Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse #5 Review

This is what you get when you make deals with terrorists, Mal. Now River and Iris are being held captive by a group of Alliance operatives who can (apparently) brainwash them into becoming their own personal human weapons.

Serenity: No Power in the ‘Verse #5 (Dark Horse Comics)

Observations

• Forget the spies in her midst—if Kalista keeps treating her contracted employees like this, she’ll have a full-blown mutiny on her hands in no time.
• Poor River. We’ve all been there, but it’s usually after seeing a credit card bill, not beating the hell out of your friends.
• Uh, this girl looks way too young to be a companion.
• Ah, now this is the Mal Reynolds I know and love (hopefully).
• BOOM!
• Yep, here comes the double cross…
• …and here comes the big companion fight.

The Verdict

Well, it’s certainly better than the last couple issues. And depending on how things play out next month, my rating for this issue could end up looking embarrassingly low. As of right now, however, Mal’s big plan—while highly entertaining—still doesn’t seem all that great.

Yes, I know he’s gotten out of tighter spots before. Unfortunately, the crux of their current conflict revolves around River’s programming by the Alliance, a plot point that was much better explored in the Serenity film. This just feels like we’re going backwards for the sake of creating extra tension. Add in the painfully obvious double cross by the domestic terrorists, and you have a narrative with very few avenues left for a satisfying conclusion that isn’t contrived.

As far as the companion operative goes, I have no idea what to think. Unless I missed something from before (or my knowledge of the Firefly universe isn’t as expansive as I once thought), she seemingly comes out of nowhere to suddenly play a central role in things—and like I said before, she looks way too young to be a companion.

All that being said, Mal’s dialogue is spot on. The art is great as usual, particularly on the issue’s big action sequence. Now we just need a strong finish and some big reveals to salvage this series. Nothing would make me happier than for Mal & Co. (and the creative team) to pull this thing in spectacular fashion–I’ll gladly eat a heaping helping of crow if they do.