relaunch. Fot those of you that haven't yet gotten what all of the fuss is about, hey, Christmas is coming, get the DVD [amazon.com] as a present to someone else and give it one more try. Firefly is the American Western mythos of the past presented in a Space-Age future. We need to remember the vibes it resonates on now more than ever.
      • Amen.

        Like the Star Wars prequels, Serenity was so bad that it retroactively ruined the original series for me. The character of River, for example, lost all her charm. I can't watch the TV shows anymore.
      • B5, Blake's 7 - none of them comes close to the level of existentialism Firefly displayed in under a dozen eps. Firefly was just about the shortest run of a SF series EVER. It's not fair AT ALL to compare Firefly to a series like ST or B5 or B7 that went on for years or in the case of ST, for decades. Firefly existed for under 90 days in late 2002 and was broadcast out of order, etc etc etc. It shone like a Type 1a supernova - bright and fast. I just about die when I think of what Firefly could have be
      • For a real challenge, try to think of a scifi show that is worse than firefly. All I'm coming up with is the current bionic woman series.
        • What Roddenberry sold it to the studios as and what it really was are two different things. Please, show me a Western that allegorically commented on the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. Show me a 1960's Western where respect for the diversity of all different cultures is an important theme. Westerns were very popular on 1960's television and the only way to sell a science fiction show was to sell it as a western, even when it was nothing of the kind. Roddenberry was in the business

  • Meh! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by solios (53048) on Friday December 07 2007, @11:53PM (#21621515) Homepage
    I liked Buffy, I loved Firefly. I like comics. I make comics (okay not for a living thank gawd but that's not the point). The Buffy comics, in my opinion, are nowhere nearly as good as the series was. Could be pacing, could be the layouts (they don't help), could be the fact that one issue of the comic seems to cover a bizzaro combination of a quarter of an episode and half a season. Whatever it is, it's lacking.

    So, meh. I don't want an artist's attempt at facsimiles of Mal and Jayne - I want more Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin. With shows like BTVS and Firefly, my enjoyment doesn't come from the script. The script is corn. My enjoyment comes from the actor's execution of that script. In comics, you don't have an actor giving a performance - you have a penciller (and then an inker, then a colorist) executing their impression of what they think the writer is trying to convey.

    I hobby in comics, I've done bit parts in short films and web serials, I've made my own shorts - a great - or even a good - actor can make a passable pulp script a cult phenomenon. Anthony Stewart Head and Nathan Fillion are great examples of this. You cut down the creative team (as opposed to scale UP the creative team), and something gets lost in the process.

    It's one thing to turn a comic book into a TV series or a movie - going the other way has always felt like a giant step backwards - not only do you lose the acting, you lose the cinematography and the editing, And even if all of that wasn't an issue, there's the fact that individual comic issues are as saturated with ads as a nuclear reaction chamber is with radiation - and with comics, the shift in visual style between comic content and ad content is even more jarring than it is with television ads or movie previews.

    So, it might be good but as far as I'm concerned it won't actually be Firefly. If I'm lucky it'll be available in trade paperback by the time I'm finished with my reading list of comics that only exist as comics (currently plugging through The Invisibles as the spare change permits).

    • The Buffy comics, in my opinion, are nowhere nearly as good as the series was. Could be pacing, could be the layouts (they don't help), could be the fact that one issue of the comic seems to cover a bizzaro combination of a quarter of an episode and half a season. Whatever it is, it's lacking.

      Completely agree. I described them -- to a comic book store owner, as I was purchasing Angel: After The Fall -- as reading like bad fan fiction. He seemed to agree. I'm terribly disappointed that these are the officia

      • I half agree with you; the Angel comic is just as you described, bad fanfic. It also is cursed with terrible art. I don't know if I'm going to pick up any more issues. If I do, it will be just to keep my kids happy.

        But I think the Buffy comic, particularly the last arc with Faith, is excellent in all the ways the Angel comic isn't. It really captures the feel of the show for me.

    • Re:Meh! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by freeweed (309734) on Saturday December 08 2007, @12:38AM (#21621725)
      a great - or even a good - actor can make a passable pulp script a cult phenomenon. Anthony Stewart Head and Nathan Fillion are great examples of this

      Man, I wish I could mod you +1000.

      Sorry folks. I love Joss. Seriously love pretty much all the man has ever done. But without his cast, his work isn't 1% as good. Joss writes good. With the right actors he writes GREAT. Every comic I've read based on Whedon work has seemed like a sad attempt to cash in on a hot franchise.

      Then again, I'm not into the 250 Star Wars Universe novels released every year, even though I love the movies. So take what I say with a mountain of salt. I'll hand in my Comic Book Guy badge now :)

      • I'm pretty anti grammar Nazi ( and anti hyphen, but thats another diatribe), but it does warm my heart when fans say things like "Joss writes good." The Freudian slip of grammar in that statement is unbelievably awesome. I couldn't have said it gooder myself.

    • comics already exist... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Joe the Lesser (533425) on Saturday December 08 2007, @01:39AM (#21621919) Homepage Journal
      Um, if you weren't aware, there was a firefly comic book already released years ago after the show but before the movie, that dealt with the timeline between the two.

      The characters were drawn as the actors, and it was very well done, with a forward by Nathan Fillion.

      Obviously not as good as the return of the show, but so long as the series makes profit off the air there is a chance it will return in some form or fashion.

      Check it out [wikipedia.org]
  • I loved FF as much as the next sci-fi fan. I watched the entire series several times. But, IMO, prequels are the last vestige of the marketing department. That one last chance to generate some revenue. Just let it go guys so I can grieve and get some closure.

    • There's actually a past. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by SanityInAnarchy (655584) <ninja@slaphack.com> on Saturday December 08 2007, @05:13PM (#21627137) Journal
      Most prequels suck, I think, because there's really no reason for them. They've run out of things to do in sequels, and they're looking for another direction to expand that universe, but it doesn't work, because it kind of ruins the originals. (Example: Star Wars. It's kind of hard to watch the originals after watching the prequels, and kind of hard to watch the prequels, period.)

      But think about it -- the first few minutes of Serenity were a prequel, after all. And there actually is a ton of story there, maybe written out, maybe not.

      Example: What did Book do before he was a Shephard, and why does the Alliance like him so much? Where else can you find out, except in a prequel or a flashback?

      How did Mal come to side with the Independents, anyhow? Why did Inara leave House Madrassa? Why was the Alliance formed?

      I'd much rather have a sequel, but unlike you, I'm not ready to kill it off. I want more Firefly, because I'm convinced the show was good enough that it wouldn't jump the shark. Think about it -- would Firefly really suck as much as Star Trek did after 7 seasons?
  • I mean, c'mon, every other fan favorite TV series has had a line of traditional novels. When will there be a Firefly series??

    • Re:Irony ? Coincidence (Score:4, Informative)

      by Futile Rhetoric (1105323) on Friday December 07 2007, @10:28PM (#21620999)
      It is "ironic" because the comic book form received 0% of the vote in that poll, yet it's the only one we get.
      • A comment from the poll in question is likely what caused this story to be posted anyway.

        http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=383149&cid=21618577 [slashdot.org]
          So we can't really call it a coincidence either.
        • Ruh roh. Someone in the marketing department failed their saving throw vs. "geek."

          Dead last in the highly accurate and scientific poll. Wow.

          --
          Toro

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by MoriaOrc (822758)
            I'd say it's more likely a "better anything then nothing at all" scenario. Movies and TV shows are pretty high budget, especially TV shows with a lot of fancy special effects like Firefly. Comic books are relatively cheap, and they've done a few comics in the past so it probably wasn't to hard to get the rights to do more.

            On a lighter note, I wouldn't say dead last. It's a pretty heated race for 2nd from the bottom between "Video Game" and "Comic Book."

            • I wouldn't say dead last. It's a pretty heated race for 2nd from the bottom between "Video Game" and "Comic Book."

              Then it's doubly ironic, as there is indeed a Firefly MMORPG in the works.

    • Look at the results of the poll. In this case it is ironic. The poll shows (at least at the moment) that the community has overwhelmingly voted against a comic as the preferred vehicle of Firefly's return, and during the poll an article came up announcing the release of a comic. So it's not the coincidence that's ironic, but rather the disconnect between what's happening and what people seem to want.
      • I can't be the only shmuck who thought about Bender after watching Kaylee's disagreement with Simon:
        1. Simon: Fun? Right. I, uh-- I consider this fun. It's fun being forced to the ass end of the galaxy... to get to live on a piece of luh-suh wreck... and eat molded protein, and be bullied around by our... [Speaking Chinese] of a captain. That's fun.
          Kaylee: Luh-suh?
          Simon: Sorry?
          Kaylee: Serenity ain't luh-suh.
          Simon: No, I.. I didn't mean...
          Kaylee: Yeah, you did. You meant everything you just said.
          Simo

    • It's a little pointed out fact that The Firefly series is almost a 1 on 1 copy of Cowboy Bebop.

      Little pointed out because it's also completely wrong. Firefly borrows from lots of things; Cowboy Bebop is one.

      I'll accept it's in the same genre (subgenre?) as Bebop, but, for example, where'd Inara come from? I know Jayne was inspired by a character from Alien, for instance. And the box River was in? Taken straight out of the first episode of Outlaw Star.

      What sets Firefly apart isn't that it's revolutionary

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