Firefly #21 Review: Calming, Folksy Presence

In Firefly #21, the crew of the Serenity looks like they found the end of the tunnel as they have spent what feels like forever on the run. A corporation called Blue Sun is expanding law enforcement to frontier regions that formerly enjoyed much less scrutiny, but the crew is safe and sound. They just can't let go of their captain Mal Reynolds, who is working as a lawman for Blue Sun.

This leads to a very strange surprise for both Mal and the crew, as the law's new face is disturbingly familiar. This Greg Pak script wields Reynolds' "calming, folksy presence" as the Blue Sun corporate shills try to use him like Nike used Colin Kaepernick to try and make people forget so many things. There's a sly bit of subliminal commentary on the nature of companies and their relationship to individuals (for ill or naught). As anticipated, all of these shenanigans go … about as well as one would expect, honestly.

There's a lot to like about the visual storytelling from Lalit Kumar Sharma, Daniel Bayliss, Marcelo Costa, and Jim Campbell, making both the more refined and more rough-hewn corners of the 'verse equally visually appealing. If this issue didn't cut out at what felt like the middle of its second act, maybe it coulda been something, but since it did it is only mediocre. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.