Serenity, Volume 1: Those Left Behind

Having recently watched Firefly again and finding it remains one of my favorite series ever despite its tragic brevity, I decided to read the comics based in the universe, the first volume of which ties directly into the Serenity film which ends the story. The trade paperbacks are a bit thin for my tastes, but they do provide some solid content at any rate. Brett Matthews has worked with Whedon on a bunch of his stuff, and wrote the script for this himself, although they both made the story. It should probably only be read by people already familiar with the characters and setting, and I could see it working as either a preview to the movie or a way to fill in some gaps after seeing it.

The comic itself basically plays like an episode of the series, with some decent action scenes and returning familiar faces to accompany the standard plot and uniquely flavored dialogue. The art by Will Conrad is pretty good too. He doesn't perfectly nail all the actors' faces, but they're fully recognizable, and he can handle the different demands of a unique western/sci-fi hybrid setting like Firefly's pretty well. The color work really helps everything pop, too. It's a little too short to be a really meaty story and would only be an average episode (although the standard for a Firefly episode is very high), but definitely worth checking out for fans.