Review: Trees #2- Watching Trees Grow

Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jason Howard
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 25th June 2014

Writer Warren Ellis is putting a lot of trust in his readers in this issue. Is he that big a name in comic books that he can get away with this? Will people still read his books, much like a Stephen King novel, just because it has his name on it? I’m not sure, but this is a risk in my opinion.

 Issue #2 of Trees does next to nothing to hook the reader or make him/her want to stick with this book for the long run, unless you are a fan of the writer and trust him to tell a decent story after this extremely slow and uneventful start.

How can anybody rate this book when very little happens? It’s impossible, because all you get is some very slow character building and hints about what is going to happen next. The hints include the origin of a plant, leftist revolutionaries, a magic old man, political questioning about the motives of the trees and that’s it. Nothing exciting happens, at all. Everything is subtle and slow, building for what will happen next.

Is this going to be enough for the attention deficit generation that wants instant drama, action scenes and clearly defined heroes and villains? This book is dangerously close to real life, in that it’s very slow and people are just moodily doing their jobs whilst swearing a bit at each other in a half hearted attempt to appear ‘cool.’

I’m not even sure who most of the people are, or whether or not I like any of them. This book is more like the real world than is healthy. Will people enjoy this? Will they have the patience to hang in there? What the hell are average comic book reviewers who read and enjoy stupid Avengers and Batman books going to make of this one? I tell you this much. I can’t wait to read their utterly confused reviews.

My own opinion is that this will probably read better in trade. It’s intriguing, and things are obviously being set up for a bit more excitement later on, but it’s taking its sweet bloody time, and at the moment everything is up in the air. It could be good, or it could be bad.

There’s nothing great about issue #2 though, and don’t believe anybody who says otherwise. This is a set up book, and reading it as a single issue is a very underwhelming experience. That’s not to say that it’s horrible, because it isn’t. There’s a story developing here, just don’t expect too much from it at this early stage. At the moment it’s walking at a very slow pace, and it’s not particularly bothered if anybody is waiting around for it. Rating 6/10 (Rating is for the single issue, not an indictment of the overall story that has yet to develop).