Collects issues 1-5 of miniseries Firefly: The Sting. Set before the Unification war comic.

Writer: Deliliah S. Lawson
Artists: Pius Bak, Serg Laguna, Richard Ortiz, Hyeonjin Kim, Rodrigo Lorenzo
Publisher: BOOM! Studios

Serenity needs more parts and Mal has managed to get a job. However, when the ship lands on the planet Carolan the dock master demands immediately a docking fee which Mal can’t pay. So, the whole ship, and the shuttle, is impounded. Inara can’t get to her client so she’s irritated. She and Mal fight. She leaves in a huff to a spa and treats all the women to it, too. Inara, Zoe, Kaylee, and River leave and let the men deal with the money situation.

We readers see that someone is listening to the crew and even pointing a rifle at them.

After a few relaxing moments, Inara is reduced to tears even talking about Mal. Then the women each go to a separate room for a treatment. Except that Saffron is waiting for each of them. Saffron wants to rob a man who owns a diamond mine but she needs the Serenity women to help her. Of course, Inara, Zoe, and Kaylee refuse. River agrees but Saffron doesn’t want her.

Of course, Saffron has a way to blackmail the women. She has stolen diaries and other personal stuff from the ship and she has wired bombs to Serenity. The women agree to help Saffron.

The heist starts in a convent. Every year, the convent throws a party to the women who will join them. Most local men attend it because they can have sex with the nuns-to-be. Of course, Saffron and the women infiltrate the party, Zoe and Kaylee as waitresses and Inara and Saffron as prospective nuns. But Saffron also wants revenge on the crew.

I mostly enjoyed this. I loved the heist part of it and how each issue was from the POV of a different crew member. First Zoe, then Inara, then Kaylee, and finally River. Through her spying and the diaries, Saffron knows a lot about the personal lives of the women and she needles them most of the time. I would have loved to have an issue, or even part of an issue from Saffron’s POV. Now she’s left a enigma.

What I didn’t care was how Zoe was handled. Her arc deals with Wash wanting a baby and Zoe doesn’t because she’s scared that she will die and leave the baby helpless. I don’t remember Wash and Zoe talking about getting a child at all. This also made her far more introspective than what we’ve seen on the show, especially for a former soldier in the middle of a dangerous mission. Also, Inara wallowed a bit too much on her feeling for Mal.

Each issue has a different artist but their styles don’t clash too much. I also liked the art better than in Unification wars, even though once again the characters don’t look like themselves.

I still rather enjoyed it.