Special issues of franchise tie-in series are always irresistible, and always risky. Discerning readers of Boom! Studios’ “Firefly” will want to be cautious with “The Firefly Holiday Special” (2021) and “20th Anniversary Special” (2022).
‘Holiday Special’
The superior entry is the “Holiday Special,” written by former Entertainment Weekly reporter Jeff Jensen. He went on to write for many of the types of shows he used to analyze, notably “Watchmen,” and now lands what is perhaps his dream gig – a full issue of “Firefly.” (He had contributed to “Watch How I Soar.”)
I have the cover with Kaylee and Simon, but the main cover with Jayne is representative of the story. Everyone gathers around the Serenity mess table to share their worst Christmas – or Sheng Dan Jieh – experience. But we end up only getting Jayne’s story in these pages.
“The Firefly Holiday Special” (2021)
One-shot
Writer: Jeff Jensen
Artists: Jordi Perez, Vincenzo Federici, Fabiana Mascolo
Colors: Francesco Segala, Lucia Di Giammarino, Fabiana Mascolo
“Firefly 20th Anniversary Special” (2022)
One-shot
Writers: Jorge Corona, Josh Lee Gordon
Artists: Jordi Perez, Nicola Izzo
Colors: Francesco Segala, Lucia Di Giammarino
Jensen continues the softening of Jayne’s character that started with the 2005 “Serenity” movie. Writers have found it hard to fall on the correct side of the line between “bad dude who sometimes does good stuff” and “good dude who likes to project that he’s bad.” Jayne originally was the former – which was more interesting – but now he’s the latter. It probably wasn’t intended, but he’s become a little Disney-fied.
This is especially clear in the first part of Jensen’s “Christmas Carol” riff, where Jayne is essentially the Cobb kid who believes in Santa Claus for an embarrassingly long time. It’s a touching little story, though. The “present” and “future” stories feature characters at the “current” place in the timeline, including someone who very much appears to be Wash – but Emma and Zoe tell Jayne that’s not actually the late Serenity pilot.
The conclusion is amusing as Jayne teams up with River and is surprised once again by her superpowers for some reason. Because the old gang is split into two factions at this point, there’s an inevitable bittersweetness to the proceedings. Jensen captures that, but because “Holiday Special” is almost entirely about Jayne at the expense of anyone else, it lands a little on the bitter side.
‘20th Anniversary Special’
In the time between these two special issues, Boom dropped “Created by Joss Whedon” from its “Firefly” covers. While this might seem disrespectful, it’s also appropriate, because the “20th Anniversary Special” feels removed from what Whedon would write. It fails to live up to the bombast of its title.
The issue is split into two stories, one set during the classic era and one set during the “current” point on the timeline. Both are bizarrely hard to follow, but not for any apparent benefit of subtlety or nuance.
Jorge Corona’s story is the superior of the two, as Book enters a crashed experimental ship that is shooting everything in its crosshairs because that’s all it knows how to do. As Book is able to log in to the ship’s computer, we can add this tale to our collection of evidence of Book’s weirdly powerful former position within the Alliance. The story feels dated by that measure and basic as an exploration of how artificial intelligence does not have a moral compass.
The second story, by Josh Gordon, features many of the “current” characters, so we get a little of the power dynamic between Emma, who is technically the Serenity’s captain, and Zoe, who is technically her underling. However, “mom” trumps “captain” in some situations, Zoe says as she orders her daughter to not go into a dangerous situation.
The art is colorful as ship parts and corpses circle a black hole, and the story is colorful in its dialog, to its confusing detriment. Emma’s boyfriend is Hispanic, and a lot of the language in the tale’s opening is Spanish or Spanglish. I hadn’t realized anyone spoke anything other than English — with Chinese peppered in – in the ’Verse.
An ever-evolving saga
I’m a little behind on Boom’s main “Firefly” arc as I review these issues. But if one purpose of special issues is to entice new readers into the main line, these fail to pique my interest – except that bit about how Wash-but-not-Wash exists in the future timeline.
In both issues, the art has me easily recognizing everyone. I don’t find the likenesses as perfect as in the Dark Horse days – my regular complaint about the Boom artwork – but I do like the vibrant colors.
I’ll be catching up with Boom’s saga in upcoming “Firefly” flashback posts, and I’ll try to not be a Scrooge.
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“Holiday Special”: 3.5 stars
“20th Anniversary Special”: 2.5 stars