Serenity: Better Days #3 is the conclusion to the latest story from Firefly creator Joss Whedon, along with writer Brett Matthews.

In the previous two chapters, the crew made off with a big chunk of cash, more than they’d seen in a very, very long time. They had so much coin that the fantasies of “what would you do with a million dollars” started floating around in their heads.

But Mal gets captured and things go haywire, even in a story called Better Days. Even when the crew has good times, it just can’t last.

And that’s the ‘verse when it comes to the characters on the ship Serenity.

This final chapter was good, but felt a bit choppy for me. I had to read it through twice to make sure I hadn’t missed anything because it was slightly confusing. There is an interesting continuation of the Inara storyline from the episode Ariel, from what I’ve read, as something is medically wrong with her but we have no idea what that is yet.

It definitely could have been another great episode though, and I still wish I could see these kinds of stories on television instead of a comic book.

The trade paperback goes on sale October 29th, 2008 and you can preorder it now if you want.

Overall, it was a nice little story, and now I’m looking forward to The Shepherd’s Tale, the next chapter in the saga.

Mike’s Rating: 7 out of 10 (overall: 7.5 out of 10)

With huge fan support prompting Whedon on, he made a movie based off the TV series called Serenity, which was a huge success among fans and most people who had never heard of the show before also got a kick out of it.

That universe has also continued on in comic books, like Serenity: Better Days, which I reviewed last month, and the title of this article, Serenity: Those We Left Behind.

For fans who were curious what happened between the TV series and the movie, Those We Left Behind tells that story.

If you saw the movie, you will have noticed Inara and Shepherd Book off the ship, no longer members of the crew like they were in Firefly. This graphic novel gives the back story on why they left.

It also tells the tale about the two men with blue gloves who are chasing River Tam, and then the subsequent tasking of The Operative to hunt her down in the film.

I totally enjoyed this graphic novel. It wasn’t a long read in the slightest, but it was completely satisfying to know what happened and see a bit more about the characters I love.

The novel is written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, so you know you are getting the good stuff. The art is also perfect, most of the characters easily mimic their real life counterparts.

The greatness in the writing is how they keep it in tune with the language of the show, and in reading the novel, you can actually believe the original characters are saying it.

If you are a fan of the show and movie, it’s worth picking up. You can grab it at Amazon.com for just under $10 for a new edition, or $5 for a used one on their reseller site.

Not being a graphic novel reader until just recently, I’ve apparently missed out on A LOT of good stuff, one of them being the ongoing saga of one of my favorite sci-fi shows of all-time: Firefly.

To give a little background to you sad folks who haven’t seen Firefly, or even the subsequent movie Serenity, the series was on Fox back in the day and lasted only 11 aired episodes before getting axed.

It was a fantastic show created by Joss Whedon, set in space with a slight western feel to it and some highly addicting characters. After only a few episodes, you found yourself wanting badly to know what happened to these travelers and thieves next.

But it was canceled and it took a few years to happen, but a theatrical movie was made called Serenity (which is the name of their ship) and it involved the entire cast form the TV series.

As far as I knew, it ended there, but that’s cause I missed out on a little graphic novel done to bridge the gap between the TV show and the film.

It was called Serenity: Those Left Behind. I just ordered it today and can’t wait to see how it relates to the movie as a prequel.

Well, now that you are totally schooled in the Firefly universe, the great news is that the story continues.

This month and the next two will see the releases of the 3-volume mini-series comic book called Serenity: Better Days.

I’ve posted some of the artwork from Better Days below (click for a bigger version), and the header to this story is the cover piece to it, but if you want to see quite a few more panels, plus an awesome interview with Matthews, visit IGN.com.

Both the new one and the previous one are shorter than the standard 5-6 volume graphic novels that are out there. But the Those Left Behind had some high praises and I’m looking forward to Better Days. It’s written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, both oh which did the first comic book.

The plot isn’t totally revealed, but what we do know is that it takes place before the previous comic book and obviously the film, and could be considered an episode from the TV series. The story is supposed to be more of an upbeat one, when things go right for the crew, which didn’t always happen in the series.

Looking forward to it.

Regardless, those of us “Browncoats” who loved the show and the movie Serenity, will likely enjoy this new book by Jane Espenson. I would have included the entire name of it as the title of this post, but it’s frakking long:

“Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe”

I found out about this book yesterday from Whitney Matheson, the USA Today Pop Candy writer extraordinaire. It looks pretty unique to me and it’s a collection of essays and behind-the-scenes looks. Here’s the basic description of the book from Amazon.com:

This follow-up to Finding Serenity takes the examination of Joss Whedon’s canceled cult favorite even further, addressing the events of the film Serenity as well as offering even more thought-provoking, fascinating, and far-thinking essays on the Firefly universe. Contributors include actor Nathan Fillion, who played Captain Mal Reynolds, as well as noted science fiction writer Orson Scott Card. Behind-the-scenes details are explored, including why Firefly makes such a good platform for the upcoming Multiverse online game (with an essay written by Multiverse executive producer Corey Bridges), while other essays examine recurring issues from both the series and the movie, such as the Alliance’s hatred of science, the role of smart-mouthed women, and the real reason the Firefly universe has no aliens.

I didn’t know about Finding Serenity either, which is a bummer, but now I have two to read when I get a chance.

Whitney Matheson posted an excerpt from Serenity Found, written by Nathan Fillion, which is pretty great. Read Nathan’s Essay here on Pop Candy.

Not sure when I’ll get around to buying and reading these, but I plan on it soon. Christmas present anyone?

j/k

(You can order these books from Amazon using any of the links in this post, which are affiliate links for me. I don’t usually links to things using my Amazon affiliate stuff, because that’s on my sports blog, but figured may as well.)

Now, good shows usually run their course and are due to be wrapped up at some point. But I’m talking about that show that never had a chance. It was good, but canceled before its time. Be it low ratings due to poor marketing, or a bad time slot, something happened to make the networks totally ruin your TV watching.

So this week’s question is this:

“What show did you love the most that YOU felt was prematurely axed?”

I have two, which I did mention before: Sports Night and Firefly.

I would probably chose Firefly as the top one because it only ran nine episodes and was getting better and better all the time. FOX wouldn’t even give it a full season to try and see what happened. I watch Jericho and there is no way that show compares to what Firefly was in its short duration, and yet FOX is bringing it back.

The characters on Firefly were the heart of the show and it’s something that Whedon does well. He also wrote the opening song for the show, which just gave it more of that special touch.

Sports Night, while canceled after two seasons, at least has a great wrap up in that final episode which gave it some closure. You can watch both seasons and feel pretty satisfied at the end.

Firefly…nope. At least the movie helped it along, but it wasn’t the same. I know Whedon had a ton more stories left to tell.

So what about you? What’s your favorite show that was canceled before it should have been?