Image Comics 2014
Written by Warren Ellis
Illustrated by Jason Howard
I am enamored with this series. When we last left them the Blindhail Tree had sprouted black flowers and the scientists there activated the Tree with disastrous results. Dr. Joanne Creasy survived that encounter but spent quite a bit of time in the hospital recovering and from the looks of things she was the only one to get out alive. Dr. Marsh the man whose obsession over the Tree was the strongest well you see what happens to him in the opening pages.
Jason really kind of just blew me away this issue. What we see with Marsh that’s both fascinating, hauntingly beautiful and terribly gross all at the same time. Then moving to London and Jo’s life and her dreams/memories of what happened including the city drenched in rain, which is gorgeously rendered and full of detail and emotion, to that stunning, and I do mean stunning visage of that church which screams historical and menacing. Jason’s work is powerful, emotional, thrilling and full of life in all it’s facets and ranges.
I’m intrigued here by this googlebus and the technology that’s happened since we last saw Jo. How long was she in the hospital for? What other technological leaps have been made that make seem kind of more futuristic than normal? So many questions that will have to wait apparently because the more things that change the more they stay the same. Most noticeably those in the government in positions of “power.”
Enter Ridley Calderwood, Permanent Under Secretary of State to the Home Secretary. Mouthy title and he’s interesting, kind of snarky and definitely shady in my opinion. He’s honest but then dismisses what he’s said has the dry humor that isn’t funny but more telling as if the whole time we see him he’s presenting a facade. Still he’s offering Jo a job because of what she’s been through, though offering sounds like she’s got a choice in the matter when because of the dialogue it feels like they’ve already decided she’s going to be doing this. They need her to check out the Orkney Islands and conduct a survey of the region around the Orkney Tree.
So while that happens we get a flashback as well. Eleven years ago when the Trees came to Earth and settled in. We see this not with words but with visuals as we see the New York Tree coming down, destroying buildings and half the city where it lodged itself. Creating a slum like no other the country has seen. But there’s more that we won’t see till next issue and hopefully it will be a revelation of something we’ve not seen before. Though the Mayor-Elect seems to think this is highly important but we’ll see for ourselves.
No longer separating on all the different storylines throughout the world and focusing on a solid single arc for the moment will be a nice change of pace though i’d love to see what’s really happened to all the others we’ve gotten to know before all hell broke loose.
There’s something incredible about a science based science-fiction story like this it’s unique, gripping, intelligent and damn creepy with so much government ineptitude regarding the right way to handle things it’ll be quite the feat should the Jo and those like her figure these things out before the world’s governments destroy us by attacking them.