Joss Whedon certainly had a task set out for himself, didn’t he? It all started on September 20th, 2002, when his new pet project, Firefly, premiered on Fox. The show garnered mostly positive reviews and earned a rabid group of fans, but as the night and time shifted at the drop of a hat and it was deemed that some episodes be run out of sequence, ratings were shaky. In December 2002, Firefly was cancelled by the notoriously itchy trigger finger of the network executives, who clearly felt more room was needed for such quality programming as Skating With Celebrities and So You Think You Can Dance.

Six months later, Firefly smashed TV DVD sales records across the country, and made a sizable splash internationally to boot, as people were finally able to sit down and watch the show without The Powers That Be playing pin-the-tail-on-the-timeslot. This newfound fanbase, myself included, came from every race, sex, age, and social class to embrace the missed opportunity inherent in these 14 episodes. We loved our dearly departed Firefly, and spent countless evenings hoping and praying that those starched-suits at Fox now limped through their evenings, home alone in the dark, weeping into their bubble baths. Well, at least I did. I just assumed the rest of you were with me on that. Sure it was empty and unsatisfying schadenfreude, but what else was there?

Then, in the fall of 2003, the glimmer of victory appeared on the horizon: a movie! A feature film that would give closure to the characters we loved, wrap up the story we had become enthralled with, and, so it was rumored, provide a bounty of loaves and fishes for all those who would revel in its splendor! And how the Lord would grin! And how the people would feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and Oaty bars! Of course, there was a lot of ground to cover: Mal and Inara, Simon and Kaylee, the history of Shepherd Book, River, the Alliance, Blue Sun, the Reavers. That’s a lot of plot for a film that’s already got the hopes of all its fans and future of the franchise riding on its shoulders. Like I said, a heck of task.

Enter: Those Left Behind.

Rather than shoehorning all of the above into a single film, Joss instead chose to preface Serenity with a three-issue comic book that would bridge the series to the movie and tantalize we increasingly frenzied fans with morsels of Firefly-flavored goodness. The issues were released in July, August, and September of 2005, each featuring one of three different covers (one per crewmember), which all dovetailed neatly into the September 30th theatrical release date.

The story is a lot more subdued than what you might expect from a comic, given the temptation to supersize everything when you’re no longer constrained by a budget. We open on a botched haul that sends Mal, Zoe, and Jayne running from a mob of angry townsfolk. They make a narrow escape off-planet after Shepherd Book steals a vehicle, but with no gas, no money, and, as Book is increasingly worried, no morals, tensions are running high.

Meanwhile, the Blue-Handed Men have come to do business with Lawrence Dobson, the former Alliance agent who is not only alive after his shooting, but has become, to use his word, preoccupied with Mal Reynolds and his ship. As a desperate Serenity takes a tip from Badger and sets off to find a forgotten war treasure, the unlikely partnership of Dobson and Blue Sun follows her through The Black and plots how best to take revenge on the captain and secure escapee River Tam.

In my search for usable pictures to decorate this review, I was surprised to find out that Those Left Behind has become pretty divisive among Whedon fans. Some found it to be a fun little appetizer before the film that helps provide at least a smattering of closure to questions which may otherwise have been left dangling in front of our faces forever. Many others, it seems, thought it was a boring, poorly plotted adventure with horrid continuity that gave answers that would have been better left to our imaginations. Personally, I’m pretty firmly grounded in the former category, because, while hardly perfect, there’s a lot of good to be had here: our favorite smugglers are back in action, with all the grit and wit you’d expect. The Hands of Blue Men are a fun little mystery of Firefly, and any more exposure to them is always a plus. There are little nods, like the mention of Fanty and Mingo, that allude to what we can expect in the actual movie. And, I know I just mentioned the wit three sentences ago, but I’m saying it again: the dialogue is *great*. Excellent one-liners and great little character moments abound, and nearly every page has something that makes me smile.

With that said, I have to acknowledge that it’s not to tough to see the other point of view. The gun fights that bookend our tale and the chase that takes up the majority of the first issue would have been lots of fun to watch on TV, but they lack a some oomph when stuck on flat comic book panels—what should be dynamic and memorable setpieces are instead far too easy to gloss over and forget about as you search for the next panel that has dialogue. As for the story, I won’t begrudge it simply for not being the balls-to-the-wall action extravaganza that some people wanted, but it does unfortunately come across weaker in ink and paint than I think it would have on film. Though the plot revolves around revenge against Mal and the attempted capture of River, Those Left Behind is ultimately a Shepherd Book story. I like Book quite a bit, but he was probably not the best character to make our emotional core. Jayne, Mal, Zoe, River, heck, almost anyone else on Serenity would have made for a much more engaging pivot point. He’s a great subtle character, and Joss does subtlety well, but when your fans are chomping at the bit for any glimpse they can of their dearly departed cast of characters, this subdued approach is going to come up short in a lot of people’s eyes.

On the whole, Those Left Behind gets a thumbs up. It gives a lot of intriguing glimpses into things we’ll likely only ever get to speculate about and contains lots of fun stuff, like Agent Dobson miraculously surviving the pilot episode, that, even if I’ll never see them on the small screen, I’m happy exists in some form. There’s more attitude, more snappy patter, more of everything that made Firefly a total failure and wild success. Now, I could come up with a closing paragraph here. My dictionary is calling me to cobble together fancy, multisyllabic words that are basically restating everything I’ve just said. I’m going to resist that impulse, I think, and end by letting the material speak for itself. So without further any synonyms, I now leave you with my favorite bits from Serentity: Those Left Behind. Dong ma?

Groovy Quotes

Mal: This thing’s going your way, Ott. Don’t make it go another.

Mal: So… how goes the flock?
Book: At the moment? To their homes. To fetch their guns.

Mal: Change of plans. Looks like we’ll be leaving this world a bit sooner than anticipated. I’d like that last statement to prove specific and mundane, not spiritual-like.

Kaylee: What’s up, Wash?
Wash: The usual — crime and us trying to avoid the punishment.

Jayne: Stop chasin’ us! We don’t got you damn money! Go chase the people with the money!
Zoe: Jayne, you yelling like that’s only gonna make them want to shoot you more.
Jayne: How you figure?
Zoe: Because it makes me want to shoot you more.

Badger: The Battle of Sturges? Heard of it?
Mal: Everyone’s heard of the Battle of Sturges.
Badger: Bloodiest battle in all the war, it was.
Mal: I’d hold it was a distant second. But go on.
Badger: Shortest, too. All those lives, snuffed out in a blink.
Mal: A blink’s an awful long time when you’re on the ground.

River: I hate that color on you. I always have.

Book: I think you should respect Inara’s wishes, Captain. You gave her your word.
Mal: Yes I did. And you think you’re in a position to tell me what that’s worth? It’s air, Shepherd. Nothing more when it comes right down to it, when the going reaches the right level of rough. Come to think of it, it’s no different than the word you preach. Tell me, Shepherd. When things take a turn towards (Chinese), do you drop to your knees and pray, or do you steal a vehicle and do what needs to be done to survive? To live and repent another day?

Jayne: Uh, Mal, didn’t you shoot this guy in the head?
Dobson: No, you moron. The pound of metal grafted to my face, it’s purely cosmetic.

Mal: You always were a freak, Dobson. I just made it plain to see. But say you do it, you kill me. What then?
Dobson: I dunno. I imagine I’ll get a hobby or something.

Jayne: Man could hold a grudge. I admire that.

Book: Am I interrupting something, Captain? Not that I would know what that would be, you standing here alone in the middle of the night.
Mal: We’re in space, Shepherd. It’s always the middle of the night.

Mal: Look, Shepherd, I’ll make this plain. It don’t matter that you hit me.
Book: Which is exactly why I need to be away from you. Because sooner or later, it won’t matter to me, either.

Zoe: Where are we going, Sir?
Mal: Forward. The same as always.