Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse #3 Review

With River captured, the crew of Serenity scrambles to find their other captive friend. Boy are they in for a rude surprise when it’s discovered that their resident assassin is being held hostage by the Alliance…

Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse #3 (Dark Horse Comics)

Observations

• Wash references make me sad :(
• I know this woman really wants to make a point, but constantly shoving a sword in River’s face isn’t helping.
• Whenever Mal starts to talk about ignoring a client’s moral failings, that’s when you know stuff’s about to go down.
• You know things are weird when Jayne starts to moralize.
• To be fair, I’d become a stuttering mess in front of Inara, too.
• How did they not know that was coming?

The Verdict

On one hand, writer Chris Roberson is hitting almost all the right notes with Firefly’s cast of characters. River might be a little too straightforward…and Jayne might be a little too empathetic…but otherwise, the dialogue and interactions are great. Just like always, Georges Jeanty’s artwork captures the characters’ likenesses and reactions/emotions perfectly.

On the other hand, Roberson’s script has spent a large amount of time setting up a “big reveal” that pretty much everyone knew already. In fact, it’s somewhat surprising (and frustrating) that the characters haven’t figured it out themselves.

Maybe they have, though. Perhaps Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse #3 is setting us up for some epic misdirection like the original television series episode ‘Trash’ pulled off. As it stands now, however, the book seems to be moving its great characters from one boring/predictable situation to another.