It’s not an accident that I chose to read Trees at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown last month. It is a speculative sci-fi drama, painting a picture of the world in a near future, after having undergone a global event that has irrevocably shifted the pattern of life for the human population. Here, a number of colossal vertical structures have travelled from outer space and landed apparently at random across the continents; not communicating or providing any indication of their purpose; just towering over the surrounding landscape.
The scale of the comic is massive, with strands running from Manhattan Island, to the Arctic Circle, to the Republic of China, even to the Orkneys. In fact, there isn’t really a central protagonist; what writer Warren Ellis has crafted instead is a number of disparate threads exploring several of the Tree sites, examining the communities and power structures that develop in the shadow of these impenetrable behemoths. Jason Howard’s artwork is immersive and convincing, with each environment rendered in a scratchy but authentic style. The script, in common with Ellis’s other series (e.g. Iron Man Extremis), is thoroughly researched, underscored with credible science and social commentary. And also in Ellis’ signature style, the plotting is peppered with explosive and provocative violence.
In fact, fans of Netflix and HBO miniseries will find a lot to enjoy in this storyline. The world-building and brutal twists are reminiscent of Game of Thrones, while the flawed characters and overall sense of dread will remind of Breaking Bad. The long-form narrative of the first 14 issues are truly binge-worthy, while the 5 issues of Volume Two narrow the focus onto a single-thread murder mystery by a remote Tree site. At present, there are no further Trees series announced, and it’s not entirely clear whether Ellis has a long-term plan for the title. But it would be great to see the story continued; the writer has established a lot of threads to play with, and there’s a real sense that the darkest days are yet to come.
