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FIRST LOOK: Firefly (Serenity) jumps from Dark Horse to Boom! and will start with a big part of the show’s mythology

July 9th, 2018 by Marc Comments

Some shiny news for Firefly fans today!

Fans of Firefly and Serenity know the bitter reality of loving a franchise that, sadly, has very little content… no where near enough to keep the fans satiated.

Well, now that may all change.

In the mythology of Firefly, there’s a historic event called The Unification War which is often mentioned but never seen. Now, Boom! Studios Comics have acquired the rights to Firefly from Dark Horse Comics and the first thing that plan on doing is going to war!

Over the course of 14 episodes, creator Joss Whedon and the rest of the creative team dreamed up a universe where humankind had taken to the stars but still didn’t distribute its resources evenly. This led to tensions between the wealthy central planets and hardscrabble outlying systems where people struggled as hard as they did back in the Old West. Those tensions came to a head in the Unification War, the devastating conflict briefly glimpsed in the opening moments of Firefly‘s pilot but rarely discussed otherwise other than as a source of lingering trauma for the main characters.

The new ongoing Firefly comic is launching this November from writer Greg Pak and artist Dan McDaid, and will explore the characters’ war-haunted past as it comes back to bite them in the present. Pak wrote the Planet Hulk comic, so he can do epic.

“It’s high time we got to see the full story of Mal and Zoe’s meeting and mission in the War of Unification—the good and bad that the pressure of war brings out in them, and the unforeseeable consequences,” said Joss Whedon.

We couldn’t agree more.

Oh, and before the series lands we’re getting the Legacy Edition which reprints the Dark Horse books in a collected volume.

Not that is shiny!

BOOM! Studios is proud to kick off The Road to San Diego, a ten-day spotlight on the most exciting comic book and graphic novel news in advance of Comic Con International in San Diego (July 18-22), with the announcement it has acquired the comic book and graphic novel publishing license to Joss Whedon’s FIREFLY, the iconic worldwide pop culture phenomenon. BOOM! Studios will release new monthly comic book series, limited series, original graphic novels and more that officially expand the rich mythology created in television, film and beyond in partnership with 20th Century Fox Consumer Products.

Created by visionary writer and director Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and set 500 years in the future in the wake of a universal civil war, FIREFLY centers on the crew of Serenity, a small transport spaceship that doesn’t have a planet to call home. Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, a defeated soldier who opposed the unification of the planets by the totalitarian governed Alliance, will undertake any job — legal or not — to stay afloat and keep his crew fed. Thrust together by necessity but staying together out of loyalty, these disparate men and women are seeking adventure and the good life, but face constant challenges on the new frontier, such as avoiding capture by the Alliance, and evading the dangers you find on the fringes of the universe.

Beginning in November with the release of FIREFLY #1, from New York Times best-selling writer Greg Pak (World War Hulk, Mech Cadet Yu), artist Dan McDaid (Judge Dredd), and story consultant Joss Whedon himself, BOOM! Studios will take you back to the battleground where it all began…and reveal a secret history that might end it all. Fans have demanded it for years and now the definitive story of the Unification War — the intergalactic civil war that divided friend and family alike — is told at last!

“It’s high time we got to see the full story of Mal and Zoe’s meeting and mission in the War of Unification—the good and bad that the pressure of war brings out in them, and the unforeseeable consequences,” said Joss Whedon. “Greg Pak and Dan McDaid are bringing a unique voice to the world of Firefly. It’s an important story for any dedicated browncoat to read, but more importantly, it’s a big gorram adventure.”

“Firefly is such a special show, formative for so many of us today in the kinds of stories it told and the kinds of characters it created and we’re so lucky to be able to continue Mal and Zoe and the rest of the crew’s story here,” said Jeanine Schaefer, Executive Editor, BOOM! Studios. “Exploring the Unification War allows us to show you a side of the Firefly universe you’ve never seen before, while still wrestling with the same themes that make the show as resonant today as it was when it first aired: loyalty, identity, and the price of redemption.”

Mal thought he could outrun his past, but when a simple heist goes wrong, he’s forced to confront it in the form of the Unificators, mercenaries deputized to hunt down war criminals…and they’ve got Mal and Zoe at the top of their list! War can make villains of even the best men, and Mal’s quest for redemption will put him at odds with his own crew, forcing him to make a choice: fix the past or fight for the future.

“I was a sci-fi nerd who grew up in Texas, so Firefly’s space western vibe had me from howdy. I also just love the show’s combination of humor and action with honest emotional storytelling,” said Greg Pak. “That’s a real sweet spot for me as a fan and a creator, and I’m thrilled to be able to join in on the fun. These characters are a dream to work with — they’re all so well defined and interestingly matched with such great relationships and rivalries that putting any two of ’em together almost immediately results in a great scene. And the fact that the worldbuilding and big themes of the series are so compelling but still leave miles of room to explore means that the door’s wide open for fantastic new stories. I’m honored and thrilled to join the crew and can’t wait ’til you see what we have planned.”

“Firefly the show kind of passed me by the first time, but I adored the feature film Serenity (it was a first date movie for me and my partner!) and I’ve since gone back and devoured that one brief, beautiful season,” said Dan McDaid. “It’s amazing to be able to bring you even more from that world and to work with Greg Pak, the guy who wrote the best run of Hulk comics in the modern age! That’s so huge for me and it’s still sinking in. I honestly can’t wait for you to see what we’ve got lined up; this comic book is going to be – in the truest sense – epic.”

FIREFLY #1 is available exclusively in comic shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one) on November 14, 2018 with a main cover by superstar Lee Garbett (Skyward), along with variant covers by Jock (Batman), J.G. Jones (Final Crisis), Bill Sienkiewicz (Daredevil), Joe Quinones (America) and more.

Arriving in stores the same day, FIREFLY: LEGACY EDITION BOOK ONE collects previously released Serenity comics for the first time under one cover in a new value-priced format as Mal & the crew ride again in these official sequels to the critically acclaimed Firefly television series and Serenity film.

Source: EW

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….