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Firefly
"Clipped Wings"
Firefly #1 (BOOM! Studios)
Written by Greg Pak
Illustrated by Dan McDaid
Colored by Macelo Costa
Lettered by Jim Campbell
Cover by Lee Garbett
November 2018
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Losing her starboard engine and chased by
Alliance deputies known as the Unificators, Serenity is
forced to land on an outer world moon to hide and seek repairs.
Notes from the
Firefly/Serenity
Chronology
On page 6, Mal remarks that the ship will
have to set down at a nearby moon for engine repairs, which will
delay Inara's leaving the ship. Inara had announced her wish to
depart at the end of "Heart of Gold"
and was preparing to do so in the last episode of the TV series
"Objects in Space". She is
still aboard for the "Better
Days" comic book mini-series and finally does leave in
"Those Left Behind" Part 3.
Hence, this story would seem to take place shortly after
"Better Days" and before
"Those Left Behind" Part 1.
Didja
Know?
The issues of this series
were untitled. I came up with the title "Clipped Wings" from a
paraphrasing of dialog in the issue about the loss of
Serenity's starboard engine.
The letters column of
this issue features letters from fans expressing their joyous
reactions to the news that BOOM! would be publishing an ongoing
Firefly comic book. Fan Milan Pohl asks if stories will
pick up where the series previously published by Dark Horse
Comics (titled Serenity) left off at the end of the
"No Power in the
'Verse" mini-series. The editors respond that they're
"forging our own path with the Firefly gang...we don't have any
plans to continue on with Dark Horse's wonderful series as of
right now." As a continuity buff, it's always disappointing to
hear this kind of thing from a new publisher of a licensed
property. When Dark Horse was publishing the
Firefly/Serenity comics, series creator Joss Whedon had
stated that those stories would be canon in his Firefly
universe...so are they still canon and the BOOM! series will not be?!
Or are the Dark Horse stories suddenly no longer canon?!
Regardless, as long-time readers
know, PopApostle's industrious staff of analysts and writers
will find a way to fold all these stories into a (relatively)
seamless stream of coherent chronology in a tumultuous timeline!
The variant cover by Jock for this issue
depicts the globe of Mars even though that planet is far
removed from the 'Verse. |
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Jock cover |
Mars (photo from NASA) |
Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue
Wash
Mal
Jayne
Zoe
Kaylee
River
Simon
Inara
Shepherd Book
bartender
Brother Philip
Brother Jacob
Radiant Cobb (Jayne's mother, mentioned only)
Pilgrims of Moriah
Chang Benitez gang
Unificators
Didja Notice?
On page 2, Wash complains that Mal bought a third-hand
brown-market knockoff of the thruster interface for
Serenity's starboard engine instead of the OEM he
specifically asked for. OEM stands for "original equipment
manufacturer". I'm not sure exactly what the brown market
is, another type of black market, I suppose.
On page 6, Mal drinks from a coffee mug that has BEST
CAPTAIN printed on it and Zoe appears to have a mug with ZOE
on it.
The interior look of Serenity in this story
seems to be closer to the "refurbished" look originally
introduced in the Serenity movie (see
"Triggered") and we also see
that the crew use the
hover-mule. In the study of
"Triggered", I speculated that
Mal finally managed to sell the Lassiter (the extremely
valuable antique laser gun the crew stole in
"Trash"
and were later said to be having trouble unloading in
"The Message")
and used his share of the money to have an overhaul and
other modifications made on
Serenity,
as well as purchase the hover-mule to replace the
ground-based ATV seen in the TV series (which was heavily
damaged in
"War Stories"). In the novel
Big Daman Hero, taking place
shortly after
"The Message", the
hover-mule is seen already on board
Serenity.
On page 8, after the ship comes
under attack, Jayne complains that it must be the feds or
more bounty hunters coming for River and Simon. The feds
have been looking for River for some time and bounty
hunter Jubal Early boarded
Serenity in an attempt to capture River in
"Objects in Space". The
feds later come after her in the
"Those Left Behind"
comic book mini-series.
This issue
introduces the Dreadnaught 44 Alliance army heavy cruiser
from the first days of the Unification War. Most are stated
to have been
decommissioned.
The moon
Serenity sets down on is Bethlehem, known for
its
number of holy sites. This is the first mention of this
world in the
Firefly
universe. The moon is surely named after the city of
Bethlehem in the country of Israel on Earth-That-Was, said
to be be the birthplace of Jesus Christ in the Bible.
On page 16, panel 2, Wash is playing with a
couple of his dinosaur figures as if they were fighting and
making the sounds, "GRR, ARRG." This is the sound effect of
the end credits logo of Joss Whedon's production company
Mutant Enemy Productions when a cartoon vampire crosses the
screen; the sound is voiced by Whedon himself. Mutant Enemy
was, of course, the production company behind the
Firefly TV series.
On page 22, the holo-message from the
Unificators states information "first" seen (though not
chronologically) in the
deleted scenes on the Serenity movie Blu-ray bonus
material, that Mal
was a member of the 57th Overlanders as a Sergeant for the
Browncoats in the war. The message also refers to Mal's
alias of Captain Harbatkin, an alias he also used in
"Safe".
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Episode Studies