Take Him Where He Cannot Stand — Reviewing ‘Firefly: Malcolm Reynolds Year One’ #1

Long before Serenity or his time as a Browncoat leader, Malcolm Reynolds was just a kid in over his head. Now the story of how that kid found the path to one day become the rogue captain with a heart of gold can be told.

Firefly: Malcolm Reynolds Year One #1 turns back the clock in a well-crafted origin story (of sorts) from Sam Humphries, Giovanni Fabiano, Gloria Martinelli, and Jim Campbell.

There were a lot of things that came as a bummer for fans when Firefly was fatefully canceled by Fox after just one season. No more adventures meant leaving those characters behind (until BOOM! Studios brought awesome new life with the comics), but also never getting full answers about where they came from overall. Sure we got the fantastic “Out Of Gas” episode, but that was a “How did they meet Mal/come to the ship” episode rather than actual origins.

In what looks to be a slew of over-sized shots to come, those curtains look to be finally pulled back.

Humphries has been doing a really solid job writing these characters and their universe so far. My only quibble with the previous series, Firefly: The Fall Guys, was that it felt like four issues worth of story stretched into six. All the character beats and understanding motivations, personalities, and energies was solid.

That continues here as we get a way younger version of Mal than we’ve ever seen, yet the qualities of the Mal we know are there. Bubbling under the surface, waiting for these moments where they will become fully unleashed. He’s a kid that gets pulled into the wrong crowd, forced into military service, disillusioned about the government, sees an easy way out, and instead ends up finding a true cause to stand behind.

We know where that cause, the Browncoats, ended up. But in this moment, it’s a very solid triumphant character moment.

I appreciate that it doesn’t shy away from how bad war is. Multiple characters we meet here come to grisly horrible ends, on both sides. It’s those who sought out violence, and those that were pulled into its orbit for a variety of reasons.

Firefly stories, especially on the comic page, need a roughness to them. A sharp edge that cuts but is surrounded by things that are more whimsical, comforting, and that we can root for. Fabiano, making their comic book debut, kills it in this regard. Plenty of grimmer feeling lines and panel choices, with a heaviness yet lightness at the same time. Real rough and tumble overall personality shining through which fits the ‘verse that we love so much.

A lot of smart choices were made for the paneling to really create the dramatic moments. He keeps us right in the middle of everything, without fully showcasing the brutality. There’s enough shown that we get what happened but it’s not gory or overly bloody in any sense.

Humphries is not the only name that is familiar in this ‘verse. Campbell is still here bringing the lettering magic to the pages, but another name got a bit of a boost. Martinelli has been on the series for some time, but was credited for color assists in the past. This time, the full coloring gig rests in her hands.

This familiarity with the world really pays off here, because the color palette choices feel right. A level of dustiness feels present in all of the colors, befitting the feeling that the sci-fi western is meant to illicit. Even in the jungle world it’s there, mixed among the more vibrant and softer colors (compared to the more sunny, dusty, wild west like worlds).

Everything has a slightly washed out tone to it, befitting the flashback nature of the story but also the war “footage” like feeling of the story. While there are elements that make either side seem more “good” or “bad” than the other, an even handedness is found throughout the story. One place is in the colors where they remain similar through and through, not choosing to make one side more colorful or positive feeling than the other.

As mentioned, Campbell is the rock of the Firefly comic stories. Having been here as long as I’ve been reviewing the books (and longer) which has been quite a few years now (holy crap it was early 2021!). Seasoning everything with the right flavors for the characters we do know but the right sort of ‘accents,’ of a sort, for characters we just met. Hitting all the right notes to make it all feel authentic to the universe but with its own unique flair, because it is its own thing at the end of the day.

Firefly: Malcolm Reynolds Year One #1 is now available from BOOM! Studios.