Comic Con

Jameson Leavell
5/1/2014
Word count:1,119
When you’re a fan, you join the Browncoats. If you’re Sam Barino, you’re not the kind of fan
who sits in a stadium and waves a foam finger while enjoying a pile of nachos. You’re not the
kind of fan who travels far and wide to sing your favorite song along with your favorite band at
the top of your lungs. You’re the kind of fan who finds inspiration in flawed heroes. Who feels
like an outcast, overmatched and outgunned against the colossal conglomerate weight of the
world. If you’re a fan like Sam Barino, you join the Browncoats.
In the Firefly television series and the Serenity film, the Browncoats are freedom fighters
who fought, died and ultimately lost in a savage war against the Alliance. The Alliance who
perpetrates a corporate conglomerate that infects the government and makes rich richer and the
poor poorer. In the real world, Browncoats are a legion of fans strewn across the globe. They
band together and embody the spirit of the Browncoats in the Firefly ‘Verse by uniting against
the corporate media conglomerates who ruthlessly cancelled their beloved show before a full
season was aired. Like true freedom fighters, they are bound by a shared sense of duty and
like-minded ideals.
If you’re Sam Barino and you join the Browncoats, you go to Wizard World Comic Con. You
go with your Browncoat friends, and you go because other Browncoats are there. Because
Time Lords and zombies and Jedi Knights are there. And because sexy Pikachu Pokemons are
there. Because the actual Karate Kid is there. The real Green Power Ranger is there. The real
Hulk, Samwise Gamgee, and River Tam are all there. And because the real Captain Malcolm
Reynolds is there.
Malcolm Reynolds fought in the war against the Alliance, and was one of the few survivors
of the decisive Battle of Serenity Valley. His side lost the war, but in his heart Mal refuses to
surrender. After the war, he acquired a Firefly-class spaceship, named it Serenity, and now
travels around the outer planets doing anything to get by and keep flying. He still wears his
brown coat, in memory of his fallen comrades and in open defiance of the Alliance. For Mal and
his crew, Serenity is home. Odd jobs - both legal and illegal - put food on the table, supplies in
the cargo hold, and ammo in the rifles. In the TV series and the film, Mal is played by Nathan
Fillion, and Nathan Fillion is at Wizard World Comic Con.
If you’re Sam Barino, you’re a Browncoat, and you go to Wizard World Comic Con to meet
Nathan Fillion. You don’t wear any old Van Halen t-shirt to meet Nathan Fillion, you wear a
brown coat and pack a Moses Brothers Self-Defense Engine Frontier Model B revolver. A prop
replica of Mal’s trusty pistol you can buy online, as well as the suspenders and jack boots. But if
you’re Sam Barino, you’re a Browncoat, and you make your own brown coat.
You make your own brown coat because Mal’s was hand made, not bought from Amazon or the
Blue Sun Corporation. Because you and Mal are brothers in arms and have ideals that do not conform to convention and are not satisfied with “the way things work.” If you’re Sam Barino,
you and Mal have both been shunned from the masses and together you have a chip on your
shoulder just big enough that, while you always stay true to yourself, sometimes you are led
astray. So you make your own brown coat, even though you have no idea where to start.
If you’re Sam Barino, you’re a Browncoat, and you go to Wizard World Comic Con to meet
Nathan Fillion. And you pay three hundred dollars and wait in line for two hours to do it. You
pass through weapons check, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle brandishing twin katanas in line
ahead of you and Jayne packing his trusty rifle Vera behind you. You obtain your wristband
and acknowledge other Browncoats in the convention hall. You join the line to meet Captain
Malcolm Reynolds with your pals Mark and Damon, sidestepping a ghoulishly well-dressed Orc
pushing a baby stroller.
If you’re Sam, and you’re a Browncoat, and you want to make your own brown coat, you decide
to start with your sister Sara. Together you visit a half-dozen fabric stores before finding the
right pattern and materials for the inner lining of your brown coat, and three more stores before
you find the perfect brown fabric. With Sara’s help, moral support, and sewing machine you
stitch the pattern together. The seams are not perfect. In fact, the right shoulder is downright
ragged. You are Sam, you’re a Browncoat, and this is your brown coat that you made yourself.
Two hours may seem like a long time to wait in line to meet Nathan Fillion for two minutes. But
you’re a Browncoat, and you’ve been through worse than this. You survived the bloody Battle of
Serenity Valley, and you waited three years after Firefly was cancelled for the Serenity movie.
Waiting in line with Mark and Damon, over the din of the Green Power Ranger showing stunt
jiu jitsu moves to volunteer pulled up on stage, you point out the additions to your Mal outfit -
the pistol holster that lies at an angle across your hips. You discuss briefly who wore it better...
Malcolm Reynolds or Han Solo. You all agree on Han Solo without much debate.
You’re Sam Barino, you’re a Browncoat, and you’re a little closer now to meeting Nathan Fillion.
The banter with your friends dies down as the jitters increase. Mark - dressed as Jayne, the
trigger happy muscle of the Serenity crew - absent-mindedly fiddles with the tassle of his silly
orange and yellow knit cap. Damon - dressed as Wash, Serenity’s snarky pilot - quietly watches
9th and 10th Doctors (of the Time Lord variety) of all shapes and sizes mingle on the convention
hall floor. To the guys you describe, again, your favorite scene from the Serenity film (when
River tells her brother Simon, who is shot and dying on the ground, with Reavers closing in and
death imminent, “You always take care of me… my turn,” and she proceeds to kung fu scores
of Reavers into oblivion) and lament about how much it sucks that Fox cancelled the show so
early.
When it’s finally time to meet Mal, it all goes too fast. Quick banter and the *click* of the camera
and you’re through the line and done. After a few speechless minutes your adrenaline comes
down and you can say, “he said he liked my coat.”