“Let’s Be Bad Guys”: (Re)Visualizing (In)Justice on the Western Frontier in Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze Joss Whedon’s world of Firefly/Serenity as a continuative narrative existing over television, film, and graphic novel. I argue that in creating an alternative universe that is parallel in its textual undertones, Whedon satires concepts of justice and universal truth as portrayed in historical Western films and that in doing so makes issues visible to the viewer. Doing so reveals the constructed nature of the “Wild West.” In deconstructing these tropes Whedon not only critiques these disseminated interpretations of life in the iconic American West, but also makes them visible through popular culture. Satirizing classical Western elements such as legal authorities or barbarous savages on the frontier (and their creation by the government) elucidates inadequacies of the portrayed frontier reinforced in American Western films. Ultimately, I demonstrate how Firefly/Serenity is an example of popular culture both visualizing and more importantly critiquing concepts of justice through satirizing the “Wild West.”