The chronology and marketing of Boom! Studio’s “Firefly” comics is frustrating. After detouring to the future for “Brand New ‘Verse,” about Zoe’s 18-year-old daughter and new Serenity captain Emma, we next go backward again to the time right after “Return to the Earth That Was.”
Since Boom! must always advertise that its latest thing is new (!) and exciting (!) and like nothing you’ve ever seen before (!), this series starts a new numbering under the title “All-New Firefly.” It’s subtitled “The Gospel According to Jayne” in the trades – Parts One, Two and Three.
Lasting 11 issues (with the last being double-length and called “All-New Firefly: Big Damn Finale” No. 1), “Gospel” digs into the inner workings of Jayne Cobb, who openly admits he’s valuable to the crew due to his good aim, not his good morals. But doth he protest too much? Is he a good guy at heart?
“All-New Firefly: The Gospel According to Jayne” (2022)
Issues 1-10 and “Big Damn Finale,” Boom! Studios
Writer: David M. Booher
Artists: Jordi Perez, Vincenzo Federici, Simona Di Gianfelice
Colors: Francesco Segala, Gloria Martinelli
A troubled simple man
David M. Booher could’ve written a sappy piece about how Jayne is secretly a great guy, but instead he meticulously keeps us in the range of the open contradiction of the famous episode “Jaynestown.” Jayne doesn’t like being labeled a hero, because he believes he is not one. He doesn’t believe he’s capable of being one, or of even wanting to be one.
Another character, dubbed the Tax Collector in the almost-“Walking Dead”-esque society on the moon Requiem, says life isn’t about good and evil, it’s about a series of choices. He does what’s best for himself in every situation. He and Jayne might see to eye to eye on this, but narratively they are of course enemies.
Amid shootouts and parleys between the rival camps, one intriguing unexplored element keeps “Gospel” from full marks. Requiem is not on the Alliance’s star charts – indeed, it’s the only world like this in the ’Verse, River says – but we don’t learn why. Yes, it’s mostly a dustball, but we’ve seen that the Alliance wants to gobble up everything, leaving no one to live free. Maybe in a future story we can find out why the Alliance – which (it is strongly hinted) does know about this world – leaves it off its charts.
Even so, “Gospel” has juicy stuff, including the return – and good narrative use of – space portals. These went from dusty relics to central storyline elements in “Return to the Earth That Was.” Also, we learn Jayne has a brother (whose damplung sickness is explored in snippets of backstory that lead off most issues), and a heretofore unknown son.
Jayne’s simple but contrasting character gets explored via his relationship to Owen, who is himself ambivalent about meeting his long-lost father. Booher gets huge bonus points from me for remembering that Jayne had a long-lost daughter (or so it seems) named Jane in the novel “The Magnificent Nine.” In another nice touch, the writer acknowledges Leonard’s odd situation wherein he has missed out on the crew’s biggest adventures. (For now, Booher does not explain why Leonard left the crew and later returned.)
Requiem for a rogue
Featuring only the Tax Collector’s settlement and a monastery – where monks protect Earth That Was relics of all religions – Requiem seems underdeveloped at first, but the sparseness ultimately serves the Western quality of the story.
While there are nice moments for almost everyone – Kaylee has leadership challenges, Zoe gradually makes room to trust River, etc. – this is always a Jayne story, as we know from the opening flashback segments.
The Jayne-ness of the yarn comes to an impressive head in the last installment, “All-New Firely: Big Damn Finale.” In Whedonesque fashion, Booher summons tragedy from a (by Serenity crew standards) mundane little spacewalk involving magnetized bombs. This is elite comic storytelling in the wake of 10 issues that tastily percolate with intrigue and Jayne’s low-grade regrets.
Boom’s art has gradually gotten better since it acquired the license in 2018, and this is the best yet, with Jordi Perez, Vincenzo Federici and Simona Di Gianfelice (each doing one-third of the arc) teaming up to create a consistent look. Perhaps Francesco Segala’s colors tie it together. Note how accurate teenage Jayne looks in the flashbacks; this is particularly impressive because Adam Baldwin’s likeness has proven hard to draw for past illustrators.
If Baldwin had been allowed to play out Booher’s words, “The Gospel According to Jayne” would’ve been the second-best Jayne episode after “Jaynestown.” Even with the medium’s limitations, this is high “Firefly” art and a must-read for both its quality and continuity points.