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Serenity Leaves on the Wind #2 is a Dark and Emotional Comic

Serenity Leaves on the Wind #2 is a Dark and Emotional Comic

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Written by Zack Whedon
Pencilled by Georges Jeanty
Inked by Karl Story
Colors by Laura Martin
Published by Dark Horse Comics

The Serenity Leaves on the Wind miniseries isn’t new reader friendly, but it is a great place for fans of the Firefly TV series and Serenity film to reconnect with their favorite characters and ship. Zack Whedon has a solid handle on the various characters’ voices and even introduces some of the moral dilemmas that made Firefly such an engaging show. In Serenity #2, Whedon explores different character’s relationships, like Mal and Zoe and Simon and River, while progressing the main plot of the crew of Serenity trying to heal Zoe as the New Resistance movement and Alliance look for them. Sometimes Georges Jeanty’s figures sometimes don’t look like the characters in the show, but he uses close-up panels to capture the characters’ emotions without dialogue. There is an especially touching scene between Mal and Zoe where he zoomed on her face, and it felt like Gina Torres was delivering the lines. Colorist Laura Martin contributes to the darker tone of Serenity Leaves on the Wind using a lot of blacks and dark grays as her, Whedon, and Jeanty show the Serenity crew on their last legs.

Unlike the previous issueSerenity #2 spends most of its time focusing on Captain Mal and his crew. Whedon goes over old character beats, like Mal and Simon arguing over River, but shows how these characters have evolved since the Serenity film. He writes a much dourer Mal Reynolds, and Zoe as a soldier ready to make one last sacrifice for her captain. River plays a bigger role in this issue and returns to her role as a wild card that could help or hurt the crew. However, unlike the show, she decides what to do with her crazy brain. Jeanty contributes to characterization with pitch perfect facial expressions. He reveals Jayne’s vulnerable side after a particularly heated conversation with Mal as well as the aforementioned scene with Mal and Zoe at the hospital. Whedon has to juggle a big cast, including a couple new characters as well as move the plot forward so Jeanty’s art helps develop characters and their emotions as the story advances.

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Georges Jeanty along with inker Karl Story and colorist Laura Martin do a great job capturing the bleak, filled with space junk nature of The Black, the warm camaraderie of Serenity, and the bleak, sterile interiors and exteriors of the various Alliance vessels through their art. Jeanty isn’t just a figure drawer, but a world-builder. This can be seen in a two page splash of Serenity and various vessels going to a small hospital ship in the middle of a mine on an asteroid. Martin provides a black backdrop for these ships to float helplessly in contrast with the stark red and white colors of the Alliance medical ship. In the scenes inside Serenity, Martin uses earthy colors (including brown) to show that the ship is home for Mal, Inara, Kaylee, and the Tams. Along Whedon’s ability to write unique dialogue for each character, Martin’s colors are the best part of Serenity Leaves on the Wind #2. After a pretty good first issue, Serenity Leaves on the Wind comes into its own as a comic with great characterization, art that captures the story’s bleaker tone, and plenty of emotions for fans of the Firefly TV show.

 

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