Ever been ignored? If you’re a human in this story, that’s exactly how the invading horde treats the entire population. Don’t you just hate it when the world is invaded and said invaders don’t tell you why? How rude. Master storyteller Warren Ellis’ latest sci-fi tale is “Trees” #1. It’s straight-to-the-point and thrilling to read.
WRITTEN BY: Warren Ellis
ART BY: Jason Howard
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: 28 May 2014
Reviewed by: Your Friendly Neighborhood Brady
Humanity. We think we’re so important to the universe. How utterly humbling and degrading it must be to be completely ignored in our first encounter with alien life on Earth. Genre-bending writer Warren Ellis gives us this engrossing new story about extraterrestrial invasion. Giant Trees have sprouted all over the globe. They have been no demands or any contact of any kind made from them. They do what they want to Earth and ignore us intelligent life forms. They have been here for ten years and show no signs of going anywhere. It’s a fascinating approach. I’m captivated after only one issue of what Ellis has planned for this tale.
The art by Jason Howard is just the right amount of coarseness for this story. I imagine the world would feel much more unsettling with these gigantic alien Trees everywhere. There’s a simplicity and grand amount of detail at the right moments in this chapter. The intersecting perspectives all feel like different parts of the world impeccably. New York, the city of SHU, and the arctic BLINDHAIL Station all look distinctively diverse. And they should since no two parts of the world look the same, especially after aliens move in.
This is a great first issue to what I’ve no doubt will be a great chronicle of how humanity makes our alien visitors notice us and leave. The perspectives are so unlike one another that I can only anticipate what gloriously profound things they will all discover. Trees #1 is as solid a start as you can ask for. Pick it up and pay attention.