Firefly: New Sheriff in the Verse Volume 1 – Review

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About Firefly: New Sheriff in the ‘Verse

If you have been looking for a Firefly fix, “New Sheriff in the ‘Verse” is an excellent place to start. Boom Studios just released this collection on September 9th.

This comic takes places before the TV series, Mal has turned himself into the Alliance, but quickly finds out he is not the person they are after. He must choose between a lengthy prison sentence or bringing the Alliance’s actual target, his mother, Ma Reynolds.

This volume compiles several Firefly comics, including The Outlaw Ma Reynolds and Firefly #13-15, which came out late 2019/early 2020. The story has a lot of familiar faces and a few new ones, which is great if you are a fan of the series. It also shows more of Mal’s backstory and how he got so entangled with the Alliance before the events of the Firefly series.

Firefly: New Sheriff in the Verse Volume 1 Review

The first half of this story explores where Malcolm Reynolds came from and it does not pull any punches about his past. Mal has a complicated childhood and an even more complex relationship with his mother, even if they also share a lot in common. The comic also reveals a lot about why Mal often keeps people at a distance, even those who have shown time and time again they are willing to have his back and help him out.

The first three comics of the collection give us a more in-depth look into what sort of conditions Mal grew up in as a child. His mother loves him, but she’s often blunt and sometimes even cruel towards him. We see very early on how harsh she can be when she slaps a young Mal across the face for a mistake.

Maude “Ma” Reynolds and her gang have been banking robbing for months, and Mal partners with Boss Moon, a cyborg woman who serves the Alliance, to bring her in. The first half of the volume is all about this pursuit. Mal does not seem overly torn over what he has to do, though he does show a lot of sympathy for his mother. We also realize that Maude has a powerful sense of entitlement to what she feels she the ‘Verse owes her, and she’ll take it if no one is offering to give it to her. Malcolm recognizes this trait in his mother and says as much to her quite plainly.

Ultimately, Mal makes a choice that causes the Alliance to reward him by making him a sheriff, a role that he seems reluctant to take but embraces none the less. Mal shifts from the rebellious outlaw to a peacekeeper, but he still very much handles the law in the way he did as smuggler, with his fists and some flare.

Mal must go after his old friends, Jayne Cobb, Kaylee Frye, and Leonard Chang-Benitez. Not everything is what it seems, and old alliances die hard for Malcolm Reynolds. Deep down, he is still the rebel who hopes to someday find a quiet life for himself and those he cares about

The art and colors in this comic give it that Western feeling, with a lot of tans, browns, and other neutral tones.

If you’ve missed the ‘Verse and want to dive back in, this is a great place to take the plunge. The comic also includes a bit more diversity than we saw in the TV show, with the inclusion characters like Boss Moon and Leonard Chang-Benitz, who are both Asian characters. Though the TV show and film were set in a future universe where characters commonly used Chinese phrases, the cast was primarily white. The comic does a much better job of showing how the universe might look if there indeed was a blend of various cultures, even it’s mostly subtle changes.