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Firefly #1-12
Firefly: The Unification War
THE TRUTH ABOUT MAL REYNOLDS’ PAST IS REVEALED. Captain Mal Reynolds thought he could outrun his past, but when a simple mission goes wrong, he’s forced to confront it in the form of the Unificators, mercenaries deputized to hunt down war criminals...and they’ve got Mal and Zoe at the top of their list! War can make villains of even the best men, and Mal’s quest for redemption will put him at odds with his own crew, forcing him to make a choice: fix the past or fight for the future. Fans have demanded it for years and now the definitive story of the Unification War—the intergalactic civil war that divided friends and family alike—is told at last in this official continuation of the hit Firefly television series. New York Times best-selling writer Greg Pak (Star Wars, Mech Cadet Yu) and artist Dan McDaid (Judge Dredd), along with series creator & story consultant Joss Whedon (the visionary writer/director behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Marvel’s The Avengers and more), take you back to the battleground where it all began...and reveal a secret history that might end it all. Collects Firefly #1-12, plus an exclusive short story not available anywhere else!
432 pages, Hardcover
Published November 3, 2020
2 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Greg Pak
1,648 books581 followersGreg Pak is an award-winning Korean American comic book writer and filmmaker currently writing "Lawful" for BOOM and "Sam Wilson: Captain America" (with Evan Narcisse) for Marvel. Pak wrote the "Princess Who Saved Herself" children's book and the “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel based on the songs of Jonathan Coulton and co-wrote (with Fred Van Lente) the acclaimed “Make Comics Like the Pros” how-to book. Pak's other work includes "Planet Hulk," "Darth Vader," "Mech Cadet Yu," "Ronin Island," "Action Comics," and "Magneto Testament."
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 10, 2021
I assumed this would be set during the war, but it’s actually set after the show, with the war background told in flashbacks. Still, I really enjoyed this, and I loved getting to spend more time with the crew of the Serenity. I also enjoyed the Saffron story!
April 8, 2024
(3.5 rounded up)
Feeling nostalgic for both Firefly the show and the Dark Horse Comics’ continuation of the show, I wanted to give Boom Studios’ Firefly comics another shot. “Unification War” is the first arc of its main Firefly series, yet despite the title it’s not set during the titular war but is set between Firefly and “Serenity” with brief flashbacks to the war. The story of the arc is Mal and Zoe being hunted by a group of Alliance war veterans for participating in war crimes against Alliance soldiers. Also thrown into the mix are various dangers like a cult of crazy colonists, a swarm of giant alien centipedes, and the deadliest of all Mal’s mother .
This Deluxe Edition (collecting all 3 volumes of the Unification War arc), besides having a bad cover (any of the individual volumes’ covers would have been preferable) is overall entertaining but is teetering on steep decline towards bad. Greg Pak in the introduction says he watched and liked the original show but there’s a lot of narrative and creative choices that makes me wonder if he really was paying attention to the show and movie:
- There’s several moments between these beloved characters that did feel out of character, like Jayne all of a sudden being overly suspicious of Shepherd Book (nothing in their interactions on the show, movie, other comics would suggest he had).
- The biggest though is Inara and Mal kissing? I mean sure she kissed him when he was drugged and nothing in Serenity suggested they hadn’t consensually/consciously kissed at any time before then but this feels out of place and a retcon that ruins a bit of their dynamic moving forward.
- First time I remember there being actual alien life (not mutated cow fetuses) in a Firefly project. This is one of those moments that made me think how this should have been set in a different IP or be its own original story because this felt more like “Aliens” or even “Star Wars” than Firefly.
- There’s basically a second Browncoat rebellion in the later half of the arc yet no mention of it will be made in Serenity and subsequent stories. Perhaps it would have been better if this was a sequel to the Dark Horse comics that took place after the movie.
There’s a few other smaller changes I don’t really care for like the lack of Chinese phrases and general Joss Whedon snark in the dialogue.. Still while I was reading this, I was entertained, even if I was thinking it wasn’t as entertaining as other Firefly stories. While not as funny as usual Whedon dialogue, there’s funny moments like when the crewmembers about to be sacrificed are having a cordial/heated debate about who among them is the most sinful. Surprisingly I think what I enjoyed the most about the arc was the non-Serenity crewmembers. Boss Moon seems an interesting enough character and I like her growing bond with her former Browncoat enemies. Ma Reynolds while a bit unlikeable could represent a fun exploration of Mal’s background moving forward.
Ultimately I don’t regret reading the “Unification War” even if it doesn’t really nail the magic of earlier Firefly and Serenity content. As I mentioned, I feel like this would have been better received if not part of the Firefly franchise. Still, it hasn’t killed my interest in reading more of this series (even if the low ratings of future entries makes me nervous) and there are some cliffhangers (i.e., the crew is scattered across the ‘Verse) that I’d like to follow up on.
Feeling nostalgic for both Firefly the show and the Dark Horse Comics’ continuation of the show, I wanted to give Boom Studios’ Firefly comics another shot. “Unification War” is the first arc of its main Firefly series, yet despite the title it’s not set during the titular war but is set between Firefly and “Serenity” with brief flashbacks to the war. The story of the arc is Mal and Zoe being hunted by a group of Alliance war veterans for participating in war crimes against Alliance soldiers. Also thrown into the mix are various dangers like a cult of crazy colonists, a swarm of giant alien centipedes, and the deadliest of all Mal’s mother .
This Deluxe Edition (collecting all 3 volumes of the Unification War arc), besides having a bad cover (any of the individual volumes’ covers would have been preferable) is overall entertaining but is teetering on steep decline towards bad. Greg Pak in the introduction says he watched and liked the original show but there’s a lot of narrative and creative choices that makes me wonder if he really was paying attention to the show and movie:
- There’s several moments between these beloved characters that did feel out of character, like Jayne all of a sudden being overly suspicious of Shepherd Book (nothing in their interactions on the show, movie, other comics would suggest he had).
- The biggest though is Inara and Mal kissing? I mean sure she kissed him when he was drugged and nothing in Serenity suggested they hadn’t consensually/consciously kissed at any time before then but this feels out of place and a retcon that ruins a bit of their dynamic moving forward.
- First time I remember there being actual alien life (not mutated cow fetuses) in a Firefly project. This is one of those moments that made me think how this should have been set in a different IP or be its own original story because this felt more like “Aliens” or even “Star Wars” than Firefly.
- There’s basically a second Browncoat rebellion in the later half of the arc yet no mention of it will be made in Serenity and subsequent stories. Perhaps it would have been better if this was a sequel to the Dark Horse comics that took place after the movie.
There’s a few other smaller changes I don’t really care for like the lack of Chinese phrases and general Joss Whedon snark in the dialogue.. Still while I was reading this, I was entertained, even if I was thinking it wasn’t as entertaining as other Firefly stories. While not as funny as usual Whedon dialogue, there’s funny moments like when the crewmembers about to be sacrificed are having a cordial/heated debate about who among them is the most sinful. Surprisingly I think what I enjoyed the most about the arc was the non-Serenity crewmembers. Boss Moon seems an interesting enough character and I like her growing bond with her former Browncoat enemies. Ma Reynolds while a bit unlikeable could represent a fun exploration of Mal’s background moving forward.
Ultimately I don’t regret reading the “Unification War” even if it doesn’t really nail the magic of earlier Firefly and Serenity content. As I mentioned, I feel like this would have been better received if not part of the Firefly franchise. Still, it hasn’t killed my interest in reading more of this series (even if the low ratings of future entries makes me nervous) and there are some cliffhangers (i.e., the crew is scattered across the ‘Verse) that I’d like to follow up on.
June 8, 2021
Big fan of the show and movie. Read most of the other comics in this 'verse. Exactly what happened at Serenity Valley was always a big mystery for me. I guess it was built up too much in my head because it was a little bit of a letdown when you find out what really happened.
This doesn't take place during the war, which is what I thought this was going to be. You only see what went down through flashback. This is set somewhere before the movie and the first few issues have the same feeling as the show: the camaraderie, bickering, jokes, things not going well, etc. While it's familiar, it's also retreading old ground so I was a little disappointed in that.
However, the second half of the story does break new ground and feeds the next story-line. It's enough to want me to at least continue reading. The art's ok, average at best. Wish it was just a little bit better. The color palette is muted and kept to the browns, keeping the feeling of the show.
This doesn't take place during the war, which is what I thought this was going to be. You only see what went down through flashback. This is set somewhere before the movie and the first few issues have the same feeling as the show: the camaraderie, bickering, jokes, things not going well, etc. While it's familiar, it's also retreading old ground so I was a little disappointed in that.
However, the second half of the story does break new ground and feeds the next story-line. It's enough to want me to at least continue reading. The art's ok, average at best. Wish it was just a little bit better. The color palette is muted and kept to the browns, keeping the feeling of the show.
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September 20, 2021Review available on No Flying No Tights: https://www.noflyingnotights.com/blog...
May 23, 2021
I was, like many others who read this book, extremely disappointed that it actually had nothing to do with the Unification War and just used it seldomly either as a reference point or in scant flashbacks. The actual story was dull, it was too similar to the last thing I read set in the Firefly 'verse (which was Big Damn Hero and I enjoyed that much more), this book tries to jam so much in that it doesn't bother giving the context or the time to develop plot points or character motives that it should (a common theme in the graphic novels). I didn't enjoy this book half as much as I wanted to, it didn't feel like Firefly. It was too much guns blazing, not enough humour (a point in the novels' favour), and as I'm realizing it matters to me in graphic novels, I'll say it again, the art wasn't great. I would recommend this book to no one sadly.
February 17, 2021
Pretty good. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't literally set during the war, instead referenced an event in it to make a new story. But the story was cool. The art was mostly good, firefly comic art ranges from abysmal to pretty good, and this was on the better end of the spectrum. Sometimes the faces even looked like the actors! The voice is there, but a bit muted. It's not as "whedonesque" as some of the previous stories. No Mal being sexist towards Anara, so that's a plus! The extra stories in here were all pretty cool, I actually really liked the one about Saffron. The book itself is beautiful, a solid hardcover with great design.
February 2, 2022
While I enjoyed this book, I feel it could have been done better if they kept closer to the previous format like the books before it. I would have much preferred to see the original war in all its glory rather than them telling a ‘current story’ and trying to avoid a second war and giving us the occasional flashback to the original.
Fun book but not really sure where it fits in the overall story. Definitely one I’ll read again.
Fun book but not really sure where it fits in the overall story. Definitely one I’ll read again.
November 15, 2021
Really enjoyed the book, but I was expecting it to be about The Unification War set before the show. The book only reference the war in a few places. This book probably should be called something different so as not to be misleading.
Other than that. I thought it was great.
Other than that. I thought it was great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews