Really Big Damn Heroes — Reviewing ‘All-New Firefly: The Gospel According To Jayne’ Vol 2

No matter how long it’s been or how far someone runs, sometimes it’s pretty near impossible to outrun the past. All-New Firefly made sure this is a lesson that Jayne Cobb learns in a significant and life-changing way.

All-New Firefly: The Gospel According To Jayne Vol 2 delivers the collected versions of the middle issues of this fascinating limited series. A tale crafted by David M. Booher, Vincenzo Federici, Matt Herms, and Jim Campbell.

It’s been pretty great to have a series that not only returns the Serenity crew to what they do best (criminals with hearts of gold), but focuses on one of the least developed members. Big brash Jayne Cobb, quick to betray or take charge, has had glimpses of character moments over the years. This series though gives us a big old heaping of a tasty meal when it comes to the character, his past, and his future.

Through flashbacks, Booher shows us who Jayne really is, was, and still can be when it comes to his family and the path he chose to walk. Throwing in an unknown son and bringing his brother into the mix gives us a really great issue where Jayne has to answer for his absence the past few years while also trying to juggle the new family situation. Taking a character like Jayne and making him relatable and sympathetic is such a big-time move and showcases how great this series has been so far.

Overall, the series so far feels like a very expanded episode of the television series that it is based upon, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Firefly was at its best when it was exploring the characters beyond whatever caper they got into each week. Booher hits all those notes perfectly, expanding on how the crew got into this mess on Requiem alongside great beats. Such as Kaylee continuing to find her place as captain and the crew rallying despite moments of interpersonal drama.

All of these moments are brought to life by the fantastic work of Federici and Herms. There is a nice mix of roughness and slickness in Federici’s art which is befitting for this crew of misfits. Much of that slick smooth nature can be found in the portions of the story where the crew is in space. Even with the tense things happening it’s hard not to stare at the gorgeous space scenes and marvel at the depth that is achieved and the dark but also beautiful colors that are showcased.

Another duo of concepts that might seem contradictory, is how we get a solid amount of depth & detail on these pages as well as a perfect lack of detail. The characters and their moments and some of the spaces are given a lot of great detail and focus, while in other panels the backgrounds are washed out or removed completely so that the character or the moment is given all of our focus.

Color-wise there are a lot of bright colors at times, but they are also toned down and aren’t so slick, paired with shadows and darkness that bring more weight to the world. We’re in a heavy story (with plenty of moments of levity befitting of these characters) and the characters live in a tough world and that is felt just at first glance.

Being within the ship or in space means not a ton of natural bright colors to be found. Yet Herms hits the right notes with the shadows and finds ways to make the unnatural elements play into the story. Within Serenity there is the ominous red light filling the space as the alarms are going off, mirrored by the red light of the bombs that face the crew that are outside. All that warm light fits perfectly right alongside the more cool and welcoming blues and blacks that dot space around them.

Space is not only dark as it should be but the choices of the darkness make it feel legitimately cold on the page, placed right next to the really warm and bright-looking planet where I can almost feel the heat coming off the page. With most of the action happening on the planet during the daytime, there is a lot more brightness to be found at times, but the shadows and weight of darkness are still there around the edges to provide the heavy tone of this story.

For those that watched the original Firefly series, the characters likely will always sound like their respective actors within one’s mind. While that voice can’t be heard the same way in print, the things that letterers like Campbell do so well allow us to still hear it in a sense. There is a ton of personality and emotion coming off the words on the page, the right uses of bold or smaller/bigger fonts for emphasis make the right words pop out and mentally match the speaking patterns that we know for these characters.

What really stands out though is the great bit of work that goes into making the tone and volume of any given exchange clear at first glance. We’re shown a normal sort of tone with caps and focus, but to showcase whispering or emotional blows all the font not only shrinks but it moves into sentence case and the bubbles/font have a sort of faded look speaking to their softer nature.

All-New Firefly: The Gospel According To Jayne Vol 2 is now available from BOOM! Studios.