‘Serenity: Leaves on the Wind’ review
By Brittney MacDonald, Life & Style Editor
4/5
I have never hidden my extreme love for science fiction, and Joss Whedon’s Firefly television series is no exception. In fact, one of my first reviews for the Other Press was Serenity: Those Left Behind, a graphic novel that focussed on the timeline between the end of the television series to the beginning of the 2005 movie continuation, Serenity. Though I loved its comic sequel, Leaves on the Wind, it doesn’t quite match my adoration for Those Left Behind.
Written by Whedon’s brother, Zack Whedon, Leaves on the Wind picks up after the end of the 2005 film. Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew have gone into hiding to avoid the backlash for revealing the powerful Alliance government as responsible for the origin of the much feared Reavers. Now pursued by both the Browncoat rebels and the Alliance government, the crew is forced to come out of hiding after Zoe suffers complications during the birth of her and Wash’s daughter, Emma.
Though I enjoyed the story arc of Leaves on the Wind, I did find that there were times when the narrative would drag on too much. This is common with works that were originally published in single-issue format because cliffhanger endings will encourage a reader to pick up the next issue.
The art by Georges Jeanty, who is best-known for his work on the Buffy comic series, is bright and dynamic. It is bold, with good use of colour theory and earth tones to avoid use of too much black. The one thing I found missing was the almost painting-like quality the panels had in the earlier Serenity series.
Overall I enjoyed this novel, but I would definitely recommend watching the film Serenity before picking up Leaves on the Wind.
