Firefly #3
Robert Struble
Recap
The Unificators, mercenaries often working for the Alliance, are after Mal and Zoe. They’re led to the caravan but find that Mal and Zoe have taken off with Kaylee. They scoop up River and Simon and continue on their way. Wash and the rest of Firefly’s crew continues on with the pilgrims.
The Unificators track the trio to a nearby town. The three manage to pilfer a truck and in their escape they kidnap the leader of the Unificators. This doesn’t sit well with Kaylee. It gets even worse as the Unificator reveals how Malcolm Reynolds’ crew bombed a hospital during the war. But Malcolm’s plan to toss her into a canyon is interrupted by a distress call from Wash.
Apparently, he and the rest of the Firefly crew are slated to be sacrificed for some religious ceremony.
Review
Pak is still delivering with this series, giving us witty dialogue, funny character moments, and great drama mixed with a little humor and action. It’s definitively Firefly.
Unfortunately, the basic plot of this issue is pretty standard. It’s nothing amazing. Bad guys chasing the good guys, yadda yadda yadda.
The wonderful part of this story comes in the moral quagmire Mal and Zoe find themselves in. War isn’t pretty. And while we often like to paint one side as the good guys and the other side as the bad guys, things aren’t ever that black and white.
Especially for the soldiers.
Even look at something like World War II… Allies versus the Axis powers. But when you get down to the battlefield, both sides committed their own atrocities in the heat of the battle. And this is the reminder Pak delivers to us. We can easily look at the Alliance as the bad guys and the Independents as the good guys (after all, who doesn’t like a good David vs the Goliath story) but for the individual soldiers, things were not that clear. Both sides point fingers. Both sides accuse the other of murder and war crimes. But Mal and Zoe blew up a hospital, killing doctors, nurses, and wounded soldiers. The fact that they didn’t realize it was a hospital is inconsequential.
And so, who do we root for? Mal and Zoe are still the heroes of this issue, but it’s no longer clear if they deserve to be saved. And part of them don’t wish to be saved. Both carry enormous guilt over their actions during the war. Soldiers don’t get to just forget what they’ve done when the war is over. They may get to go home, but they carry their crimes with them.
Final Thoughts
Everybody should be reading this book. And if you’re a fan of the show, what in the gorram universe are you waiting for? Pak and McDaid manage it again, assisted with fantastic colors from Costa. This has quickly turned into one of the most anticipated titles for me each month.
Firefly #3: War! What is it Good For?
- Writing - 10/1010/10
- Storyline - 7/107/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 10/1010/10