Written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews
Art by Will Conrad
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Review by: Frank Davis

Joss Whedon’s ongoing saga of space pirates returns to comics in a new miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. Whedon with returning Co Writer Brett Matthews and artist Will Conrad delivers a very amusing twist on the Serenity story by telling an earlier adventure of Captain Mal Reynolds and his rag tag crew as they pull off a heist that just might work.

The beauty of Whedon’s work is that itserves really well as an untold story of his TV series Firefly and can serve as another prelude tale to the Serenity movie. What is truly shiny about this miniseries is that Better Days actually feels and sounds like an episode of Firefly. The story involves a robbery scheme that is well layered and with this robbery on top of a robbery, complications involving clients having no money comes into play so then we see more theft and the scenes itself work well because the characters are familiar to the fans who love them. Kaylee is still pining for Simon, Inara deals with a guy with some anger issues, and Jayne continues to be amazed when he is unable to make something blow up. The only comment that can be said is that there is not enough River so far, buy that is just this reviewer being particular. If it was not for flipping the pages of the book, this felt like another story to the filmed part of the Serenity saga.

Whedon and Matthews jump right in the tale as the story moves quickly in the 22 pages of the first issue the plot is established, most of the characters make panel time with their usual wit, or in the case of Jayne a true lack of it. The art by Will Conrad, like in the previous Serenity miniseries is both true to the essence of the characters yet has a smooth flow that gives the story an immediacy and tension that is equal to the original work. This miniseries delivers some truly fun entertainment.

Overall, this is highly recommended work. The one caveat to this miniseries is that a passing knowledge of the set ups and characters makes Serenity- Better Days not the most new Reader Friendly experience, In this case, Whedon is rewarding those who loved him the hardest, the Firefly/Serenity fans and he fortunately just wants to give the readers another look at his underdog saga. So for those who missed Serenity, they should feel at home here. I know I do.