The Woods: Yearbook Edition, Book Three

The Woods #7-9

by James Tynion IV, Michael Dialynas (Illustrator)

The final chapter of a Midwestern high school transported into the middle of an Alien forest, and how its students fought for survival.

In the years since they were first transported to an alien wilderness in the depths of space, the students of Bay Point Preparatory High School have had to grow up fast -- first simply to survive, and later to build some kind of life on this foreign moon. Now, that new life is being threatened as human nature yet again rears its ugly head, and the students discover something that was once thought a way home...

Written by James Tynion IV (Justice League, Memetic) and illustrated by Michael Dialynas (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles),The Woods Yearbook Edition Book Three collects issues #25-36 of the seminal GLAAD Award-winning series.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy, LGBT

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2019

About the author

Prior to his first professional work, Tynion was a student of Scott Snyder's at Sarah Lawrence College. A few years later, he worked as for Vertigo as Fables editor Shelly Bond's intern. In late 2011, with DC deciding to give Batman (written by Snyder) a back up feature, Tynion was brought in by request of Snyder to script the back ups he had plotted. Tynion would later do the same with the Batman Annual #1, which was also co-plotted by Snyder. Beginning in September 2012, with DC's 0 issue month for the New 52, Tynion will be writing Talon, with art by Guillem March. In early 2013 it was announced that he'd take over writing duties for Red Hood and the Outlaws in April.

Tynion is also currently one of the writers in a rotating team in the weekly Batman Eternal series.

Reviews

[Scott Garrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

More people need to read this series! It’s so good! What a great ending to a fun series.

[M_likes_it · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this series! It is weird character driven story with some creepy stuff.

[Soteralzobooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3 (biblio) strong finish

[Al Capwned · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a really good ending, although it seems that some characters didn't really had an arc after all but what can you do?

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit that this third volume concluded the series better than I had hoped. Tynion still writes in "writing course 101" mode, but I finally ended up becoming attached to some of the characters.
The conclusion is not without its flaws and resorts to easy tricks that have been seen a thousand times before, but as I've already said, Tynion deserves credit for writing well, and even the dialogue, which could easily be cringe-worthy, works well.
All in all, it's a decent series, with a structure and characters that are too by-the-book to be truly convincing, but reasonably good enough.

[Venus Maneater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow these characters grew on me like hot pink day glo barnacles. What a trip! Mediocre gripe; why are they all talking out of the side of their mouths? D:

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review is for the entire series read in one shot.

If I didn't have a strong completist streak I would have abandoned this about a third of the way through.

Dropping a high school onto an alien planet for unknown reasons, ok.

Encounter the mysterious denizens of said world? Sure

Join with them against an even bigger threat? absolutely

Spend several years on the planet and have not one child born or even pregnancy shown? This author has been to high school, right?

Aggressively showcase self-destructive homosexual relationships and exclude anything normal? Ah....no

Have all of the 'jocks' recruited by descendants of Imperial Japan so they can oppress the rest of the planet? You took a wrong turn at Albuquerque

Suddenly reveal one of the main characters has been cosplaying as a boy? byebye

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that I care so much about these characters that I don’t want to let them go, that I want to know what happens next, is a testament to the well-crafted story and people that Tynion and Dialynas have made. While there is more to go and more of the story that I would love to see, we are left at a point where we can imagine it well enough. Overall, I was really satisfied with this series and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I won’t say I recommend it to everyone because it definitely won’t be to (probably) the majority’s tastes, but if you’re up for highly weird, sci-fi/horror stories with lots of action, then I’d suggest giving it a try.

[Luke Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully grand finale for this series I have really come to love. Lots of weird monsters, lots of purple stuff, and some satisfying arcs for a cast of lovely characters. I will say it's maybe a little TOO kind and borderline sappy with a couple of my less-favorite characters, sort of refusing to condemn them for some pretty abominable behavior and offering a few more second chances than might really be healthy. Still, I enjoyed it so much I can't feel that itch too deeply. Has a couple new wrinkles I enjoyed the entire heck out of. A great time at the comic books.

[Kristine Beskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, someone makes a satisfying ending that hits on every note. Genuinely good world-building, believable and unexpected character development and deaths that matter. I cried like ten times reading this series, for all of the reasons. It's as beautifully thought out as it is beautifully drawn (it has a fantastic color palette.) This is why you read graphic novels; people are telling the complex, full and unsanitized stories that are more difficult to realize in other mediums. I'm already reading this again; I can't get enough, and can't say enough good things about it. It's inspiring.

[Pedro Gomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for giving things five stars and here I am again. The final arc to this series was heartfelt- cliche at times- but done in a way that I cared. So much pain, heartache and challenges that each character faced and some possessed better outcomes than others. It all seemed appropriate. The art really grabbed my attention and you could feel the tension of each scene. Even if the big reveal was “okay, guess that works” kind of moment- it was still a wonderful end to a wonderful journey.

[Evan Scarborough · Rating 5 out of 5]

The expansions made to the story in this final arc really reaffirmed what the stakes in The Woods have always been. Emotionally resonant to the end, with many of the comics best panels. There was never a moment where I felt a character was “safe” and that made the journey that much more intense and rewarding.

Highly recommend this series for those who love a good “transported out of your world” tale. Still holding to the fact that this would make for a great CW-meets-prestige tv show.

[Adam Barrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disappointing end to an interesting concept. I'm not sure how an inter dimensional time traveling science fiction adventure can devolve into a homosexual love triangle and a bi transgender relationship but it did. I'm all for exploring character driven story arcs, but this one became too teen angsty and I need to discover myself for me. I have had 5 high school kids at home, this is not who they are nor how they act.

[María José Bravo Macías · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!!! Shit went down all the way lol I loved the chaos so so much. A great finale for the story... Or was it a finale? Maybe it was just the beginning :D who the hell knows! I'm so happy with this ending. Although I still miss Calder... Rip

[Nick Belhomme · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is better then the second volume, but in the end I felt like I was happy it was over and felt a bit easy juvenile in how the story was presented.

This is the last one I read from James Tynion IV.

[Micha · Rating 4 out of 5]

im still reeling from that ending. first of all: sanders is my favorite character. second of all: adrian has redeemed himself in my mind. holy crapoli, that was extremely satisfying

[Lupe Dominguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was such a satisfying end to this epic tale. The redemption arcs, the character development and just ugh. Everything. This was so good. Such a great ending.

[Loki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply satisfying conclusion to a truly great story.

[Gelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

AFTER ALL THAT I DON'T GET TO SEE THEM HOME? I DON'T GET A REAL ENDING?!

[Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ride was fun, but that ending was really just perfect.

Man I hope those kids get therapy.

[Valerie Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I just look in the mirror some days and all I see is damage"

[Joshua Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending felt a bit rushed, but really engaging series overall.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read! Very enjoyable. Very entertaining. Interesting characters and engrossing relationships that the reader will become very engaged with over the course of the 36 chapters. I give this entire series, and this final collection, a solid Rickommendation.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was ready to rave about this after the first arc about the black city, and it does mostly stick the landing but it has problems which probably mostly come from the serial format. There are characters that the author set up and now seems disinterested in and plot lines that kind of fizzle out. The coach always felt like he was being set up for a villainous or heroic turn, but ultimately got neither. And if you missed book 4 you never would have guessed that Sanami and Kayla were dating. The author seems disinterested in Kayla in general to the degree that I wondered if he had forgotten about her altogether. These are all problems that would have been fixed in a novel since they'd just be edited out altogether.

The end was also disappointing. Overall it worked but it ended before we saw what happened. Usually I like ambiguous futures for the characters but here I thought it would have been interesting to know what had happened next to the characters. This is something Lost understood, but this goes more with Voyager's ending choice. I think one more issue would have helped a lot. The Sandman doesn't end with the climactic The Kindly Ones, but rather with a small sad set of stories called The Wake. This needed its own Wake.

It sounds like I really don't like it, but I did. It was a satisfying conclusion to a series that was occasionally really good. I just wish it was a bit better.