Better Days (Serenity #2.1) by Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

I don’t know why I bothered. The illustrations may be a little better but the disjointed and confusing short story and its implications definitely weren’t for me.

Serenity’s crew suddenly become filthy rich. For a while, anyway. And their ‘what I’d do if I were rich’ dreams were the only good thing about Better Days.

Engineer Kaylee’s dream was obvious – sleeping with Simon and her own ship workshop. Doctor Simon would return to his homeworld with sister River so they can work together in a hospital. Jayne wishes to be a distinguished military captain of a ship, plus some x-rated stuff – no surprise there. Spiritual man Shepherd Book shocks the crew by saying he’d spend his riches on prostitutes, cigars and card games, but he was only kidding. And Wash dreams of a luxury cruiser to pilot and a baby with wife Zoe. I was hoping to find out Zoe’s fantasy as she’s a closed book but disappointingly it was never revealed and neither was Inara’s .

It’s implied by Inara that Mal arranged to have the millions delivered into their hands stolen from them so that his crew would remain together, because that is his dream.

A horny and impatient Jayne trying to learn from Simon how to woo a high class courtesan so he can get laid was funny and classic Jayne. And apparently Inara and Simon slept together. Awkward.

Has anyone noticed that Zoe appears to have been decapitated on the cover? Her eyes being vacant and bloodshot adds to the effect. Very odd.

Better Days isn’t much better than series debut Those Left Behind. Disjointed and incoherent storytelling, no character growth and little depth make this series pointless as it adds nothing to the Firefly canon.

I seriously doubt I’ll read any more of these graphic novels. It’s too painful to see these wonderful characters in this disrespectful form. So much more could’ve been made of these comics if only Joss Whedon put in as much effort as he did with his TV and movie work. One wonders if Brett Matthews is doing all the writing and Joss is just signing off, similar to the James Patterson arrangement.