tek's rating: ½

Serenity: Better Days
Story by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews; art by Will Conrad
Dark Horse; GCD; Wikia; Wikipedia

Caution: spoilers.

The second 3 issue miniseries (this one from 2008), this is set somewhere within the timeframe of of Firefly, I believe. The crew pull off a job. They end up making a lot more from it than expected; they get rich. They each fantasize about what they'll do with the money. Meanwhile, Inara entertains a client named Ephraim Sanda, who leads a team that hunts down former "Dust Devils" for the Alliance. The Dust Devils were former Independents during the war, who never gave up fighting, and are now considered terrorists. Ephraim believes Malcolm Reynolds is one, and captures him. Turns out he wasn't a Dust Devil, but Zoe was. So she goes to surrender to Ephraim, leading him into an ambush. But things are more complicated than that, as someone the Serenity crew had stolen from earlier showed up looking for revenge. I guess. In the end, our heroes and the Alliance team join forces to fight off the newcomer. And then part ways. And Sanda's team took the money, so Mal and the others are no longer rich.

That's pretty much it. I didn't really follow it that well. It was okay, I guess, but I didn't like it as much as I hoped. I dunno. Still, there will be more Serenity stories to come, and I'll always look forward to them. And that's all I can think to say, for now.... Oh, except the three covers are supposed to fit together into a single image. The first two covers are okay, but I really don't care for the third. Um... and at some point, I guess I lent these comics to someone, and never got them back. Which is a damn shame, because one of them had a letter from me printed in the letters column. The whole series can be obtained in a collection, which may also include Flout Out and a couple of digital comics, but I don't think I'd ever get that. If I ever do buy the story again, I'd rather get the individual issues, so I can see my damn letter. (Man, I hate lending things and not getting them back.)