I did LOVE River doping herself up. Probably my favorite comics moment.
Also: neat to bring back Dobson. (Oh Joss and your fetish for killing people off and bringing them back.)
Long ago, Ari wrote:
[vaguely spoilerish for the first two volumes of the comic]Oddly enough, I actually bought Inara/Mal in the comics, which makes me wonder if it was the acting that failed to convince me.[/spoilers]
Wow, that's some hardcore spoiler-shielding. I knew there'd be Mal/Inara in the comics since it was following on TV canon. I was expecting your spoiler to be actually about something that happened in the comics. I will say, I did like Wash's awareness of the dynamic, and his "my kind of stupid" line. (In large part because if the discussion I had had with Ari a while back wondering about how much the crew noticed their underlying dynamic.)
I actually liked Mal/Inara less in the comics than I did in the show; their interactions felt harsher (I would actually add, "without the acting behind it," which makes your statement particularly interesting).