Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse #4 Review

River’s been captured. Inara and Simon’s rescue mission isn’t going the way they planned. Mal’s stuck in a very uncomfortable meeting.

And the rest of Serenity’s crew? Well, they’re in for one very unpleasant surprise.

Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse #4 (Dark Horse Comics)

Observations

• I feel like we missed something since last issue.
• Yep, we definitely missed something.
• If you want to establish yourself as a villain, then hitting a mom and making her drop her baby will probably do the trick.
• All things considered, it could have been much worse.
• Seriously? You only figured she was “up to something?” C’mon, Mal…

The Verdict

If you’d told me a few months ago that I would ever consider tapping out of a comic series based in the Firefly/Serenity universe, I would learned Chinese cuss words just to mock your prediction.

I’m not quite to the point where I’m ready to drop Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse yet, but this issue put me much closer than I ever thought I’d be.

First off, we have absolutely no idea what caused the complete change in River’s behavior from last issue to this one. She’s always been a wildcard, but this is completely different—a drastic change in both heart and mind that happened completely off-screen. Whether it was run-of-the-mill brainwashing or something more complicated/nefarious, we have no frame of reference for why she’s behaving this way. I understand that it may be revealed later, but right now it feels like a totally random shift, especially in light of how strong-willed she appeared the last time we saw her.

And then you have Captain Reynolds, who is somehow shocked that the people he’s helping are terrorists—despite the fact that he acknowledged (and even lightly defended) this back in the first issue.

Every major reveal this series has attempted ends up being something we could have easily already guessed. Maybe it’s all a big set up for a mind-blowing finale, but the suspect character work we’ve seen thus far doesn’t fill me with hope.

The only two things I did enjoy in this one were Jayne’s hilariously dogged attempts to be a nice guy and the art. I may not like (or understand) why the issue’s big fight scene was happening, but Georges Jeanty draws/choreographs the hell out of it. Hopefully, the quality of the narrative follows suit. It wouldn’t be the first time Captain Tightpants pretending to be inept and/or oblivious before pulling off a masterful stunt…but I won’t be holding my breath, either.