Something important happens this issue of The Woods. It becomes “‘Lost’ with teenagers.” I can’t believe it took Tynion this long. It might not have been so sadly apparent if artist Dialynas were maintaining the previous issue’s level of quality, but he’s not. The book can’t handle the writing losing any ingenuity as the art becomes problematic.
The best thing about the comic are Josan Gonzalez’s colors.
The problem, at least as far as Tynion’s responsibilities go, is the cast. No one is likable except the obviously likable, no one is bad except the obviously bad. Tynion operates in absolutes; predictable absolutes.
It’s particularly bad when there’s a shining knight scene and Dialynas draws it so poorly it looks like a guy making out with his twin sister. The art with the monsters is even lazier.
Oddly, Tynion’s cliffhanger isn’t bad and the comic’s relatively inoffensive. It’s just not worthwhile.
C
CREDITS
Writer, James Tynion IV; artist, Michael Dialynas; colorist, Josan Gonzalez; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editors, Jasmine Amiri and Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.
Tynion loses a lot of momentum with all the characters. He’s got two things going on–he’s got the kids who went into the woods and he’s got the school. The school has kids and adults. He splits the issue into two and a half–the kids in the woods, the adults at the school, then less on the kids at the school.
While The Woods seems like the most movie or TV ready comic to come out in a while–a high school is teleported to an planet with flying demons–writer James Tynion IV never actually panders to that goal. Even with a couple really uneven sections and a problematic soft cliffhanger, he's writing a comic. It's nice to read a comic, not a pitch.