The first two Boom! Studios “Firefly” arcs – “The Unification War” and “New Sheriff in the ’Verse” – are a little on the padded side associated with crass, money-making tie-in fiction. Still, they have their high points. But for his third arc, the six-issue “Blue Sun Rising” (“Blue Sun Rising” Issue 0, “Firefly” Issues 21-24 and “Blue Sun Rising” Issue 1, collected in Part One and Part Two), writer Greg Pak turns things around in a big way.
The whole crew is back together, Mal’s strategy is secretive but more open to the reader, planetary locations go beyond the dusty Old West look, the dialog sings more, and the art – with Dan McDaid leading the way – is better than it used to be.
Robo-Reynolds
The marketing behind this arc is wonky, even beyond the weird numbering, with two issues occurring outside the regular “Firefly” series. Boom! pitches it as “the first-ever ‘Firefly’ comic book event!” – a phrase that means nothing. “A great jumping-off point,” one of the blurbs claims.
“Firefly: Blue Sun Rising” (2020)
“Blue Sun Rising” Issue 0, “Firefly” Issues 21-24, “Blue Sun Rising” Issue 1; Boom! Studios
Writer: Greg Pak
Pencils: Dan McDaid, Lalit Kumar Sharma, Daniel Bayliss
Inks (on some segments): Vincenzo Federici
Colors: Marcelo Costa
Not really. Mal is still a sector sheriff, which does not make for a smooth entry point for a new reader. Judging only from the TV show, Mal would never become an Alliance sheriff; for all its flaws, “New Sheriff” should be read in order to grasp why this temporary job makes sense for Mal. But I suppose this is a good entry point in the sense that the old “Firefly” pacing is back.
Pak continues the themes from “New Sheriff,” with “Blue Sun Rising” Issue 0 copying one of that story’s corporate-abuse incidents (a factory lays people off without paying them severance, the ex-employees protest, then Mal steps in to settle matters). But then we quickly get into a couple of new concepts showing Blue Sun’s corporatism: First, because Mal is well-liked by the citizenry, they make robot cops in his image.
After a brief “Robo-Cop” riff (appropriately satirical like that film series), Pak then explores Blue Sun’s strategically planned deprecation of technology (so consumers will have to buy the next iteration every few years). I love plots where Mal and the gang use the Alliance’s and Blue Sun’s strategies against them, and this is a great one. If our heroes can infiltrate a Blue Sun base and trigger the programmed deprecation, they can wipe out the robot cops in one fell swoop.
I also like how the lower-level Blue Sun people whom Mal meets become key players – Manahatta the IT guy and Carpenter the accountant lady. They are nice parallels to Book, Simon and Inara – people who had (or have, in the latter case) roles in the Alliance. Yet Mal is able to look past that to their decent natures.
Ma and Moon earn their stripes
A much more emotional piece than the two previous arcs, with multiple earned reunion celebrations, “Blue Sun Rising” balances plot and characterization even though the cast has greatly expanded. Pak makes room for exchanges such as Jayne learning from Leonard that you can clean out your coffee cup now and then. Everyday shipboard moments like this are small, but cumulatively they provide the heart of “Firefly” storytelling.
Ma Reynolds and Boss Moon were introduced quite a while ago – and they remain Boom’s most important guest stars — but it’s only here that their arcs reach fruition. It’s mostly worth the wait, and the “Everything changes here” claim from Part Two’s back cover is at least earned in this sense. The stubborn Ma isn’t too old to learn a new perspective, and Moon isn’t too tough to soften up.
Of course, since this story is set between the TV series and the movie, not much can change with the nine main characters – although I have enjoyed Mal’s surprisingly long jaunt into the role of sheriff.
But we can see plot linkages that alter our perspective. Such is the case with Zoe’s major role in the founding of Haven, a safe settlement for all good people hiding out from the Alliance. In the “Serenity” movie, I had thought this was a pre-established place and Book had connections enough to settle there.
The fact that Haven is so closely tied to the Serenity crew does shrink the ’Verse a bit, but I’ll allow that, especially if we learn more about the communal settlement and how it stays secret. However, it looks like we’ll be visiting an even more mysterious planet in the next arc, judging by the title: “Return to Earth That Was.”