REVIEW: Trees, #1

[CBR News]

"Trees" #1 is as much world-building as it is narrative, but Warren Ellis and Jason Howard's comic about a slow-game alien invasion is almost instantly gripping.


Full review here.

[Joker]

I loved this. Hope it does well enough to continue beyond the initial 8 issues.

[King's_Gambit]

I loved this. Hope it does well enough to continue beyond the initial 8 issues.

Given that this is Ellis we're talking about, I'm just treating this as an 8-issue miniseries.

Even his Moon Knight run is ending after 6 issues.

[Joker]

In this current market it is far smarter to dedicate your time to a creator owned work. Given that this is Ellis we're talking about, I'll just be happy if we get all 8 issues.

[consafo80]

Looking forward to reading this. Didn't know it was a limited series but 8 issues is still a fair run for Ellis.

[Piles Porales]

I liked it a bunch and the world building was great, but it didn't seem to define what the conflict of the story is? Granted I've only done one read through so far.

[DIVINITY]

Eh, it was ok, not sure if eight issue's will be enough to tell three complete, parallel stories but, we shall see...

[skyjumpermike]

This book is really interesting. It's a take on an alien invasion that I haven't seen before. 8 issues doesn't seem like enough to tell the potential story, but at this point I'm not sure what the main focus of the story will be.

[xMatt]

I enjoyed this. The narration was very captivating, but it was the art that I felt was the best. Layouts and individual characters as well as backgrounds - all of it was to my liking.

[yfnjman]

i liked this book enough. here's hoping that Ellis has it in him to see it through.

dug the artwork, too...

[Mjolnir]

I really loved this opening issue. The artwork is great and the slow burn approach Ellis is taking I really like. The different perspectives from around the world is really wonderful. Considering that Ellis didn't have these extraterrestrial beings do anything other than sit there for 10 years, I love that the story picks up there and that obviously, something is starting to happen after all this time.

On the topic of this being 8 issues, there is an interview at multiversitycomics.com with Warren Ellis where in the middle of the interview it's asked about that 8 issues and maybe possibly more....

I saw you mention that you have 8 issues planned for Trees, but that the book could also go on for years. What are your goals for the story, and what makes it so important for Jason in having a number of issues completed before the book launches?

WE: Wanting it to be serialised in a reasonable fashion? And, also, to give me the time to write it — it’s a relatively complicated thing, that has several storylines running in parallel, and I need to keep it all straight, because I’m writing each storyline in a separate document before combining portions of them for each single issue. Every time I sit down to write some TREES, I’m essentially deciding whether I’m writing in TREES/Cefalu, TREES/Arctic, TREES/Shu, etc.

Issue 5 will be in the can before issue 1 is published. I’ll probably be well into issue 6, on my part, and able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I've read elsewhere (just can't remember where) that it going beyond it's 8 issues will be dictated by the response the book gets and sales obviously. My question would be is that if he sees Trees as going on for a while, but he decides to end it at issue 8, will there be a definite ending or open ended if he thinks he might wanna come back to the book a year or more down the road? If it goes on for years, which would be nice, what could he want to include that he couldn't in 8 issues? More focus on characters from around the world I'm guessing but more on the "Trees" themselves? So maybe these 8 issues are an abbreviated version of a long story he might want to do?

I'm glad to hear that issue 5 is written by now and hopefully the first 8 issues will run concurrently with no delays. I know Ellis has a rep, but I really hope this book goes on for a while. This first issue drew me in and I'm ready for more.

[Maxpower00044]

Cool first issue. Wish I would've known it was only 8 issues though, I would've waiting for the trade.

[rajjon]

Cool first issue. Wish I would've known it was only 8 issues though, I would've waiting for the trade.

Sounds like it may go longer than 8 issues, and sales could dictate how long it lives, so maybe buying it now will help it live longer than 8?

I thought it was a neat story. It is clearly all setting up what is going to happen the rest of the run, so it seems a little disjointed and like not enough attention was paid to each location for the story. It might be better to read in trade form because of that, you can get the whole story without waiting a month between issues if it starts out slow building up 4 different stories with a limited number of pages per issue.

Still, I like the concept of the invasion happening 10 years in the past and we enter the story where this is normal. People have accepted what the trees do and kind of go about their lives around these massive trees that just suddenly appeared. Something is sure to happen with the trees, right? I wouldn't think the story would revolve around people living in a world where this has been status quo for 10 years and just going about their lives... I think it might be something like the trees were stage 1 of the invasion, and stage 2 is about to happen? Who knows... I guess District 9 was about a world that already had been coping with an alien invasion, so it could be a collection of 4 different ways peoples' lives are changed in dealing with these trees in their world. We just have to wait and see.

[xMatt]

Still, I like the concept of the invasion happening 10 years in the past and we enter the story where this is normal. People have accepted what the trees do and kind of go about their lives around these massive trees that just suddenly appeared. Something is sure to happen with the trees, right? I wouldn't think the story would revolve around people living in a world where this has been status quo for 10 years and just going about their lives... I think it might be something like the trees were stage 1 of the invasion, and stage 2 is about to happen? Who knows... I guess District 9 was about a world that already had been coping with an alien invasion, so it could be a collection of 4 different ways peoples' lives are changed in dealing with these trees in their world. We just have to wait and see.

That's my favourite aspect so far as well. 'Post-apocalyptic' and it means we get to avoid that "what do we do" kind of thing. That's already happened. And I felt the Mayor-candidate's scene was a great way to kind of highlight that feeling 10 years ago, anyway.

[Bucky Barnes]

I really liked the comic until I got to the one page where the kid is walking through the city and he sees a transwoman, who reveals herself by exposing her genitalia, and he is afraid/disturbed and says he's "landed on a different planet", which echoes so many gross ideas about transwomen and uses the character/transness as "weird window dressing."