Written by: Warren Ellis
Art by: Jason Howard
Publisher: Image
Trees #6 continues its slow burn this month, though the story lines are beginning to pick up steam. Others have complained that this comic is too boring or fractured for their taste, but I appreciate the approach Ellis is taking. With four distinct stories being told simultaneously, it is understandable that each month’s twenty-two pages can’t possibly make huge reveals for every character.
Issue six focuses mainly on Chenglei as he continues to process his sordid night out with Zhen and her friends. Ellis delves into some very heavy dialogue here, mostly focused on gender identity, cultural norms, and an individual’s desire to be a “human explorer.” Trees is one of those rare and welcome books that addresses adult issues besides just sex or violence. We were told that, at least ostensibly, this is a book about aliens coming to Earth but not paying attention to the petty humans who just happen to occupy the space below them. Perhaps in response to his own story parameters, Ellis is turning a keen eye towards the humans who populate his story with great results. These humans all matter in one way or another—whether they are directly involved with the trees or not. In this dark and gripping world, which Ellis and Howard have done a great job of fleshing out over the past six issues, the ‘trees’ represent not only alien life, but perhaps life itself, no matter its origin. How can anything matter in our lives when other life forms have arrived on our planet and they don’t even acknowledge us? Can anything seem worth doing when faced with the reality that the aliens are literally treating cities as their own waste disposal centers? The best sci-fi focuses on humans, the giant “what if” questions of the day, and answers them with authority or, at the very least, bombast. Ellis is doing this here, which comes as no surprise to lovers of his Planetary, Transmetropolitan, or Global Frequency.
In issue twelve of this series we may see aliens exiting the trees in order to claim the Earth as their own. In my opinion, it is just as likely that we will never see the aliens at all. If anyone could write a story about aliens and never reveal them, it’d be Warren Ellis. Make no mistake, however—the aliens are very much at the forefront of this story as well as the characters which inhabit it. The professor, in the previous issue, said it best: “(the trees) exert a pressure…the trees affect everything. The way we behave. The way money moves around. The things we believe.”
Marsh and the other scientists in the Arctic have the closest relationship to the tress currently, so I am happy to see just a glimpse of what is becoming of them. Hopefully in the near future we’ll get more answers about those mysterious poppies and what it means for humans everywhere. Perhaps the aliens aren’t aliens in the traditional sense, but instead electromagnetic energies attaching and breeding throughout the cosmos? I have no idea, but I am certainly along for the ride. Ellis has gathered enough trust over the past 20+ years in the industry that by this point you either love him or hate him. Those qualities that you love him or hate him for are on display in this newest creator-owned series, front and center. For this particular reviewer, that is a very good thing indeed.
