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Serenity Comic Book Series 192

Posted by Zonk from the pitter-patter-of-tiny-feet-in-huge-combat-boots dept.
stoolpigeon writes "CBR News is reporting that Dark Horse will be publishing a 3 comic series to provide material that bridges the gap between the Firefly T.V. show and the Serenity film. From the press release: 'The plot of the comic book series centers on the crew members of the ship known as Serenity, who once again find themselves broke and on the wrong side of a number of very large firearms when a heist goes awry, and some old enemies catch their scent. After facing one failure after another, Malcolm Reynolds becomes the target of a conspiracy between government and mercenary forces, and a tense and divided crew must try to unite behind their compromised leader...'"
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Serenity Comic Book Series More

Serenity Comic Book Series

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  • Can't wait for these. About time too.

    Any word of a date or release?

  • New life? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nizo ( 81281 ) * on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @06:39PM (#12493416) Homepage Journal
    If the film does well and with DVD sales going strong (currently ranked #48 on amazon, not too shabby), is it possible that the series will come back to TV?

    • Re:New life? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Belgand ( 14099 )
      No. As far as I am aware a stipulation of the contract between Fox and Universal is that there cannot be another TV show. Fox really hates it when people thwart it's best efforts to destroy something popular. More realistically is that Fox just doesn't want the competition. If Universal comes and makes the movie and it reinvigorates the concept and leads to a successful TV show they don't want to have given that up.

      Yet again the interests of business prevail over the interests of the consumers.

      • Re:New life? (Score:5, Informative)

        by RedWizzard ( 192002 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @06:54PM (#12493540)
        It's the other way round. Universal won't allow Fox (or anyone) to make a new TV series for the duration of the movie deal (potentially up to three films). After that the rights revert to Fox and they can do whatever they want, including making a new TV series. If they're smart they will, and I think they will, but because they're not smart they'll make it with a different cast and crew and it'll be terrible.

      • Re:New life? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Chibi ( 232518 )

        Purely anecdotal, but I had heard people say that Fox's rights to a TV series expired after a few years, so the plan was to keep doing movies until the TV rights expired, then Universal would help do more TV. This, of course, assumes that the movie does well enough, and they wanted the franchise to return to the small screen.

        So, does anyone with facts (hopefully in the form of some kind of link) care to chime in? :)

      • As far as I am aware a stipulation of the contract between Fox and Universal is that there cannot be another TV show.

        Do you know where I can find more info on this?

      • Re:New life? (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Otter ( 3800 )
        Fox really hates it when people thwart it's best efforts to destroy something popular.

        Oh, for heaven's fucking sake:

        What is so difficult about the notion that while you enjoy a TV show, most of the world didn't want to watch it? Can't you people just accept that there weren't enough people out there who share your taste, instead of imagining some Illuminati conspiracy to keep profitable shows off the air for no logical reason?

        Look, I'd love to be watching the hockey World Championship, which, if it's av

        • Re:New life? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by ageoffri ( 723674 )
          What is so difficult about the notion that while you enjoy a TV show, most of the world didn't want to watch it? Can't you people just accept that there weren't enough people out there who share your taste, instead of imagining some Illuminati conspiracy to keep profitable shows off the air for no logical reason?

          Did you watch the show and then watch the DVD's? Personally I thought the show sucked big time when it was on TV. A friend loaned me the Firfly DVD's and wow it was a great series.

          Fox did mana

        • I think the DVD sales, which were incredible, speaks for itself here. The reason why the show wasnt popular was:
          A) it wasnt advertised as much as most other shows on fox
          B)it was shown out of order when it was on because:
          C) it was pre-empted a lot by fox for sports games
        • "Can't you people just accept that there weren't enough people out there who share your taste, instead of imagining some Illuminati conspiracy to keep profitable shows off the air for no logical reason?"

          WEll, its either a conspiracy, or stupidity. I cant think of any other reason that applies to all the facts.

        • Re:New life? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Dirtside ( 91468 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @07:21PM (#12493767) Journal
          What is so difficult about the notion that while you enjoy a TV show, most of the world didn't want to watch it? Can't you people just accept that there weren't enough people out there who share your taste, instead of imagining some Illuminati conspiracy to keep profitable shows off the air for no logical reason?
          Yes, I suppose we just imagined that they showed the episodes in a random order (imagine if they showed '24' in random order), we just imagined that they preempted it with no warning a couple of times, we just imagined that they gave it the worst possible timeslot (Friday night), we just imagined that there was essentially no publicity for the show, we just imagined that they constantly fucked with the production by doing things like going to Joss Whedon on a Friday afternoon and telling him -- after the first (2-hour) episode had already been filmed -- that they wanted a new pilot, and they wanted the script on their desks when they arrived on Monday morning. The first episode, which establishes a lot of the world and the backstory (and still has lots of action and explosions), was shown dead last, after the series was cancelled.

          Yes, that's right: we imagined all these things.

          • Re:New life? (Score:3, Funny)

            by jafac ( 1449 )
            I imagine that Fox were probably such pricks because the BAD guys in Serenity are the Government. That's not a good theme for Fox. Same thing with the show's predecessor, Dark Angel. Good following, abused by Fox - the Government are the Bad Guys.

            Now look at FoxNews. THIS rediculous show, they put on it's own channel, 24-hours. On that show, the Government are the GOOD guys. (despite ample evidence of the opposite).
            • That's an interesting connection. But I believe they were such pricks because network executives like to look like they're doing something. Either that or they had no reason at all.
          • Gee, you're certainly an imaginative fellow. Unfortunately, you never got around to your personal conspiracy theory. The guy I responded to thinks Fox wanted to "destroy something popular". Presumably you have imagined some equally insane alternative to network executives uncomfortable with the shows they were getting and trying to run the ones they thought were best, even if out of sequence.
            • A number of people are getting bent out of shape about why FOX seemed to do everything it could to screw over the show.

              It;s really very simple. FOX has no understanding of how to handle sci-fi and probably didn't understand the ramifications of showing it out of order. Some suit probably remembered watching a few episodes of Twilight Zone or Outer Limits and thought it was a series of self contained episodes. That' or they were thinking of Star Trek, most of which (DS9 aside) could have been shown in ju

            • Unfortunately, you never got around to your personal conspiracy theory.

              Who said I have a conspiracy theory? What actually happened is that Fox handled the show badly and then cancelled it. We don't know why they handled it badly: coulda been incompetence, malice, some combination of both, or some other unknown factor.

              The guy I responded to thinks Fox wanted to "destroy something popular".

              Good lord! He was joking when he said that. The very next sentence is, "More realistically is that Fox

        • Did you hear about Firefly? Did you know when and on what channel it was playing and chose not to watch it?

          I didn't.

        • Re:New life? (Score:3, Informative)

          by Mac Degger ( 576336 )
          Yup, not too many people watched it initially. But even a dumbf*ck would have to admit that the way the show was presented is a textbook case of bad handling:
          -a sequential show was being shown out of order
          -a sequential (ie story-arced) show was frequently pre-empted
          -an action/sci-fi show was put on friday nights...hardly a normal timespot for it's demographic
          -the show was hardly promoted

          So it's not surprising that not many people watched it.
          Fact is though that the show has sold phenomenally well on DVD (an
        • What is so difficult about the notion that while you enjoy a TV show, most of the world didn't want to watch it?

          What's so difficult to accept about the notion that enough people DID like it to justify the making of a movie?

          Contrary to the evidence provided in the form of Gigli, the studios do not normally make a movie without being fairly convinced they have a good chance of getting a substantial return on their investment. I'd like to imagine that they have access to better statistics about how popular
        • What is so difficult about the notion that while you enjoy a TV show, most of the world didn't want to watch it?

          Most of the world didn't get a chance to watch it.
          However afterwards 9 out of 10 introduced to it end up loving it.
          Can't you people just accept that there weren't enough people out there who share your taste,

          There is no proof of that, so that would be religion to belive that.

        • OK. I doubt Fox really tried to damage the show, but as many others have stated it was not managed very well. In this respect Fox does not have a very good track record. Futurama was also quite popular (and is doing wonderfully on Adult Swim) and has had good DVD sales. Family Guy, though, is probably the best case. It had a bad timeslot that constantly changed and even those fans who really enjoyed the show were largely unable to watch it through a combination of timeslot issues and constantly pre-empting
      • There is also the possibility that FOX might pick firefly back up. Or, if they're not interested in the SciFi genre, they could sell the rights to UPN which is undoubtedly looking for something to replace Enterprise. I don't buy the whole "FOX wants to destroy popular shows." Futurama, Family Guy, Firefly, Dark Angel et al. might be popular with us, but they were simply not popular enough with the volgus.
    • currently ranked #48 on amazon,not too shabby

      It was all the way up to 19 when the trailer was released, definately not too shabby for a year old show :)

  • yes, but.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by ShaniaTwain ( 197446 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @06:41PM (#12493429) Homepage
    ..will there be explosions? what about a grizzled cigar chomping bad guy with a heart of gold? Nekkid chicks?

    oh! and what happens on page 23?
  • Regardless of how much I love the subject matter, I refuse to buy individual issues. Guess I'll have to wait for a collected and bound book. As an Alan Moore fan, however, I'm used to the pain.
    • Screw that. I'm buying 6 copies of each.

      1 of each for me, and the rest to ebay in five years. Bwahahaha
  • Let me remind you all that one of the central characters is a high-class whore! She travels the known universe to pleasure men and women! In a space vessel! Perhaps the problem is that /. isn't much of a teenage crowd.
    • That always grated on me in Firefly. Whores are intrinsically not high-class; this has a basis in human psychology, and is consistently reflected in the way human societies are structured.

      Yes, you can get creative with a lot of things (especially sci-fi or fantasy -- "Imagine a society where..."), but you still can't arbitrarily invent new (human) psychology without harming the quality of the writing.

      • I think if you manage to think of her as more than a "whore" -- which is what Mal and other use as a put down -- and instead think of her as the companion she is, you will see that there is precedent in real life in the Geisha [wikipedia.org].

        As always in Firefly, western and eastern culture meet somewhere...

      • It depends. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that in some cultures in some eras of our history, whores were considered respectable women. (Examples, anyone?)

        Besides, the Companions in Firefly weren't exactly high- or low-class, they were sort of in between. You could always tell that Mal had sort of a love-hate relationship with Inara. He really liked her, but he absolutely hated her profession. Even though many held her in high esteem, you could tell that some did not. Watch the episode "Shin

        • And no, I didn't memorize all of the episodes of Firefly, I cheated.

          Oh, come on, it's not that hard - there's only 14 episodes! It's not like Doctor Who fans...

          • Oh, come on, it's not that hard

            True, but you have to understand where I'm coming from. When I was in high school, I was a hardcore Star Trek fan, and yes I did memorize all 79 episode titles, along with guest stars, their characters, etc.

            As a result of the incredibly hard time I endured for this nerdy obsession, I quickly learned to keep such things to myself. I'm still in that mode of denial today. I am not a nerd, I am not a nerd. If I say it enough times, I might convince myself. Part of that

      • "Whores are intrinsically not high-class; this has a basis in human psychology, and is consistently reflected in the way human societies are structured."

        Absolute bollocks: there used to be frigging temple prostitues, who used to be highly respected.

        True, that's the classical example, but even up to a couple of decades ago the japanese geisha was a highly respected proffesion (now it's merely respected, if looked on a mite strangely).

        And let's not forget old Venice and many other good examples.
      • Wow, you must be completely unfamiliar with huge swaths of history. And as a guy with a history degree, that really grates on me.

        Read about Courtesans in China and Byzantium, read about Geisha culture in Japan. Then explain how your human psychology studies fail to explain their high class status.

        In China. these women were the counsels of rulers and nobility, trained to be artistic, clever, insightful, and cunning conversationalists. They were supposed to be relaxing counsel with no strings attached. Many

  • Is it sci-fi or fantasy? (Score:5, Funny)

    by PCM2 ( 4486 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @06:55PM (#12493554) Homepage
    Age old question: How can you tell if the movie/show you're watching is science fiction or fantasy?

    Easy. If it's fantasy, there will be dwarfs and men with beards in the cast.

    If it's sci-fi, the script will talk about mercenaries a lot. If it calls them "mercs," it's a dead giveaway.

    • Occult's Razor (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In Fantasy, the hot chicks are scantily clad because you want them to be.

      In Science Fiction, the hot chicks are scantily clad for a reason central to the internal logic of the universe.

      Remember kids, any sufficiently advanced Science Fiction is indistinguishable from Fantasy.
    • I'm going to make a show with bearded dwarven mercenaries, just to thwart your identification scheme.
    • There's lots of sci-fi which doesn't spend vast quantities of time talking about mercenaries. I think you'll find that most sci-fi is set in the future, however :-)

      Yes, this is also a gross overgeneralisation, but I suspect one more reliable than the parent's.
    • In sci-fi, they drink beer. In fantasy, they drink ale.

  • ugh nasty (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Karma Sucks ( 127136 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @07:03PM (#12493632)
    I mean, I love Firefly, and I'm really looking forward to Serenity... now I have to excited over some silly comic books without which I won't get the full story?

    That's sad. It feels like Joss Whedon has sold out, something like the Matrix people did with all their product tie-ins before the final two movies (they even made cartoons for god's sake).

    Oh well, money is money.
    • Hasn't Joss been involved with print comics before? If so, this doesn't see like much of a strecth.
      • Joss Whedon currently writes one of the core X-Men books, Astonishing X-Men. He's also an old-school X-Men fan, with a real love of the medium, so there being a Firefly comic doesn't surprise me.

    • Doubt it (Score:3, Insightful)

      by eatenn ( 572604 )

      I get the feeling that Joss Whedon has a genuine desire to tell his story in it's entirety, since he wasn't able to do that with the TV series.

      I don't think he's doing it for any financial incentive... the film industry tends to pay a bit better than the comic book industry, in case you didn't know.

    • It feels like Joss Whedon has sold out, something like the Matrix people did with all their product tie-ins before the final two movies (they even made cartoons for god's sake).

      then I guess you don't want to know that the Matrix creators started a comic publishing company called Burlyman Entertainment.

      oops too late.

      Oh well, money is money.

      Joss is a big fan of comics, having written a good many of them. perhaps he is doing this because, I don't know... he like comics?
    • I don't think this is a case of Joss Whedon going "Ooh, I'm going to leave stuff out of the movie so I can screw my fans and make them buy the tie-in comic book."

      Most likely, it's a case of Joss Whedon going "I can't make this movie continue directly from where the series left off because then it wouldn't be a good stand-alone movie; hey, why don't I make a tie-in comic book to bridge the gap for fans who watched the series?"

      It's not all an evil conspiracy. :P

  • Release Date (Score:4, Informative)

    by spyrral ( 162842 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @07:07PM (#12493666) Journal
    Since the press release neglected to mention it, I looked up the release date of the first issue on Dark Horse's website.

    Issue #1 hits July 06, 2005 at a cost of $2.99.
  • Don't get me wrong. I'm super excited that a Firefly movie is coming out. The release can't get here soon enough.

    That said, I wish it was still a TV show. I would much rather have 22 bite-sized morsels of Firefly a year.

    Who knows what kind of legal black hole a future TV show is tied up in. Plus, there is already talk of more movies if this one is successful, and Whedon is supposed to be doing a Wonder Woman movie now.

    Will we ever get another Whedon TV show?!?

    -prator

    • I have to admit that some of the payoffs would have been really awesome if they would have had time to develop through the course of a TV series.

      That said, I was lucky enough to get to one of the advanced screenings they had on May 5th, and holy crap, it's good.

      I'll have some brief, spoiler-free thoughts on my site [localgod.net] for anyone interested.

  • Wonder if Joss Whedon watches anime (Score:3, Interesting)

    by brother_b ( 16716 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @08:33PM (#12494352)
    I'll state right off that I watched all of Firefly recently, and I loved it.

    Firefly kind of reminds me of a cross among the two anime series Trigun and Cowboy Bebop (both originally released in Japan in 1998) and old post-Civil War setting westerns. Trigun can be classified as a sci-fi western. Bebop doesn't lean quite as heavily on the western genre, as it's all over the map as far as influences go, but the world as presented seems similar in nature to that of Firefly.

    Firefly resembles Cowboy Bebop in that you have a ragtag crew of misfits and folks with questionable intentions travelling in an old beat-up secondhand spaceship going from job to job trying to make money wherever they can, in some cases only enough to keep the ship running. The ship Serenity even kind of reminds me of the Bebop somewhat in how it is designed. Also, Cowboy Bebop's settings involve various terraformed planets, but most of them have a reasonably near-future level of technology apparent. In Firefly, the settings are mostly old Western in nature on the border worlds, like Trigun's world in the apparent far future after human extra-planetary colonization goes horribly wrong. The firearms used are sort of like both, in that both current and antiquated weapon designs are used with a little futuristic flair to jazz things up.

  • Dunno how I feel about this... (Score:3, Informative)

    by solios ( 53048 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @08:56PM (#12494498) Homepage
    Historically, Dark Horse:Ocean::Comics:Video Games w/r/t their rabid craze for licensing.

    I learned from 80s Marvel Star Wars comics and 90s Dark Horse Star Wars comics that just because you have the rights doesn't mean you have the capability of producing quality material.

    That and they have the same problem DC does with their Vertigo line - extremely high quality covers with interior work that has always, in my professional opinion, had a rushed or unfinished feel to it (work for hire, DH rates, contracts, bills, making a living, etc, etc.).

    I'll probably check it out, despite my traditionally itchy experiences with Dark Horse - Whedon's {co}writing it and it's only three issues - it's not like they're pulling a Marvel and hoping to suck us in for a ten year run of recycled crap with new writers, pencillers and inkers every three months.

  • I don't think I want to see... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Call Me Black Cloud ( 616282 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @10:22PM (#12494970)

    ...either the film or the comic book after visiting the web site [serenity.com].

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