Review by Frank Plowright

The Woods is a character study of a group of teenagers deposited in a horror fantasy scenario. Isaac Andrews, Karen Jacobs, Calder McCready, Sanami Ota, Maria Ramirez, Adrian Roth, and Benjamin Stone all have their assigned roles within a Wisconsin high school, but how will that change if the entire school is transported to an alien planet? True discoveries about who and what someone is occur when that person is faced with the unknown. Beforehand there can be speculation about how someone will react, but the truth is only revealed when the event happens.

School outsider and loner Adrian is the first shown grasping the situation, seemingly intuitive in understanding a strange object with glowing parts is a means of communication. To a greater or lesser extent, willingly or unwillingly, the others all adapt also, and they’re the almost exclusive focus in this first of three hardcovers compiling the entire series.

The art serves the story beautifully, and the combination of artist Michael Dialynas and colourist Josan Gonzalez counts for more than would be the case in a different series. Without the colour the alien planet Dialynas draws could, for the most part, be a regular forest, but the purple and turquoise colouring transforms it into something forbidding. Most wildlife is feral, and Dialynas designs terrifying insects and beasts, some later tamed, along with other threatening presences to be found in the woods. Capturing emotional responses and little details visually is greatly important, and Dialynas is accomplished with that as he is with his distinctively designed cast.

While the personalities are of primary importance, writer James Tynion IV involves them in a compelling drama with some shocking scenes during which people reveal who they are. Absolutely key is the fast pace at which The Woods moves, instituted from the opening chapter. Tynion introduces ideas, problems and mysteries, but few of them outlast this volume, which might seem a drawback, but the revelations prompt further questions, and Tynion is confident enough to keep throwing in more ideas. By the volume’s end a whole society has been set up and almost all the original mysteries have been solved, but there’s plenty more to carry readers forward into the second Yearbook.

The Yearbook combines volumes published in paperback as The Arrow, The Swarm and New London, and there’s also the option of the entire series collected as The Woods.