CREDIT: JAMES TYNION IV (WRITER), MICHAEL DIALYNIS (ARTIST) / BOOM STUDIOS
The Woods is flecked with horror and scary shades of purples and greens to give readers a frightening read.

The premise is simple. A small U.S. high school containing some 500 staff and students are transported from their normal lives in suburban Wisconsin to a moon somewhere across the galaxy. A moon full of winged multi-eyed monstrosities bent on eating the new population.

Welcome to The Woods, a comic book series which began its publishing run in May 2014 with BOOM Studios, has now seen three arcs containing 12 issues published.

The series, written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Michael Dialynis, puts the residents of Bay Point Preparatory High School against a new, cruel and unforgiving world in a battle not only for survival but also to figure out how the hell they ended up with their new planet-filled skyline.

Issue one begins with a student standing before a large carved stone pillar, followed by shots of humans from previous cultures doing the same. The student, now standing away from the rest of his distressed classmates, simply says, “I know what I have to do.”

The reader is then sent back just 25 minutes before the event, which changes these students and teachers’ lives, being shown just how normal their lives were before. The worries of college rejection letters, of not being noticed, of being caught for dumb pranks, the Milwaukeeans clearly don’t know what’s about to occur. With a white flash suddenly surrounding the school, the life-changing event is over, and the struggle to understand their new position in the universe begins.

Very quickly a small group of students believe they are the means to finding out this much needed information and so before anyone can notice, they slip away into the forest of monsters, bent on finding a meaning behind the alien stone structures, and it’s meaning to their continued survival and potential return to Earth.

Pacing within The Woods isn’t a problem, as multiple plots emerge through subsequent issues. Fighting between the teachers over how to keep the student body safe is evenly portrayed against the exploration group’s own terror-filled adventures, giving a sense that no one is prepared and much more will go wrong as the series progresses.

Arc one comes to a close with the group of explorer teenagers being split in two; one half finding a ziggurat filled with decades-old Cyrillic Russian writing scrawled across the interior, while the others are confronted by giant green bear creatures, only to be saved and then caught by a mysterious trio of woodsmen who give the final words of the Arc, simply saying, “These woods belong to us.”

Unfortunately panel layout of the premiere four-issue arc is bland, with only few uses of full page spreads, the majority of panel work is shoved into simple squares and rectangles, and few instances of angled panels, an easy way to show movement, both literal and plot, in the comic.

Despite the weak layouts, scenes being portrayed within more than make up for the placement issues, all while Josan Gonzalez’ colour work splashes eerie purples and greens across the alien landscape and its citizens.

Overall The Woods gives readers a decently entertaining sci-fi mystery flecked with horror elements, portrayed in unsettling colour tones, perfect for believing you’re on an alien world too.