The Girls Are Back in Town in Firefly: The Sting

Firefly fans, it’s time to celebrate. There’s yet another graphic novel out there for us to dive into. I know it isn’t quite the same as another season, but we’ll take what we can get, right? Anything to keep Joss Whedon’s creation alive.

Firefly: The Sting is the latest original graphic novel to come out in the world of Firefly. But this time around? The focus is on the ladies of the crew. That’s right, Kaylee, Zoe, Inara, and River are back. And they’re joined by Saffron. So you just know that nothing will go quite as planned, thanks to her backstabbing ways.

Firefly: The Sting takes place before the movie’s events, fitting neatly somewhere before the crew goes off in their own directions. And that means there is still a lot of personality and sass onboard the ship.

In this little misadventure, we again find Saffron approaching the crew with an idea for a heist (which you just know she’ll backstab them for in the end). But this time around, she’s only approaching the ladies of the ship. That may raise some questions, but since it allows us to see our favorite characters working together, we’re not going to complain.

Writing

Firefly: The Sting was written by Delilah S. Dawson, and you can tell that she had more than a little bit of fun writing this series. You can see her influence in writing, yet she did an excellent job staying true to the world and the characters within.

All the characters we know and love, as well as one or two we love to hate, got to make an appearance here. However, there was a focus on the women aboard Firefly. Each issue in this collection switched perspectives, giving each of them a chance to shine.

What made The Sting both interesting and unique was the infusion of pop culture within their lines. Some of the quotes were hard to avoid and thus had to be intentional. There were hat tips to ‘she persists’ and other iconic female moments in our modern era. It’s interesting to think about the impact those moments might have in a far-flung future.

The heist was fascinating, as it gave a purpose to each of the Firefly crew members pulled into it. Though that was immediately clear at first – proving that this tale fits nicely with the story.

On the whole, The Sting was a charming and amusing side quest for half of the Firefly crew. It was nice to see characters work together in ways they never have before. And it was refreshing to get a chance to see them as individuals with concerns and things that they were working through. It added a personal touch.

Art

Firefly: The Sting was host to a ton of different and talented artists. It seemed like each issue traded out who was working on the pages. And as such, this graphic novel has a massive creative team.

The lead artists for this series are Pius Bak, Serg Acuna, Richard Ortiz, Hyeonjin Kim, and Rodrigo Lorenzo. Together they gave us the characters we’ve come to love over the years. And each one of them did look like we both expected and hoped. They weren’t afraid to throw in their twists or stylistic choices, which worked out well for the series. I especially enjoyed the iconic look of all the white masks combined with the red flowers (you’ll see that early on in the series, don’t worry).

While the colorists were Joana Lafuente, Doug Garbark, and Natalia Marques, the sense of color in The Sting was quite brilliant. It was vibrant and unafraid to use lots of bold colors for the characters and the backgrounds. It made for an eye-popping view.

And finally, Jim Campbell did the lettering for the entire volume, adding a sense of cohesion despite the artists’ changing hands.

Conclusion

Firefly: The Sting was such a fun read. I hope this is a volume that fans of the series pick up. The girl power theme was a pleasant surprise. But it gave us the perfect excuse to see our characters in a whole new context and light.

This heist and everything involved is a perfect fit for the series. It could easily have belonged as an episode at any point. In fact, I kind of wish we had gotten the chance to see it that way. That’s a slightly sad note, sorry. Still, it’s nice seeing the series continue with charisma and force.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.

Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks | Quirky Cat’s Comics | The Book Review Crew | Monkeys Fighting Robots | Storygraph | Bookhype | Bookstagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Reedsy