Written by: Warren Ellis
Art by: Jason Howard
Publisher: Image
Trees, from Warren Ellis and Jason Howard, should be a very good comic. I want it to be, at the very least, an enjoyable comic. At its core, Trees is an interesting book, it just feels so bland. Barring the concept, very little about Trees is actually interesting, and this makes it hard to be invested in the book. This was true of the first issue, and it’s even more true about this issue of the series. It feels so lifeless and boring that, at times, it becomes hard to read, and really fails to even be something that is passably enjoyable. Most of this stems from the fact that the characters just don’t do anything for me, and the way that they’re written is so stale (I find it hard to believe that others could get attached to them). Ellis’ attempts at banter fall flat, and other lines of dialogue come across as cringe worthy.
Part of it may also be that there seems to be way too much going on for Trees’ own good. This issue continues exactly one plot thread from the first issue, while introducing two completely new plot threads. Considering that there are still characters who were introduced in the first issue that aren’t even mentioned here, that may be a problem. The issue spends most of its time following a cast of characters in the Arctic, who are stationed at a science station there, presumably to investigate one of the Trees. But they don’t really do much of anything except for sit around, and there’s really only one character actually investigating the Tree. Unfortunately, he’s also the least interesting of the characters.
From here, we move on to a new set of characters in Cefalu. Again, its unclear who these people are and what exactly they’re doing, aside from living a fairly normal life, which, unsurprisingly, is not interesting. Despite the Trees being around, all they really seem to do is add something to Howard’s landscapes, some interesting bit of scenery that just sits in the background, doing absolutely nothing. They just don’t seem to matter all that much, and so their existence within these pages seems pointless. Then there’s the scene in Somalia, which drags on seemingly without end. This is probably the worst part of the book, as it’s overwritten, and easily the least interesting part of the entire book. It’s essentially just a journalist having a back and forth with the president of Somalia, and none of the dialogue is all that riveting.
Finally, the book comes to an end, although you probably wouldn’t know it. It just sort of stops, making the ending feel extremely lazy. It really makes me wonder if this was actually written as a collection, and then cut down into individual issues, because the book just stops. In a trade, this may feel more natural, since the dialogue would just continue on the next page, but this ending makes very little sense. If it weren’t for the art, this book would have no interesting or dynamic elements to it. Fortunately, the art, courtesy of Jason Howard, looks amazing. His landscapes are breathtakingly gorgeous, from the arctic plain to the mountains of Cefalu, all of it looks exceptional.
The art is Trees’ one saving grace, but it simply isn’t enough. Every other element of the book feels devoid of all life. The plot and the characters fail to be interesting at all, and even though the concept is pretty cool, it also feels wasted here. This is barely a science fiction book, and more a book about boring people doing things that really don’t seem to matter all that much.
