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Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days

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Author: Joss Whedon
Creators: Brett Matthews, Will Conrad, Adam Hughes
Publisher: Dark Horse
Category: Book

Buy New: $9.95

New (35) Used (8) from $5.14

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

4 reviews
Sales Rank: 682

Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 80
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.3

ISBN: 1595821627
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781595821621
ASIN: 1595821627

Publication Date: October 15, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Promotion: Buy 4 eligible items in the 4-for-3 promotion offered by Amazon.com and get 1 of them free. Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Serenity: Better Days follows everyone's favorite space cowboys in a thrilling, action-packed adventure, where Mal and his crew take on a heist that promises a big payoff. But when one of Serenity's crew is taken captive and tortured, the gang must put their enduring differences aside and work together to save one of their own, even if it means losing the cash prize of a lifetime! Joss Whedon returns to the world of his blockbuster film Serenity, reuniting with Brett Matthews and Will Conrad, his collaborators on the bestselling 2005 series Those Left Behind.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

A huge improvement over the previous Serenity series October 27, 2008
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
12 out of 16 found this review helpful

A few years ago fans of FIREFLY/SERENITY were given a rather lack luster series called THOSE WE LEFT BEHIND. There isn't a great deal of narrative squeeze space right now in the Serenity universe. The reason is that Joss Whedon and his stars still hope to make another movie. Whether it would be a direct to DVD (which is more likely) or a a theater release is an open question.

There there have been rumors from time to time that Universal, given the impressive and steady sales of both FIREFLY and SERENITY on DVD, was at least interested in considering a DVD film at some point, but so far nothing has materialized. But as long as there is a chance of a continuance of the story of Mal, Zoe, River, Simon, Jayne, and the rest of the crew of Serenity, Joss Whedon is not going to reveal the remaining major secrets about his characters. In commentaries on the film SERENITY, Whedon in particular mentioned Inara's story as the great unexplored mystery. The first film cleared up most of River's untold story, which leaves Inara's. And, of course, Shepherd Book, who will not be part of a future movie because of his death. His backstory will be covered in the next Serenity comic series, focusing exclusively on him and the story that he had been unwilling to tell in either the TV series of the film. It is at least tentatively titled A SHEPHERD'S TALE. But like THOSE LEFT BEHIND and BETTER DAYS, it will be another prequel, this one a prequel to FIREFLY as well. After that, I doubt if we wee much more in the way of Serenity comics, since Whedon clearly doesn't want to pick up at the end of the movie SERENITY. If Universal doesn't move forward with a film (they have exclusive rights to the franchise until the middle of the next decade and even then for films only -- TV rights revert to 20th Century Fox at that time), Joss Whedon might be tempted to tell the rest of the story, presumably is a comic closer in length to ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL, rather than the two short Serenity comics that we have seen so far.

As I stated above, this three-episode sequence is a considerable improvement over the earlier THOSE LEFT BEHIND. There are some adventures that truly are similar to those in the TV series or film. Though not as satisfying as another film or TV series, it adds to the canonical body of adventures our heroes have embarked on. Because of its odd placement in the period of time after the TV series but before the film, not much can really happen of great import. You know no one is going to die (Joss Whedon basically invented the body count as we currently recognize it on TV) because of the later film. And River, who emerged as the ultimate lethal weapon in the film, is still self-contained and only minimally interactive with the outside world (though we the most memorable graphic in the series is a full page portrait of River having all her fondest desires realized). But given that, Whedon's team did a great job of creating a fun and funny and interesting story.

In my review of THOSE LEFT BEHIND, I did not recommend that fans of the TV series and movie give it a read. I definitely recommend this. This succeeds in all the ways that the earlier book failed.

5 out of 5 stars

Ahh, Serenity! November 10, 2008
K. Martin (St. Louis, MO United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

It is good to see the crew in action again. The story takes place before the movie so there are some insights as to how the crew got where they were before the movie.

3 out of 5 stars

"It is good to see the crew in action again" November 14, 2008
Steven M. Messinger
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

"It is good to see the crew in action again"

Is where any firefly / serenity fan starts of with this graphic novel. Just having any new story featuring the characters from firefly is a great thing. However, I was definitely let down by the story we're given in this Volume.

Volume 1 was much better at continuing the story from the TV show and movie and furthering it. Giving is new info about characters and things a lot of the fans were wondering about like the blue glove men. It still wasn't perfect and still felt more like a single short TV episode.

Volume 2 does an even worse job. My biggest complaint is with the story. (Spoiler Warning). It really just feels like a re-hash of episodes we've already seen before. The entire "We're so rich what will we all do with our money, only to have the crew lose it all at the end". This has already been done before and lead to a fairly predictable ending.

Yes it's Serenity. But don't expect it to live up to the TV show / Movie or you'll be disappointed. It might be asking to much for it to love up to that considering how truly great the TV show was.

4 out of 5 stars

Firefly Storytelling November 24, 2008
Emmy A. Waldron (CA, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Better Days is fun and filled with beautiful art. I love the interactions between the crew as always. Their fantasies about their share of the loot are hilarious. The way Joss keeps his characters interacting like a bunch of spinning plates is amusing. The Captain has to have his crew!

comics death hawk firefly joss whedon serenity

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