Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
Story by Joss and Zack Whedon; art by Chris Samnee
Dark Horse; GCD; Wikia; Wikipedia

Caution: major spoiler for the movie.

Well, fans waited for this one for quite awhile. I mean, first of all, throughout the series Firefly, Shepherd Book was a mysterious character, a preacher who clearly had some manner of not-so-holy past. So we all wanted to know more about that past. But even after the series ended, and after the movie Serenity was released, and there were occasional comic book miniseries being written... there was talk of a Shepherd Book graphic novel, and at different points, different publication dates were announced. But it kept getting pushed back, which was pretty frustrating. Well, it finally did come out in the fall of 2010 (took me by surprise when I saw it in the comic shop, and here I thought I was keeping on top of every projected release date). But one thing I need to mention... well, first of all, this was a one-shot, and it was hardcover. Never saw a hardcover Serenity comic before, that I recall; even the trade paperbacks that eventually collected, respectively, the first and second 3-issue miniseries, were... well, obviously paperbacks (there may be hardcover editions available, though).

But what gave me pause was the fact that the spine of this particular book had a "3" on it, which made me wonder if I'd somehow missed the first two installments of this story. That kinda thing happens to me, sometimes. So I didn't buy it right away, but I soon sussed out that the "3" referred to... well, the fact that it came after the other miniseries, Those Left Behind and Better Days, which I guess were labelled "1" and "2," respectively, on the trade paperback volumes. Something I'd never given thought to, because I had collected them in individual issue form instead of waiting for the trades. It did strike me as odd, because this is actually the fourth Serenity story published, if you include Float Out (fifth if you count The Other Half- but that'd be silly, since that was an online comic). Maybe "Float Out" doesn't really count just because it's shorter, being only one issue. But on the other hand, this is only one issue. It may be longer than any single issue, but it's not as long as a 3-issue story, or even as long as two issues out of a 3-issue story. But regardless of length, I still see no reason to just discount "Float Out" from the, you know, counting.

But enough about that. You want to hear about the long-awaited story. (And I didn't even get to read it until early January 2011. By the time I'd decided to get it, my LCS was sold out, so I ordered it from Amazon, after Christmas 2010.) Well, here comes the spoiler I alerted you to earlier: It starts within the time frame of the movie, in which we saw that Book was no longer on Serenity, but rather living on a moon called Haven (in the first comic miniseries, which came out before the movie, we saw him decide to leave the ship). There are a couple of different scenes in the movie set on Haven, in the latter of which, Book dies, after an attack which we didn't actually see. Well, "The Shepherd's Tale" shows us that attack. After that, the story flashes back to two years earlier, when he was still on Serenity. Then it flashes back another two years, to him deciding to leave an abbey, shortly before he joined the crew. Then the story flashes back ten years. Then another six years. Then four years. Then another four years. Then six years again. Then another ten years, at which point we see him as a child. (I'm not sure how old he was supposed to be at the end of the comic, probably his early teens; nor am I sure how old he was when he died, but probably around 60.) Anyway, this sort of backwards storytelling is a bit of a popular trope in some movies, though I haven't seen many of them. I really should try to see some more. But anyway, it can be an effective tool, though it doesn't hurt to re-read the story from end to beginning (at least it's easier to do that with a comic than a movie). Oh, I also wanted to say I liked how each scene in the story transitions into the next....

Well, what else to say? I'm not going to tell you about what actually happens in any of the segments of the story, beyond the first two flashbacks that I already mentioned. I'll say that it'd be nice to have learned more details about each phase of his life, but of course there's not really time for all that. At least we get to see each of the pivotal moments that fundamentally altered his life, led to each different phase. (I'll also say that Derrial Book isn't his real name, and we do finally learn his real name, and how he came by the alias he'd use for about half his life.) To be sure, his life was an interesting journey, full of trouble. But anyway, pretty much all questions are resolved, it all makes sense now. There's so much more... that could be told, but I suppose it isn't necessary. The important things have been explained, and explained well. It's a pretty amazing story, and now that I know it, I look forward to re-watching the TV series with that knowledge. (Then again, by the time I get around to that, I probably will have forgotten everything I learned from reading the comic. Sigh. But hey, I could always read it again!)