Notes from the Serenity chronology
The inside front cover only notes that this story takes
place after the events of the film Serenity (see
"Living Weapon"). On the
first page of the story, Zoe is depicted as well-along in
her pregnancy, revealed to readers previously in
"Float Out", so this story must
take place some time after that.
Didja Know?
This one-shot story was a promotional issue released for
Free Comic Book Day 2012, a yearly event started in 2002 in
which participating comic book stores provide free copies of
specially-produced promotional comics to their visitors.
The "Firefly
Class 03-K64" subtitle of the issue is a reference to the
Firefly model number of Serenity, as
spoken by River in "The Train
Job".
All issues of Serenity comic books published after
this also included the "Firefly
Class 03-K64" subtitle. This was probably an attempt to make
it a bit easier find in internet search results for fans who
were searching for Firefly stories/merchandise.
Twentieth Century Fox owns the rights to the name
Firefly but creator Joss Whedon owns the rights to the
franchise itself, rebranded as Serenity.
Didja Notice?
The small lizard-like creature on page 1 does not appear to
be of an Earthly variety. I believe this would make it the
first extra-terrestrial life-form seen in the series. It's
never really been made clear how much, if any, native life
was on the worlds of the Verse before humanity terraformed
them. I suppose it's vaguely possible that Earth life seeded
on the world for ecological purposes could have evolved a
different look as part of an adaptation to the environment,
but it doesn't really seem like enough time could have
passed for such noticeable evolution to occur.
On page 1, we see that Wash's dinosaurs have been left in
place on the pilot's console even months after his
death.
On page 3, Mal remarks to Frosty, seeking a ride anywhere
"off this rock" aboard Serenity, that he wouldn't be their
first passenger lacking a destination. This is actually true
of all the main non-crew characters of the series, Inara,
River, Simon, and Book. In particular, Mal may be referencing
to Shepherd Book, who boarded the ship in
"Serenity", concerned more with
the voyage than the destination.
Mal watched the rest of the crew ride off in the hovermule
on page 2, panel 1, though we only see a silhouette of the
vehicle speeding off, so can't really make out the
individual passengers. Yet, despite having watched it leave,
he later seems surprised that River is still aboard ship.
Didn't he see who was in the hovermule?
As mentioned above, Mal watches the crew take off in the
hovermule and seems to immediately turn and see Frosty ride
up on his horse. Yet, after a brief confrontation between
Mal, Frosty, and River, the crew is already arriving back at
the ship having picked up their cargo in town! How'd they
make it so quick? Yes, the town is seen only a short
distance away from Serenity, parked in the desert, but it
would still take some time to get there, find their contact,
introduce themselves, load the cargo onto the hovermule and
return. And why would the entire crew, minus Mal and River,
all go into town for such a short visit?
Speaking of the crew riding in the hovermule, how did they
all fit on it (we don't get a good look at it in the
artwork)? It's only a four-passenger vehicle. I suppose it's
possible, if the cargo was small, that the fifth member sat
in the cargo section.
Notice on page 9 that Inara is still with the Serenity crew,
having returned for an indefinite amount of time by the end
of "Living Weapon".
Unanswered Questions
On which world does this story take place? The terrain we
see is desert-like and Mal and Zoe remark to each other
about how Mal shot a number of locals the last time they
were there. It might be Whitefall from
"Government Goods" where
Mal and his crew killed a number of Patience's men. Or
it could be the unnamed desert location from
"Heart of Gold" where they also killed a number of men
employed by local crime lord Burgess. Of course, it may also
be a world from a story yet to be chronicled.
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Episode Studies