BLOG Review of Serenity comic Float Out

Blogger Laura McConnell reviews last month's offering in the Firefly comics 'verse. Mild spoilers for Serenity: Float Out

Like all good Browncoats, I was super excited to hear that Wash was getting his own one-shot comic book. I anxiously pencilled in the release date in my comics calendar and alerted my comic guy to my need for the book when it became available.

On said release date (2 June), I strolled into my local comic store and picked up my weekly new issues. The Wash comic, entitled Serenity: Float Out , stood out prominently, and it was even one store employee's pick of the week. And who could blame said employee? It's Firefly ! More importantly, it's Wash, man! Wash! That charismatic pilot and husband of a warrior woman. What's not to love?

Well, unfortunately, in my opinion, the book. It was alright, but nothing spectacular. Frankly, I was disappointed. I have read the comic a few more times since I got it, trying to get excited by it, but it still isn't doing much for me. With the exception of the big reveal on the last page, we Browncoats don't get any new information from this book, unlike what we should get in the promised Shepherd Book series in November. Instead, we get three characters we don't know reminiscing about Wash. It's a nice, sentimental eulogy to a beloved character, but we don't know these guys, and for me one question kept coming to mind as they talked:

Why would I care what they think? I don't know them. Where's Mal? And River and Simon and Inara and Jayne and Kaylee? Or Serenity, for that matter? Or a bit of action?

I'll tell you where they are. Nowhere to be seen. Granted, Zoe does make quite a spectacular entrance in the big reveal I mentioned above, but that big reveal, while most definitely big, is so overused in fan fiction that I must confess I was shocked Joss would allow it into canon. Perhaps it is what he always intended, and therefore the fan fiction writers are right, but I'm biased against it due to its complete lack of originality.

So, sorry, Patton Oswalt. I've got to give this comic a not-so-generous two stars for plot. There's just not much meat there. I will bump that to three stars overall when I account for the art by Patric Reynolds and the coloring by Dave Stewart - both are quite good - but I can't give more than that. I'm sad to say this book disappointed me, because in my opinion anything Firefly is a good thing to give the world. But this book is simply doesn't cut it for me.

Then again, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who loved it. After all, some people juggle geese, right? And if by some chance this book has a planned sequel, much would be forgiven. It did read a bit like a modern era premiere issue. A lot of set up and a big cliffhanger. Now, that idea has merit. I guess us Browncoats will just have to wait and see what comes of this. Bottom line? If you're like me and need a complete Firefly collection, go ahead and pick up Float Ou t. Just don't expect to be blown away by it.

This is a personal article by Laura McConnell. She's one of 12 volunteer writers submitting opinion pieces to this site - to see what our squad of bloggers have been talking about, you can pop over to this dedicated section .