Warren Ellis and Jason Howard return for their third Trees book, Three Fates. For a series that’s always been focused on the global picture with multiple storylines happening concurrently across the planet, Three Fates instead takes place in just one location: the small Russian town of Toska, which is an interesting and unexpected new direction.
A dead body is found at the base of one of the trees and it’s down to the local police sergeant, Klara Voranova, to find out whodunit. Except she’s recently begun being haunted by her deceased former lover, Sasha - are they connected? And over it all stand the giant alien trees…
Trees: Three Fates was ok. Ellis reveals whodunit at the end of the first issue so the mystery is really about who the corpse is and why he was killed. And that storyline plays out just fine, though the reveal is kinda weak. It’s a small town so it was always going to be a small town reason.
I was more intrigued by the “ghost” of Sasha and its connection to the trees though Ellis unfortunately remained vague about what it all meant, which was unsatisfying. Also no clue as to what the subtitle “Three Fates” means.
Jason Howard’s art is fine, Ellis’ story is fine, the whole book is just… eh, fine. It’s nothing outstanding but it’s a decent self-contained story that never totally bored but also similarly never totally gripped me either - Trees: Three Fates is a distinctly average addition to the series. I’d like to see Ellis return to the bigger storyline of the trees in future books rather than have any more of these small, inconsequential stories.
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