Review by Frank Plowright

The Woods began with a focus on seven teenagers from Wisconsin who’ve been transported to another planet, a dangerous place with plenty of threats, not least from other humans already resident. A marker of the danger is that a year after they arrived only four remain alive, and each of the others has been considerably changed.

Karen’s change only arrived as the continuity leapt forward a year in The Horde, but not everything about her transformation was revealed. It’s all laid out here, the disappointments, the betrayal and the realisation that ultimately only she’s responsible for herself. Oddly, though, it’s the weakest moment of character-building by the so far extremely thoughtful and efficient James Tynion IV. The way circumstances play out is narratively needed to ensure two other characters eventually form an alliance. Their reasons for doing so are dumb, but consistent with who they are, yet despite Karen’s insecurities her prompting actions transmit as melodramatic and contrived. Still, the character reached at the end is worth the mis-step.

However, the melodrama isn’t confined to Karen. Over earlier volumes Tynion maintained a balance between the cast moving forward in the present day and the flashbacks informing their motivations. That balance is absent in a volume weighted too heavily in favour of character moments there’s no necessity for. It has the feeling of Tynion knowing what would make a really good final chapter and spending too long working toward it.

Artist Michael Dialynas is as good as he’s ever been. If there’s a bonus to the melodrama it’s highlighting how effectively he conveys it. We know what the cast feel, even if they’re not saying it.

Last time the fearsome Horde needed to retreat, not due to the actions of the Wisconsin school, but due to one person no longer present. They took prisoners, and remain a danger. Several of the cast think it’s a good idea to track them down and mount a rescue operation, and in that final chapter it’s supplied, but it’s diminished by Tynion making the wrong choice. He takes the obvious tragic route when others were available. It can’t be considered a mistake with absolute certainty until we move into The Black City, but it sure looks that way.

This is combined with the two previous volumes as the second Yearbook Edition, or the whole series is available collected as one bulky paperback just titled The Woods.