"[4] Los Angeles prop shop Applied Effects was approached by Randy Erikson to create Mal's main gun, a "Moses Brothers Self-Defense Engine Frontier Model B",[7] and gave them a week and a half.

Erikson provided a foamcore conceptual mockup and the base guns, one of which was a five-shot .38 caliber Taurus Model 85 revolver.

Since this version was quite heavy, a resin replica was also constructed, which in addition to being less tiring for the actors to carry, could be thrown or dropped with less fear of injury.

[7][9] GBB Custom Gunleather was tasked with creating Mal's gun holster, which was made out of oak-tanned carving leather.

[10] The character's coat, a relic of his time as a Browncoat, was a collaboration between Firefly costume designer Shawna Trpcic and Jonathan A. Logan, a leather artist.

Trpcic sketched her idea and a cloth mockup was created before the final was made with domestic-farmed deerskin.

The cuffs are actually the sleeves folded back, evoking the style of Oriental robes with their silk linings.

The Number 1 coat's bullet hole is drawn in, while The Hero version has a detailed cut and sewn repair.

[15] Though Mal usually seems more practical than intellectual, he occasionally surprises his friends by displaying familiarity with disparate literature varying from the works of Xiang Yu[16] to poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

[14] Mal volunteered for the Independents army during the Unification War against the Alliance, gaining the rank of sergeant during that time.

[volume & issue needed] In her review of the film Serenity for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis had this to say about the character and Nathan Fillion: "Mal is no Neo redux; he's closer to Indiana Jones, if absent Harrison Ford's rakishly handsome looks and star magnetism.

Like the rest of the cast, Mr. Fillion is a charming performer, but he borrows rather than owns the screen, which dovetails with Mr. Whedon's modest aspirations for this film.