More details surface and just a bit of philosophizing.
Creative Staff:
Story: Warren Ellis
Art: Jason Howard
Colors: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: Fonografiks
What They Say:
Small towns run on little lies. As the wind howls across Toska and a body is dragged across old snow, Klara unpacks a crime to discover just how many lies there are.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ll admit that I’m still surprised by the return of Trees after a few years absence. I’m not surprised that Warren Ellis decided to pick up the story in a completely different spot than where we left off, which has both pros and cons to it as we explore more of the world and the trees within it. I am super glad that it’s back and that Jason Howard was back on it as well as I love his layouts and design work. There’s such a rich feeling to this book in how it works, especially with it dealing with such an oppressive looking and feeling place for this particular story, that it’s easy to get caught up in it and the general mood. I love stuff like this and Howard definitely ticks all the right boxes.
Klara’s working the murder mystery well, though dealing with the people that live int his end of the line town are not the easiest. We get the seemingly crazy local that tells her that something bad is coming for her and goes on about the murder that nobody should know about. She knows because she watches how the ravens are flying away and understands their history, which is definitely local-speak. You do feel for Klara as she deals with her subordinates that are just not interested in doing any real work but at the same time it’s such small town obviousness that it’s not a surprise at all. And she does chide them just enough about it that it feel realistic and accurate to what it would be like in all of those positions.
The book does delve into things with the doctor as he talks about the murder and admits that her belief that the body was dumped there and beaten after being killed elsewhere is accurate. I like what we get from Orsin in this as his being from Moscow and having a particular view of things gives him a kind of aloofness that fits in so well with this place. But the book also gives us weirdness, such as when Klara heads back to the tree and has a vision of her ex Sascha there, which launches us into a flashback seven years prior when the two had met and he was going into a lot of philosophy about life and death that smacks of a smart person trying to be genius-level and just coming across as annoying and someone most in the bar would want to smack. She’s amused by his crazy talk but you know it has to factor into things somehow here with the idea of listening to the dead.
In Summary:
Trees has a really neat flow and feeling about it but at the same time it’s over so fast that it’s frustrating. It’s got some interesting ideas and I love the overall pacing and flow of it but it also needs just a bit more meat in each issue to really make it connect a bit more and to feel like we might get some solid story overall. For now, I like the hooks and what’s being presented but it’s Jason Howard’s artwork that’s really carrying it and making me excited to see what’s next as I’m unsure of just how much story I’ll end up getting out of it.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Image Comics
Release Date: October 16th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
