Reavers Chase Serenity - Greg Edmonson

Cowboys & Aliens

Authors: Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Fred Van Lente & Andrew Foley
Illustrators: Dennis Calero & Luciano Lima
Pages: 112
Publisher: It Books

Because of the blockbuster movie (which I want to see but haven't), I was very curious to try this graphic novel when I saw it show up on the list of recent arrivals at my library. I had pretty high hopes for it, because the idea of aliens and cowboys makes me think of space cowboys which makes me think of Firefly which rocks hardcore. The graphic novel is okay, but definitely not of anywhere near Firefly quality.

I am curious to see the movie at some point to see what they did with it, because, as is, it's not exactly two hours with of entertainment and has very little dialogue. I imagine they'll go more into character back stories, as there is none of that here.

Cowboys & Aliens has cool art and an even better crazy alternative history. The story is set, for those who don't know, during the manifest destiny days of the United States, wherein cowboys were busy depriving Indians of their homeland. This makes an awesome backdrop for an attempted alien takeover, because of the obvious parallels between the two situations. I applaud this historical comparison.

Mostly, the graphic novel consists of images of battle and frontier ingenuity in trying to defeat the aliens, which is okay, but not super awesome. Overall, I found this to be a very quick, fairly entertaining read with some highlights. Like the ending, which was hilarious.