Posted in: Comics | Tagged: boom studios, firefly, Firefly: Brand New Verse, Firefly: Brand New Verse #1, joss whedon

Two Big New First Appearances in Firefly: Brand New Verse #1

Two years ago, Boom Studios pulled Firefly away from longtime publisher Dark Horse, courtesy of being part-owned by Fox, and relaunched the franchise at levels higher than it had seen in years. More recently, the publisher saw a 50% increase in orders on the anniversary #25 issue, which kicks off Boom's third year of publishing with a jump past the events of the Serenity film. But based on our traffic, it seems like Browncoats are most excited about Firefly: Brand New Verse, the new limited series starring the grown daughter of fan-favourite couple Zoe and Wash.

Set another 20 years past the events of Firefly, Firefly: Brand New Verse written by Josh Lee Gordon with art by Fabian Mascolo sees Emma Washburne as Captain of Serenity with a new crew, although based on the first issue it looks like her mom, Zoe, might take a slight exception to her claiming that title. New crew also means not one, but two new key characters introduced into Firefly canon making Firefly: Brand New Verse #1 the first appearance of both Lu Bao and Salo. With a dedicated fanbase like the Browncoats or Firebronies, retailers and collectors will want to take note.

Boom seems to understand the potential significance of this first issue based on their tapping of hot variant cover artists like Kevin Wada and Jenny Frison, whose 1-in-25 variant for Something Is Killing The Children #6 is setting record sales. The Frison cover is available as a 1-in-25 version with a 1-in-100 full art version, while the Wada is only available as a 1-in-50 full art version.

And last week, just ahead of FOC today, they added two new unlockable, full-art versions of the main covers by Qistina Khalidah and Veronica Fish… but these covers are only available to order one per store making them more widely available to all retailers, but limiting the number of copies that would normally be available to the biggest accounts like Midtown Comics or variant cover dealers like Frankie's Comics.

Which makes one wonder which cover collectors will determine is the rarest? Will it be the Frison 1-in-100 or one of the one-per-stores? Perhaps Boom CEO Ross Richie will point them in the right direction after orders close tonight as he's done with Something Is Killing The Children and Power Rangers through his fairly active Instagram presence?

And given the interest we've seen in this "Future State of Firefly" already from Browncoats, is it possible that orders for Firefly: Brand New Verse will come in higher than Firefly #25? Or even Firefly #1? Or is the more likely outcome that retailers will underestimate the demand for this series, driving Browncoats and Firebronies alike to pay premium prices on eBay in order to complete their collections?

We should know shortly as Firefly: Brand New Verse #1 FOCs today Monday, March 1st.

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