Dropping Serenity

So, having finished reading the second issue of this latest story arc, I've got to admit I'm pretty much ready to drop Serenity.

I'm a big fan of the Firefly show and the Serenity film which came after it. I'm also a big fan of the various comics which have come out, charting the further tales of Captain Mal Reynolds and his crew, with a copy of every single one of them in one format (print) or another (digital).

Therefore, when I saw the solicitations for the new Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse mini-series, it felt like a no-brainer to add it to my pull list, especially given how much I loved the previous 'Leaves on the Wind' run.

However, two issues in and, while Leaves on the Wind felt to reinvigorate my love of this universe, No Power in the 'Verse has felt like a real drop in terms of its enjoyment.

The story, which follows on from the seeds planted in LOTW, sees Mal and the crew embark on a search and rescue mission for a friend, but ending up getting caught up in between another revolution and the evil Alliance operatives River could have been a part of.

Now this, on paper, sounds perfectly fine to me as it takes a lot of the beats from that last story and so should come off just as well. Unfortunately, two issues in and the story just feels really disjointed and rather laborious to read. It makes me wonder if Serenity can only be written by a Whedon as Chris Roberson does an ok job (Mal's voice sounds pretty spot on) but the story just doesn't seem to flow for me, feeling a little bit clunky.

That said, Georges Jeanty the art is still 'God Damn' gorgeous (see what I did there!), giving a nice sense of continuity from the last arc, and being real easy on my eye. If I were able to bypass the general story and focus solely on the art I might keep getting this book just for what it looks like.

However, that's not why I read comics and while the story isn't terrible, it also isn't captivating enough for me to justify spending a quarter of my budget on it, especially when there are other books which I'm tempted to look at.

And so, as sad as it is for me to say, Serenity has to get canned. I might pick up the remaining issues at a later date if I have some spare change but, for now, I think I'll look for something else to read.