Ms. Tree - One Mean Mother!

Ms. Tree was created by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty in 1981 at the behest of Dean Mullaney who wanted the feature for the independent pioneer Eclipse Magazine. The story concerns a detective named Michael Tree who married a former cop also named Michael but who shot by gangsters. She takes over his detective business and goes on to not only discover who killed her husband but takes steps to revenge herself. Her life is one filled with violence. 

The series about a tough-as-nails was popular enough to get its own title soon enough. After leaving Eclipse the series ventured to Aardvark-Vanaheim for a nifty run before shifting over to DC in the 90's for a turn under the title Ms. Tree Quarterly. It is the stories from this DC run which occupy this 2019 trade from Titan Books Hard Case Crime brand. The story contains numerous spoilers if the reader intends to check out earlier comics (this one does) but I've enough knowledge that it wasn't that bad for me. Collins said he wanted to start with this defacto "graphic novel" because it was the best stuff he and Beatty did. I really like the early stuff so I don't necessarily agree with that assessment but I see his point. 

The saga opens in Ms.Tree Quarterly #1 with "Gift of Death" which has Ms.Tree confronted by the Muerta crime family which she has been fighting for years. A change in the leadership makes them consider her better kept as an employee and ally than a perennial enemy. That doesn't work out, but a sudden murder makes it look like Ms.Tree's vendetta is not over with.  We meet longtime supporting characters such as Lt.Rafe Valer, Michael's former partner on the police and close confidant, Her stepson Mike, business partners Dan Green and Roger Freemont among others. 

From Ms.Tree Quarterly #4 the story "Drop Dead Handsome" Michael meets up with an old flame named Billy Powers who has gone on to be a tycoon of sorts in the big city. Based on real estate magnate, television personality and former president and current traitor Donald Trump the story is one of manipulation in which Ms.Tree commits the only killing she says later she will feel sorry about. But this brief and violent romance will have consequences. 

"The Family Way" from Ms.Tree Quarterly #7 leaps forward three months, when has Ms.Tree contacted by the Muerta family again, this time to see about finding a wayward and quite possibly mad family member and hitman. It's a brutal trail with many innocents getting dragged into the line of fire and all the time Michael thinks she has the flu. Turns out she's pregnant. 

"Maternity Leave" in the very next issue jumps ahead six months and Ms.Tree steps down from her business to plan the birth of her child. Someone else is concerned about the upcoming birth, the family of the father - the deceitful and dead Billy Powers-- who hire killers to solve the problem before it can get to a probate court. It's all Michael can do to stave the killers until she does at last give birth. 

When we catch up with Ms. Tree again in the retitled Ms.Tree Special #9 it is four months later, and she plans to return to work. She gets her sister to help babysit but her return to work is quickly marred by an attack which leaves her sister wounded and her new baby named Melodie kidnapped. It's all actually a hit on Ms.Tree and the suspects again are the family members of the Powers family. This is an especially bloody one though the crisp clean artwork by Terry Beatty and inker Gary Kato allows the reader to be free of excessive gore. These are stories which hearken back to the vintage film noir detective yarns in which gunshots often rang out but blood while seen sometimes was rarely if ever excessive. 

Also included in this collection are two short essays by Collins. One discusses Ms.Tree's origins and the other the efforts he made to place Ms.Tree into film and television. Most are failed efforts, but one movie did get made from a Ms.Tree short story titled "Inconvenience Store" about a hostage situation the still very pregnant Michael Tree finds herself in when she wants a late-night snack of sardines. It was made into a Troma film titled Real Time - Seige at Lucas Street Market, apparently directed by Collins himself and starring  Brinke Stevens. I've never seen it, but it seems an interesting curiosity being composed of security film and the like. 

And that's a wrap on this debut issue. These are sleek well-crafted comic tales. They are violent tales, more impactful than the doings of superheroes, so a reader must be cautious. Michael Tree is a fully-developed character with a tendency towards violence but then she lives in a violent world as created by Collins and Beatty. The remaining issues for the DC run will make the second volume. And then we venture to Ms.Tree's earliest days. Hang in there. 

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