Review by Frank Plowright
This volume leaps forward again from Yearbook Edition 2, and the surprise is that it doesn’t open on the hostile planet where over five hundred school kids and their building have been abducted, but in Wisconsin, showing their parents for the first time outwith flashbacks. They represent a variety of views about the impossible having happened with no answers after two years, and having been introduced they become part of the narrative until their story eventually collapses into the bigger picture.
Michael Dialynas has been a great artist throughout. Colour is so important that in places it’s difficult to tell whether he or colourist Josan Gonzalez has the biggest impact, but this volume leaves no doubt of Dialynas as a star turn. As the location moves away from the forest, the colour isn’t such a priority, and the strength of the basic art is more apparent. Dialynas is a thoughtful storyteller, and it’s very obvious in a sequence of slaughter that jumps from one area to another. The chaos of universal massacre might not seem the obvious representation of an artist’s talent, but the storytelling is so effective in a series of upsetting panels showcasing different cast members, some in their last moments of life. Despite the evocative content, the panels are if anything understated, and a lot of work has gone into each, ensuring they’re all packed with people and all look different.
After six hundred pages and two previous books, has Tynion lost the ability to surprise? Certainly not. There are a couple of places where he falters, but even then it’s not due to predictability or any sense of contrived melodrama as occurred briefly in the previous book. Here all character developments seem natural and a couple of moments that seemed throwaway in the past turn out to be significant. The seven cast members introduced in the opening chapter have been on a journey that concludes here, although for some it’s already ended. Everyone who survives has been changed, and some have been transformed. For most it’s a satisfying arc as they’ve become versions of themselves they could never have imagined, although that’s not to say you’d want to share a drink with them all.
The titles of the three paperbacks combined here cover the broad story direction from The Black City to The Final War to The Way Home as Tynion manoeuvres the cast towards that route home. It’s all thrilling until a poorly considered and unsatisfying finale, a few pages that fail to give readers what they want. It doesn’t diminish the thrill ride we’ve had, but it’s puzzling, as there seems no reason not to provide the further ten pages or so of a proper ending rather than have readers figure out their own.
These Yearbook Editions are desirable hardcovers, but budget might mean the preferred choice is the entire series collected as one bulky paperback just titled The Woods.
