Firefly: The Fall Guys #4 Review

 

Writer: Sam Humphries

Artist: Jordi Pérez

Colorist: Francesco Segala & Gloria Martinelli

Letterer: Jim Campbell

Cover Artists: Francesco Francavilla; Justine Florentino; Becca Carey

Publisher: Boom! Studios

Price: $4.99

Release Date: January 10, 2023

 

Prime Minister Hamner wants Zoë Washburne dead. The Archambeau gang wants all her friends in Beloved dead. Orbiting the planet, the commander of an Alliance Cruiser wants River, Simon, and Zoë’s daughter dead. Can Captain Kaylee and her crew escape this one-doctor town, reunite with River, Simon, and Emma, and get Back In The Saddle Again? Let's leap into Firefly: The Fall Guys #4 and find out!

 

 

Story

Captain Kaylee’s crew holds Amber Archambeau and her gang in a cemetery standoff. Kaylee knows Malcolm Reynolds is the better soldier, so she tips her hat to his battlefield experience. Mal’s Gene Autry maneuver surprises everyone and gains them an advantage. Still, Amber and her friends elude their grasp.

 

Until now, Marshall Gronk squeezed Beloved with his iron fist. Now, the Prime Minister pushes him aside. The former battlefield butcher vows to capture her old enemy. Hamner’s convinced that Zoë tried to assassinate her in Firefly: The Fall Guys #4. If the good citizens of Beloved are sheltering Zoë, they're all her enemies!

 

Haunted by ghosts, Zoë abandoned her friends. She wants to finish what Amber started. Among the Serenity crew, Malcolm knows best how Zoë thinks. (At least he does when she’s not seeing ghosts in Crazy Town). Can Mal find her before she does something that could brand a target on all their backs?

 

In Firefly: The Fall Guys #4, Amber Archambeau aims to finish what she started. Even if Mal finds Zoë and convinces her to desist, can Mal prevent Amber and her friends from pulling the trigger on the PM? And should he? While the Serenity crew operates in an ethical gray area, Sam Humphries couldn't paint Hamner blacker. How many deaths would result from Hamner’s assassination? Might her death ignite another interstellar war?

 

Or, regardless of repercussions, would whoever kills Hamner hold the moral high ground?

 

Art

Kaylee and Inara gaze around the cemetery as they ponder their untimely end. Hexicons rise above the angel atop the mausoleum and the barren tree branches, a reminder of the forcefield that prevents their departure. An overhead view of the battle heralds the arrival of unexpected assistance. Faces and dotted lines on a map suggest a board game. The mayor removes his hat while visiting the Prime Minister. Gronk's outstretched arm warns the mayor to choose his words carefully. The man refuses to meet Hamner's eyes as he converses with her. Soldiers surround a tank as it rolls along the snow-covered road. The fire issuing from the gun promises to rain down destruction upon Beloved's wooden buildings.

 

Francesco Segala and Gloria Martinelli lavish a limited palette on Jordi Pérez’s art in Firefly: The Fall Guys #4. Guns fire yellow streaks across characters in closeups, while an overhead view shows white streaks linking silhouettes across the greenish ground. The pink forcefield contrasts with the Alliance soldiers' green uniforms and helmets. Light shades of pink, purple, blue, and green illuminate the Serenity crew on this night. An orange monitor casts light into the dim control center. Blue space fills with tan, yellow, and orange when the Alliance cruiser fires upon the fleeing Firefly-class vessel.

 

Jim Campbell’s black, uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons are easy to read. Words grow large and bold for raised voices. They shrink and turn gray for lowered utterances. Colored narrative boxes cluster next to the faces of each player on the game board, identifying crewmates' responses as Malcolm organizes his Archambeau ambush.

 

Thanks to the rootin'-tootin' folks at Boom! Studios for providing a copy of Firefly: The Fall Guys #4 for review.

 

Final Thoughts

As Zoë Washburn and Amber Archambeau race to assassinate the Alliance Prime Minister, Captain Kaylee gives Malcolm Reynolds a new rank, and graveyards become redoubts on land and in space in Firefly: The Fall Guys #4.

 

Rating 8.6/10

 

For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.