Family Tree Vol. 3: Forest
Jeff Lemire, writer; Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur, Ryan Cody, artists
Image Comics, 2021
The family drama/ecological horror series concludes here. It spends a lot of time in the present--five years after the big transformational event--while also including flashbacks that fill in details about the family's transformation. The struggle against the Arborists continues. They are still looking for Meg (fully changed into a tree now), who the family transplanted before they could destroy her: they are convinced that she is the key to the changes in the ecology, and that by destroying her they can reverse the changes. They capture Josh's mom, drawing him into invading their camp, while leaving Josh's wife Sarah to defend Meg.
The big climax is pretty anticlimactic: nothing obvious changes in the new world, but all of the deceased family members gather together in the spiritual tree consciousness we have seen earlier (which never is explained in any way). Josh and Sarah have returned to his family home, where they bury his mom. And their daughter Jessie shows signs of transforming into a tree in the last frame. So the moral is, it's not really a horror story, because the world is better off without humans in it? Or at least, that change is inevitable, and maybe morality doesn't enter into it. Not completely convincing in the end, although the action and the artwork carry it along. It probably would have been easier to follow if it had been collected into two six-issue compilations instead of three four-issue ones.
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