Morning Glories #27 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters)

The Story: Time traveling hijinks from the students of the Morning Glories Academy.

Review: “This is probably my last review of Morning Glories.”  That’s what I thought as I read through the issue.  Usually when that thought runs through my mind, it’s because I’m not enjoying the comic at all.  With MG, I’m walking away from reviewing it even though I still enjoy the comic quite a bit; the problem is that I don’t understand anything that is going on and cannot offer any useful insight on the plot twists.

Morning Glories #25 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters)

The Story: Season One of Morning Glories comes to an end.  Will secrets be revealed OR will the plot keep twisting?

Review: Morning Glories is a challenging series.  This issue represents the end of “Season One” and I can’t say that events are much clearer than when we started with issue #1 a few years ago.  We still don’t really know who these kids are and what the Morning Glories Academy represents.  If that lack of revelation is going to be a problem for you, well–you probably shouldn’t read MG because it’s not a revelatory type of series.  Or it isn’t that type of series YET.  This series really reminds me of 100 Bullets in terms of its pacing and that great series wasn’t even getting warmed up at issue #25.

In some ways, you have to admire the creators.  I know they’ve heard the hissing that “we need to know what is going on” and to “get on with it”, but they are just plugging away with their story at their pace.  This is the type of comic book that we could only get from a wholly creator-owned affair.  Imagine if Spencer and Eisma tried this pace of storytelling in a Marvel or DC book?  How long would the editors have allowed it to continue?  Five issues?  MG would have been rebooted several times since with multiple new #1s, crossed over with EVENTS and featured guest appearances by Deadpool.  So, let’s appreciate the creative commitment to telling a story the way the creators want it to be.  I wouldn’t want all of comics to be paced like MG, but there is certainly a place for a few books like this.

Morning Glories #24 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors) and Johnny Lowe (letters)

The Story: An issue focusing on Ike and his father.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): Morning Glories is such an odd series.  I enjoy it quite a lot and I appreciate it even more in this era of short runs on ongoing series.  There simply aren’t that many current series from any publisher that have reached the advanced age of issue #24….and even fewer have done so with a consistent creative team.  But, I always feel like I need to defend the series against it’s detractors who complain about the slow pacing and lack of answers.  That’s just how it is with a longer running series.  At this point in 100 Bullets, we were just meeting the core cast of characters.  At this point in The Walking Dead, Michonne had barely showed up.  I guess there is something to be said for just waiting and buying it in trade, but I think stories like this lose something when you aren’t exposed to them in small doses on a monthly basis.

Morning Glories #21 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Rodin Esquejo (covers) and Johnny Lowe (letters)

The Story: We meet the big kids who killed _____ a few issues ago.

A few things (with some SPOILERS from a few issues ago): 

1). Zoe who? – It was a bummer a few issues ago when Zoe got killed.  She was the most interesting of the original students and one wondered who would sieze the vacant title of “Character who is fun to watch.”  Obviously we shouldn’t have worried because Spencer is now distracting us with a bright and shiny new character: Irina.  Of the new characters introduced in this issue, she is instantly the most captivating.  She’s semi-hostile, capable and has that awesome jet-black hair that Eisma draws so well.  Hopefully we’ll see a lot more of Irina in the future because she’s pretty interesting.

Morning Glories #20 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (artist), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) and Rodin Esquejo (cover)

The Story: Miss Daramount and Miss Hodge as kids.

 The Review: 

1. Really does remind me of Lost. – I remember when this series was first being teased several years ago and it was compared to the TV show Lost.  That was a market-savvy comparison to make since Lost was a wildly popular TV show.  Now that we’re 20 issues in, I can see that it is a very good comparison for better and for worse.  Like Lost, there are TONS of little things going on in the background that might be important – or they might not.  For example, was pretty neat to see a young Nurse Nine in this issue acting as a young nurse/executioner in one of the flashbacks.  So, Nurse Nice has always been a grim little bitch.  Cool.  But, you never know when some of these background elements are just background noise designed to make you look.  Some of them are surely like the shark in Lost that had the Dharma Initiative logo tattooed on it’s back.  God, remember that shark?  People were posting screen caps of the damn shark online, analyzing the hell out of why Dharma would tattoo a shark, blah, blah… And the shark was never important at all.

Some of your enjoyment of the series will come down to your attitude and mood.  If you want ALL the pieces to click into place someday, you should probably go somewhere else because I strongly doubt that will happen.  If it is going to piss you off that we never know precisely WHY the father flogged the hell out of a young Georgina Daramount before the opening scene of this issue, then you should go somewhere else.  But, if you kinda enjoy the hunt, looking for clues and trying to piece together which elements are important and which are just background noise… Well, then this series can be fun.

2. But, lacking Lost’s online community. – Now, I do have a little problem with Spencer choosing this Lost-like narrative structure.  Lost had a viewership of 10-17MM people.  The day after the show, everything got ripped apart and analyzed by a very active online community.  I remember USA Today had a wonderful blog where the community could piece together the breadcrumbs and decide what was BS and what was important.  Morning Glories sells about 9K issues per month.  I know this series does well in trade, but those trade readers aren’t real-time and can’t help us solve the mysteries; they are the people who didn’t watch Lost until the DVD set came out.  Part of the reason Lost’s mysteries were so cool was that you could chat about them at work and online the next day.  MG’s audience is just too small to have such a robust sense of community and that saps some of the fun from the narrative structure.

So, if you read this and think you have insights, post it in the comments.  I’m just a reader and reviewer, not an expert on the minute details of the series.  Just don’t be a troll.  🙂

3. Are there any good guys? – Kinda some brutal news about Miss Hodge, huh?  Ever since we first met her, she’s seems like the friendly version of the Daramount/Hodge sisters.  It seemed like she might actually be on the kids’ side (whatever that means).  Well, she pretty much dispelled that notion when she splattered that Vanessa girl all over the place.  Or, is it is case where she just has her own agenda?  Maybe she can be nice to the kids sometimes, or when it serves her needs…

Morning Glories #19 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (artist), Rodin Esquejo (cover), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters)

The Story: The climax of a story cycle as we return to where Zoe and Hunter are during the Woodrun game.

A few things (with SPOILERS): 1). Tense issue! – I’m of two-minds on the tension as Zoe chases Hunter through the forest with a knife.  On one hand, the whole thing came off as very believable.  A kinda pathetic kid like Hunter is usually “safe” in comics unless the writer is exploiting the death of said pathetic character for shock value, but Spencer and (especially) Eisma made me believe that Hunter was in mortal danger.  Well done!  On the other hand, why was Zoe trying to kill Hunter?  One problem I have with MG is the way the story bounces around issue to issue making it tough for a single issues reader.  This issue picks up directly from mid-January’s Morning Glories #15.  My recollection is that Zoe and Hunter were actually getting kinda chummy.  Maybe Zoe wasn’t going to actually hook up with Hunter, but she definitely liked that he was paying attention to her and when Hunter instead moved his attentions to the chubby girl, Zoe wasted no time in killing her; Zoe had to be the center of attention.  So….why is she suddenly trying to kill Hunter?  And why can’t Hunter just take the knife from Zoe?  Even a pathetic guy should be able to disarm a teenage girl with a knife in a heartbeat.

Morning Glories #17 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) and Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: What were Jade and Ike doing while Casey and Ms. Hodge vanished from the cave?
A few things:

Long! – 34 pages for the same $2.99 price.  Isn’t that nice?  You know how when Marvel or DC does an “extra sized” issue, they charge $4.99 for it?  Well, none of that here.  Nice job fellas!  By making this issue longer, the creators are able do the roadwork they needed to with the main story and also weave in some tidbits on the side.  With a shorter issue, something would have dropped.

Lots of talking. – There are positives and negatives to this issue’s length, though.  The best thing it is that we get to learn more about Jade.  She is probably the least explored of the “main” characters in this title (along with Jun) and there’s no replacement for page-time for fleshing out a character.  Spencer is clearly devoted to developing all of his characters, and that’s going to take some time at 22 pages per issue.  So, he decided to quicken the process with a extra-sized issue.  I do kinda admire how Spencer is telling his own story at his own pace and isn’t being distracted by silly reviewers yelling to “Hurry up!”.  Isn’t that the point of creator-owned comics?  Now, the negative of this issue is that the A-story is mostly Jade and Ike talking to each other.  It isn’t very exciting. It’s kinda like eating your vegetables.  Even though we learned a lot more about Jade in this issue, I think I’d rather go see what Zoe is doing.
Interesting moments happen in the B-stories. – One other benefit of the extra length is that the B-stories got full treatment.  Compared to the main story, it was far more interesting to see Jade in the flashback sequences.  THERE you really connect with her as a person.  Then, there is a scene (I think) from around the time the Morning Glories Academy was built.  THAT scene was curious and is the kind of catnip that MG fans enjoy.  Finally, we have the return of a character we haven’t scene since the early, early issues of the series.  This dude was kinda like the polar bear on Lost.  It’s nice to see him back because it reinforces that Spencer does have a plan for this series.  Sometimes you worry with these slow developing stories that the writer might be making it up as they go along, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Morning Glories #16 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (artist), Alex Sollazzo (colorist) & Johnny Lowe (letterer)

The Story: After a few issues following Zoe & Hunter during the Woodrun games, we get back to Casey and Ms. Hodge who vanished from a cave to the desert a few issues ago.

A Few Things: 

1. Nice to get back to Casey & Ms. Hodge. – Morning Glories has a pretty big cast and that does present challenges for the creators.  Some comics (such as I Zombie) manage this task by giving each character 2-3 pages per issue and I usually criticize such issues as “too busy”.  Spencer and Eisma have gone in another direction.  When we last saw Casey & Ms. Hodge, they were vanishing from some “cave of magic” on the grounds of the Morning Glories Academy and reappearing in the desert where they were taken into custody by US military forces.  It was a great “Whoa!” moment, but we then spent a few issues focusing on Zoe and Hunter camping in the forest before going back to Casey’s story.  While each storytelling technique has it’s drawback, I think I prefer this MG approach because it allows us to have a deeper experience rather than skimming over the top of lots of issues.

2. Series is really settling into a nice pacing. – We’re at a point where every month the creators expose more insights about the MG universe. This is a long-haul of a series, but it’s nice to get something new to chew on every issue.  It may not always be the tidbit we wanted but it is always makes us think.

3. It really does remind me of Lost. –  Continuing the above point, this series is dipping into the weird.  Here is the SPOILER warning… In this issue, we learn that Casey and Ms. Hodge have gone back in time and are meeting Casey’s father at a time when Casey is only 3-months old.  Trippy, huh?  And, we learn that somehow, Casey and Ms. Hodge have the power of suggestion over people in the past (i.e. they can control their actions via speech).  That’s kinda interesting too.  And, now Casey is on some mission– of course, in true MG fashion (and calling back to Lost), they mission is clear as mud.  It’s more of a “You’ll know what to do when you get there.”  There are so many moving elements in this series that I really cannot wait to give it a re-read.  I’d also love to see the notes that Spencer and Eisma use to keep everything straight.

Morning Glories #15 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) & Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: Zoe and Hunter have to team-up for the mysterious Woodrun game.

Four Things:

1. A focused issue. – There wasn’t a lot of background noise in this issue.  Morning Glories usually does focus on a character or two, but this issue felt much tighter (and better).  It’s really just Zoe and Hunter out in the woods and some Zoe flashbacks (more about that below).  Other than a few moments of Jun and some discussion of Casey, this was all Zoe/Hunter.  No teachers, no Ike, etc.  That really helped the readability of the issue because we were able to focus on the characters in front of us and not worry so much about the 50 other mysteries with the other characters.  Now, the challenge for the creators is that when we DO revisit those characters, we’ll have been away from those mysteries for months and they’re going to have to remind us a little bit!

2. We know a LOT more about Zoe. – So she’s a killer.  But, as is normal for the series, just as we learn something, they give us some more mysteries.  The folks she’s killed have been for different reasons.  One was nominally to help a friend, one was to save her own butt and the final one was a possible romantic rival. It also seems like each murder got a little easier for her going from impulsive to calculated.  Hmm…  And, just the fact that she talked so much in this issue makes me feel like I know her better.  I seriously wouldn’t mind if all the issues got a little “wordy” just to enhance our familiarity with the characters.

3. Weird romantic vibes. – Did anyone else get the feeling that Zoe might let Hunter take a pass at her?  It was very weird, especially given that she was telling Hunter how Casey was WAY out of his league (and she clearly thinks of herself as better than Casey).  Who’d think that Hunter would end up being the ladies man of the series??  I’m sure some of it is that Zoe likes the attention, but why put on airs when alone in the woods?  Anyway, I love me some romance that plays up the soap opera aspects of comics.

Morning Glories #14 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) & Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: More mysteries, Zoe and Hunter have a few “moments” and we learn more about Woodrun.

Five Things: 

1. Lots of teases.  This issue had a lot of scenes where if you joined the scene a panel sooner OR if you were allowed to linger for a panel more OR if you were just permitted to change your visual perspective …..you would have learned something important.  That’s the tease of Morning Glories and it’s either your kind of thing or it isn’t.  I work professionally with legal contracts and reading Morning Glories sometimes reminds me of reading an except from a contract without any of the definitions of terms: Sometimes you think you might know what the characters are talking about, but you almost never know for sure.   This is obviously what Spencer and Eisma are going for and they do it very well.

2. Nice coloring.  My ability to comment technically on coloring is weak, but I really do like what Sollazzo does in MG month-after-month. Eisma’s art is very clean.  There aren’t many stray lines, spot blacks, crosshatching or anything else that would add a lot of depth to a page.  So, a lot of that work is on Sollazzo’s plate and he really does a nice job.  I usually say that I’m not a fan of such highlighted color art, but this works for me because he isn’t cutting corners.  Lots of color artists will do things like highlight a head like it is a sphere when we all know that heads are NOT spheres.  Sollazzo really seems to understand and care about contouring.  It kinda goes without saying at this point that Eisma’s characters are really “acting” well, but Sollazzo adds that extra touch without ever screwing up the line art.

3. Different point of view.  Some of the scenes in this issue were lifted straight out of last issue.  I wouldn’t want that every month, but it is a neat literary tick when it is used effectively.  It’s neat to see how a scene unfolds from multiple angles.  That month we followed one group of characters and here we get to see what happened to the people who got “left behind”.  Man….Zoe….what a B!$%#.

Morning Glories #12 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (artist), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) & Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: Another new face shows up at the Morning Glories Academy and it isn’t really clear whose side she is on.

What’s Good: I’ve been urging this enjoyable series for a few months to “get on with it” and reveal some mysteries.  This issue was a little odd.  Now that I’m finished, I can’t really put my fingers on any big mysteries that were solved, but for some reason, I walked away from the issue feeling as if I’d learned some good stuff.  I’m not really sure why that was and it could be as simple as I might have been in a better state of mind when I read the comic, but the fact remains that I felt fulfilled when I put this down instead of feeling teased.  Some if it was little stuff like the fact that Ms. Daramount’s first name is Georgina.

I still feel as if I reread this series from the beginning with a notepad, I might learn some stuff and I have a feeling that when the mysteries are revealed in the end, that the signs will have been there since the beginning if you knew were to look.  That’s a good feeling to have about a series like this.

One very positive thing in this issue is that it touches base with a LOT of the main characters.  For a while, we’ve been in a cycle where the action is heavily focused on a singular character.  We have learned some juicy tidbits about the characters this way, but losing contact with the rest of the characters has been tricky because I still don’t feel like I have instant recall of even what their names are yet.  But, in this issue we check in with just about everyone and it serves as a good reminder of who everyone is in this very complex story.

And what a cool new character we get in this issue.  Is Miss Hodge a teacher?  Is she in charge of the place?  An ally for the students?  Who knows, but she is intriguing.

Morning Glories #11 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) & Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: A focus on Ike (the sociopath kid) both in the past and in the present at Morning Glories Academy.

What’s Good: This an enjoyable issue that drills into Ike, who is one of the more interesting characters in Morning Glories.  All the other kids in MG have kinda adopted an all-for-one attitude, but Ike was a punk from the start and later revealed himself to be a sociopath who is playing his own game.  As a character, he is up to something and that makes the concept of a focus issue tantalizing and this issue really emphasizes his scheming nature.  We’ve known since the beginning of the series that the adults at the MGA are up to something, but Ike’s plans could evolve into a very entertaining B-Story.  He’s a little like that contestant on the reality show who has figured out how to break the game.

In typical, MG fashion this Ike story is told in a very mysterious way.  The moments we see from the past have to do with Ike’s involvement with – and behavior after – his father’s death and they do a nice job of setting up what a sick little bastard Ike is.  This combines with a puzzling present day story where the adults of MGA want to use Ike’s murderous talents for their own ends leading to a very, “Huh???  Wha????” ending that tosses yet another mystery on the pile.  There’s also a neat little scene where Miss Daramount brings Ike into her office and explains (in the best adult movie fashion) how he can earn some “extra credit.”

Two really nice things jump out about the art in this issue.  One is that Eisma really draws ladies well.  His ladies are attractive and sexy even if they are quite idealized.  Hey! …I’ve got no complaints.  He also really grasps how to graphically tell a story and get his characters to act.  For example, when Miss Daramount invites Ike into her office, Eisma knows how to make her stand so that her body language says, “Come hither you young vigorous boy!” when the dialog just says, “Oh, Good Ike — Come on in, dear, have a seat.”  Due to this one panel, we instantly know that she’s coming on to Ike and if Eisma had flubbed that initial panel, the entire scene would have suffered.

Morning Glories Vol. 1 – Review

Words by Nick Spencer, Art by Joe Eisma, Covers by Rodin Esquejo, Colors by Alex Sollazzo

A friend of mine recently got into Lost and said that if he had watched it week to week, he didn’t think he would have enjoyed it half as much as watching them all at once. It would have been too frustrating and tiresome to keep track week-to-week and then over summer hiatus and dealing with the crappy episodes going “Jack’s tattoos? What the hell?” and having to wait a full seven days hoping the next episode would make up for it. On DVD, he got to Jack’s tattoo episode and said, “eh, that sucked. Next,” and moved on. My point is, I wonder if Morning Glories is similar. Because as a graphic novel, it is probably one of the best things I’ve read in the last year…but if I was forced to just get snippets of the story month to month? I might have killed someone. And by someone, I mean Nick Spencer.

Spencer is the new hotness. We all know that. Marvel signed him to be exclusive faster than the devil signed Faust. Now he’s got an Iron Man series, an Avengers series, and slated to write even more (please be Iron Fist…just saying, he would be awesome on Iron Fist). So when his name exploded on the solicitations like an eager high school boy on prom night, I looked him up. Morning Glories—good reviews all around, and what’s this? The first volume is only $9.99? Oh, Image, I love your marketing scheme! How can you say no to a ten-buck trade? And if it’s good—then of course you’ll have to get the next trade at $14.99. So, I was all set give this new guy a try and see if he was really as good as the mythos had built him up to be.

I read the first trade of Morning Glories three times—twice in one night. I just could not believe that this was a comic that existed. It’s everything I love about Lost, Runaways, and Avengers Academy rolled together. If this came in a tortilla shell, I would never have to go to Chipotle again. The mysteries Spencer set up could easily go on for six seasons—I mean volumes. More even. And, as Lost was smart to do, as compelling as the mysteries are, Spencer focuses on the characters. We have our Jack—though this Jack is a 16-year-old blonde, which is perfectly fine. We also have a Ben—Miss Daramount. She might seem like the most evil bitch in comics now, but at one point Ben was the most evil person in television, but look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t cry just a little for him in the series finale of Lost. I feel like we might get something like that from Daramount. The characters are already so fleshed out that they only thing left to do is develop. Now, hopefully Spencer doesn’t do the one thing Lost did wrong—through wrenches into a character’s story just for the sake of throwing a wrench (Charlie season 2…what the hell was any of that about?).  The only character we don’t know much about yet is Jun—but we need at least one really mysterious character, right? Can’t give us too many nuggets this early on, right?

Morning Glories #7 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) & Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: An issue that focuses on Zoe’s past and present introduces even more mysteries.

What’s Good: This was a very entertaining issue.  I had some problems with it in the opening pages that really bugged me (that I’ll get into below), but by the time the issue was finished, I was very satisfied with the story.

Spencer focuses the story in this issue on Zoe.  Perhaps it was “revealed” before that she is Indian, but it hadn’t really clicked with me that she was anything more than vaguely Asian.  We also learn that she has some superpowers, or at least had them as a little girl because she seems to have forgotten about them now.  What we’re seeing with all of these kids’ stories is that there are these huge missing gaps of time, but they all have weird beginnings.  If Zoe could read minds as a young child, what happened to those powers?  We suspect that her powers are the reason that the Morning Glories Academy is interested in her, but is it to utilize her powers or to suppress them?  Mysteries abound!  And unlike other series that haven’t revealed much of the true story by issue #7, Morning Glories is still very fresh feeling.  All of these series eventually hit a point where the reader starts to ask, “What is the point of this whole story and how long will this go on?”  To Spencer’s credit, that thought hasn’t entered my brain yet.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be an issue of Morning Glories without a “WTF?!?!?” ending.  How/Why did Zoe do that at the end?  Seriously weird (in a good way).

Eisma’s art continues to be very strong.  The characters in Morning Glories have to “act” to sell all these teenage emotions that they’re feeling and that seems to be a real strong suit for Eisma.  He is also showing a great example of photo-reference being used the RIGHT way.  I’m pretty sure for some panels he probably has a picture he is referencing of what a cute teenage girl looks like when she is indignant, but he is merely using it as a reference and then drawing 100% with his own hand and exaggerating the parts of the face that sell the emotion: a crinkled nose, squinty eyes, etc.  This is a great comic from a character-acting standpoint.

Marineman #3 – Review

By: Ian Churchill (writer/art/colors), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt & JG Roshell (lettering & design)

The Story: Marineman’s origin and the Big-Bad are both revealed.

What’s Good: Beautiful comic.  The coloring, art and design of this issue are top-notch and are like nothing else on my pretty long pull list.  If you’re into art and the visual aspect of comic books, you’re going to want to check this series out.  The first thing that lunges out at you about this issue is how well the colors and lighting capture being underwater.  Light is very different underwater because you do still have direct light from the sun, but there is also this incredible diffraction of light and the art team just nails that look.  A few of the underwater panels are just GORGEOUS!  Even the panels on dry land maintain a marine feel by coloring the panel borders appropriately (e.g. yellow on a beach to remind us of sand).

As for the story itself, there are some positive things too.  In this issue we learn a little about the origin of Steve Ocean.  Not surprisingly, he is a bit of a man of mystery and I have a feeling that his origin and the Big-Bad guy will have some kind of connection.  Learning who Steve is and the loss of his mother are important aspects of this story.

Marineman #2 – Review

By: Ian Churchill (writer, art, colors), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt & JG Roshell (lettering & design)

The Story: A big revelation about Steve Ocean (a.k.a. Marineman)!  Surprise…he isn’t just a dude who likes the water.

What’s Good:  Everything that was great about issue #1 is still present here.  The biggest thing that grabs you is that this is such a happy story.  It does get into some more serious topics in this issue, but it does not lose the fact that this comic is essentially a big SMILE.  It is very hard not to really like Steve Ocean.  He reminds me of those people you meet in your life who are successful, intelligent AND good looking who cause you to think, “Ugh…. I’ll bet this guy is gonna be a real prick.” and then you meet them and it turns out that they are a world-class nice guy on top of that: friendly, kind to friends, self-depreciating, etc.  Steve is a very admirable character who doesn’t have an obvious character flaw.

[SPOILER Warning] The big reveal in this issue is that Steve isn’t exactly a standard-issue human being.  We learn this during a scene where he saves his best friend’s life from certain drowning and shark attack.  The first issue was very technically sound on its diving terminology and lingo, so at first I was surprised that Churchill didn’t have Steve and his friend start to buddy breathe (Steve had no tank/regulator when he went in after his friend) or at least have the friend whip out a pony bottle.  I was actually kinda disappointed to see this lack of realism as we were reading.  Then as the duo are ascending to the surface, Steve is making his buddy go slow to avoid the bends and I was wondering, “Huh?  How long has the friend been down and how deep?  Why would he need to decompress?  And how long has Steve been in the water?  Is he holding his breath?”  As you can probably guess, Steve has a power having to do with surviving in the water and had to reveal his big secret to save his buddy.

The art is what sets the tone for this title.  Sometimes it is fun to imagine what a title would look like if it were drawn differently.  For example, if Jock drew this comic, it would be gritty and have a very different flavor, but the look of this book is what makes this comic book such a smile.  Steve just looks huge and heroic, the water is that brilliant blueish/green that you only see when you’re diving in some topical paradise on a gorgeous day when there is a calypso band playing back at the bar and the fruity drinks are chilling for you.  It is just beautiful.  I also need to learn more about what exactly the Comicraft guys are doing when they are credited for “design”.  They got a similar credit for Bulletproof Coffin and that was another book that was very visually unique.

Morning Glories #4 – Advance Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) & Kristen Simon (editor)

The Story: The some of the Morning Glories kids band together in an attempt to bust one of their own out of the evil nurse’s office.

What’s Good: If you liked Lost, you would love Morning Glories.  This issue is relatively calm by MG standards.  That means there are only 3-4 weird little mysterious bits floating around.  So, on top of the oddities we’ve seen over the first 3 issues, we’re well into double digits for those counting the weird things.  It seems unfair to keep comparing this comic series to Lost, but someone really could have a website devoted to the mysteries of the MG academy.

Weirdness aside, this issue is much more contained and focuses on a single story: Rescuing one of the young ladies from the wicked nurse’s office where bad things are going down.  As the kids concoct their scheme, we get to see the most character development we’ve seen yet in MG.  Spencer writes teenage dialog really well, but the absolute star of this series so far is the boy who could probably be a real sociopath if events broke just right.  It is obvious that Spencer really enjoys writing him and the kid is just such a deliciously questionable character.

Oh, and there is a major plot-twist at the end of the issue that I didn’t see coming at all.  This plot twist holds great potential for furthering the story and increasing the dynamic tension among the MG students.

Eisma’s art continues to be a strong point for this series.  This is the kind of series that can be overlooked from an artistic standpoint because there are no double-splash pages of Red Hulk punching The Watcher in the face.  It is just page after page of nice character illustration, always with complete backgrounds.  A huge round of applause should also go to Sollazzo for his colors and lighting.  These characters are very contoured and Sollazzo is nicely shading clothes and faces.  And, you always know where the light source is in the panel (a lost art with some inkers and colorists).

Morning Glories #2 – Advance Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors) & Johnny Lowe (letters)

The Story: Mysteries abound, as our teen protagonists start to realize that the boarding school for gifted kids they have been sent to is seriously screwy.

What’s Good: When we first started hearing the pitches for Morning Glories over the summer, creator Nick Spencer made a lot of references to Lost.  Now, that I’ve read the first two issues, I can see the comparison because the mysteries are coming at us left and right.  Many “mysterious” comic series get by with a single hook, but Morning Glories introduced about 5 in the first issue and I counted 4 completely new weird things in this issue.

As this is an advance review, I’m not doing any spoilers, but the issue takes place with the kids all in detention.  The whole thing immediately reminded me of the Breakfast Club as the kids discuss what they did to get detention and all of their stories revolve around their either stumbling into or being accosted by the serious weirdness of the Morning Glories Academy.  My favorite was probably the young ladies encounter with a demented upperclassman.  Holy creepy!  The weirdness is great, and just like Lost, I really want to know more.

Spencer has a gift for snarky young person dialog.  All of the characters are written pretty well, but my favorite so far is the slightly disturbed young boy why keeps making highly inappropriate remarks towards the girls from the class.  There are also pop culture references galore.  Those can be overdone, but they all work here (esp. the Breakfast Club mention).

Like issue #1, I thought the art in issue #2 was serviceable.  That may sound like a dirty word, but I really don’t mean it that way.  I think of comics like two people singing together and someone needs to sing the harmony most of the time.  You can have both writer and artist both going for it at one time, but I think that is really dangerous because it usually just doesn’t work.  So, I’m very happy to see art that stays within itself, tells the story and kinda just bides its time (especially at the beginning of a story).

Before switching over to the few things that troubled me, I also want to toss a bone to Alex Sollazzo (the colorist).  The poor colorists never get any kudos and people act like they are just using MS Paint to do their work and argue that they don’t even deserve to be mentioned in the credits.  When you check out the panels, you will see that a LOT of the texture and sense of depth you get from the characters are coming via the coloring.  I LOVE that because I think that it looks silly to have harshly inked contour lines all over something that should be smooth (like a teenage girl’s face or a silk shirt).