Eight years after Fox mauled the legs off of Joss Whedon’s space western “Firefly," fans of the show (A.K.A. “browncoats”) are still whining about unresolved plot points of the series. Just to make the fanboy suicide count higher, when the mysterious character of Shepherd Book (played by Ron Glass) coughed his last inspirational forewarning in the follow-up film (2005’s “Serenity”) it left a lot of questions in its’ thrusters. Particularly, what was it that forced Book into a nomadic existence? What dark secret was peering behind the façade of this religious man?  Well, fortunately, comics seem to be the place that maltreated concepts go to get another shot in the arm, and “Serenity: The Sheperd’s Tale” has arrived at your local specialty shop in an effort to put all that fansite anguish to bed.
   
Grandfathered by Joss and written by Zack Whedon (yep, he’s Joss’ bro…here’s a Wiki link, let’s move on) “The Shepherd’s Tale” opens with the above mentioned death scene. Glass’ Freeman-esque warmth remains intact during the handful of panels leading up to his end. What follows is the life and times of Shepherd Book, a predictable narrative move that invites unpredictable character insight.

Without giving too much away (although, I would thoroughly enjoy the hate mail), Shepherd’s back story isn’t at all what I thought it was. From a writing standpoint, this could be a risky maneuver --- meet the audience’s expectations and you get a pegged as a predictable disappointment, break the audience’s expectations and you get a reveal that betrays the clues you gave earlier in your story.  Fortunately, with the two brothers at the helm you get an undeniably Whedon-esque experience…that is, a non-uniform character study that is adept at squeezing every ounce of drama out of its character and his world effectively.

 Most impressive is how thoughtful and simple Book’s cross road is decided. In an excellent moment of self-reflection, Book sees the universe for what it is…a bowl of chicken soup. It doesn’t make sense now, but it’s the small moments such as this one that goes out of its way to not just expose the character of Shepherd Book but re-familiarize you with the Firefly universe, making it seem fresh and exciting even eight years after its untimely dismissal.

Troy-Jeffrey Allen writes mean things to maintain his sanity. He is a comic book writer as well as an entertainment critic for OfNote Magazine, Forces of Geek, and Comic Book Bin. He has a cardboard box he calls home at  www.TypographicEra.com.