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 #22 – Review

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

The Story: Hunter goes on a hike with the new kids.

Review: We’re now 22 issues and about two years into Morning Glories.  At this point, it’s safe to say that there are two basic types of MG issues.  In one type, questions are resolved.  They may not always be the questions you wanted resolved and the resolutions may raise even more questions, but in those issues the creators are shoveling some scraps of red meat to the fans who are demanding answers.  The other type of issue just stirs the waters and confuses/intrigues us even more.  These aren’t “bad” issues…..they’re just very different in flavor.

This issue #22 is more of the latter.  Nothing really big gets explained to us and there are a few scenes that beg a lot more questions.  In a way, it all makes sense given that the upcoming issue #25 is the end of “Season One”.

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 #13 – Review

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

The Story: The new arrival, Miss. Hodge, is making things happen at the Morning Glories Academy?  Is she a good guy or what?

Five Things:

1.  Artist Joe Eisma is really good at making his character “act”.  If you doubt this, go take a look at his original art at The Interior Pages.  Here you can see his art without any lettering and in most panels, you can get a rough idea of what is going on or at least the emotions of the characters at the time.  This is a tricky thing to do.  For one thing, Eisma first has to be aware enough of human body language and facial expressions to know what cues he can give to express “surprise” or “anger”.  Then he has to actually be able to draw a face and body that convey that emotion.  It’s impressive stuff that adds a lot to Morning Glories.

2.  Miss Hodge is stirring the drink.  This is a great new character.  Since being introduced in issue #12, she has been a real force of constructive chaos for the reader.  Granted, there are still lots of unresolved questions about this series, but Hodge makes us feel like we’re headed in a positive direction.  With just the kids as protagonists, it was harder to be so optimistic because he kids were so at the mercy of the teachers and staff of MGA that it was hard to fathom they would figure this stuff out on their own.  Now we have Lodge who is able to get things done and seems to be slightly on the kids’ side.  This is really propelling the narrative forward.

3.  The pacing of the series has improved.  Or at least, the reader’s perception of the pacing has improved.  There was a time when this series seemed to be spinning its wheels and just flinging out mysteries but never giving us any answers (kinda like Lost, Season 3).  Part of it is the addition of Lodge and the pattern of having a cool reveal towards the end of the last two issues, but some of it might just be the readers getting acclimated to the pacing of the story.  This is a problem for all ongoing, self-contained series.  When we watch a movie, we know the running time and we can look at our watch.  If there is an hour left in the movie, the climax is NOT about to happen, but when there are only 20 minutes left, it’s time to hold onto your seat.  With an ongoing comic, we don’t have that and start to wonder if this is going to be a ~30 issue series (Promethea, Planetary) and ~60 issue series (Y the Last Man, Scalped, Transmetropolitan) or 100+ issues (100 Bullets, Fables, The Walking Dead).  It makes a difference because we can’t tell if these reveals are leading to a climax or not.  By now, it’s pretty clear that this is not a 30 issue series; it will be longer.  So, now is time to just kick back and enjoy the ride, knowing that the story will be in “cruise” mode for a couple years.

4. A Team Rundown on the inside front cover!  Maybe I’m getting old, but as time passes, I have a harder time remembering the names of characters in comics.  So, it is much appreciated that we get a team rundown to help us keep track of the action.  Now, it would help if they let Eisma draw the characters for the run down, but it still helps a lot to be able to easily say, “Who’s the redhead?  Oh yeah, that’s Jade!”  Plus, if comics include rundowns then writers don’t have to use the characters’ names in dialog all the time (“Hey Jade!  Do you want to get ice cream, Jade”  “Yes, Hunter, I would love to get some ice cream.”) since we know they hate doing that.

5.  It could be we’re getting some main characters.  It isn’t that MG has an impossibly large cast: 6 kids, plus a few teachers who matter.  The trouble was that the kids all seemed equally important and that made it hard for the reader to identify with any of them strongly.  The last few issues, it seems like we’re headed towards Casey and Hunter being the “main” characters with the other kids in more supporting roles.  That’s fine with me.  Ike and Zoe are fun to watch, but too unlikeable to really center a story around.  And Jun and Jade are just not quite as interesting so they can be supporting characters.  Keep it the Casey and Hunter show and I’ll be happy.

Conclusion: This series is really finding it’s footing after a small rough patch and the story is humming along nicely.  If you drifted away, it’s time to come back because this is a very well written and drawn series.

Grade: B+

-Dean Stell
[Note: Obviously, a bit of a new format on this review.  Like it?  Hate it?  Comments below, please…]

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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 #10 – Review

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

The Story: In this Jade-centric story, the main character has a few funky dreams.  Or are they dreams?

What’s Good: This may seem a small thing, but it made a world of difference in my enjoyment of this issue: Spencer put a lot more character names into the word balloons.  A complaint I’ve had in the past with Morning Glories was that I simply forget what these kids’ names are.  But, because the characters were always introduced in this issue, I was able to free my entire brain to trying to comprehend the mysterious stuff that Spencer has going on.

When Morning Glories first launched, there were heavy comparisons to the TV show, Lost.  Those comparisons remain apt as Spencer keeps laying on the mysteries.  Sometimes you read a section and you aren’t really sure what the heck you’re reading, but in a good way.  The two weird events in this issue both revolve around Jade…..One is her having a strange lucid dream featuring her mother and the other seems to be a kinda out-of-body experience where she seems to be collaborating with her future self.  If you like mysteries in your comics and trying to figure out what the heck is going on, you’ll enjoy this series.

Eisma’s art is really starting to grow on me.  He still has panels where a character’s face kinda get’s away from him a little bit.  But, what he really nails are the body language moments that are so important to story telling.  The page where Casey and Hunter discuss their kinda relationship is a great example with the two characters doing lots of the gestures that help us understand their emotions: looking at their shoes, open armed gestures, etc.

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of April 27, 2011

The last Wednesday of the month is also know as “The Week When Marvel Tries to Kill Us” by releasing everything they possibly can so that we can all throw our backs out as we leave the comic shop.

New York Five #4 – Here is an early contender for “miniseries of the year” and I’m going to be highly pissed when it gets left off those lists in favor of a bunch of miniseries that end in December because comic fans have the attention span of a mosquito.  This whole series has been a really touching slice-of-life drama as we follow these young ladies in the spring semester of their freshman year at NYU.  This issue brought things home in a major way.  For one thing, someone dies and the characters are left to ponder on the transitory nature of their lives: They’re all moving on in life and the little group of friends is moving apart.  We’ve all been there and had friends who seemed like the most important things in our lives before something changed because someone took a new job or moved or signed up for classes at a different time of day from you, and you just drift apart.  That’s life and Brian Wood really nails that sentiment.  I’ve gushed on Ryan Kelly’s art before (and own an original page from issue #1), but not only does he do a tremendous job on the young ladies who are the center of this book, but he also makes “The City” a co-starring character itself.  This is a “must read” for everyone and especially so for anyone with any affinity for New York.  Grade: A 

Velocity #4 – Oh la la!  Kenneth Rocafort is a beast!  This series wraps up a very good and straightforward tale of Velocity racing against the clock to save her Cyberforce teammates from a deadly virus.  Every panel that Rocafort draws of Velocity just oozes energy.  She just looks fast even when she is standing still.  He’s got a really powerful understanding of human anatomy and muscle groups.  Sunny Gho does a pretty nice job of coloring too.  Even though the story was really simple, I think Ron Marz deserves some credit.  It’s almost like he knew that this series would take almost a year to come out and kept it simple so that each time all you had to remember was “race against the clock to save teammates.”  If you’re an art fan, this is a must-buy in collected form.  Grade: B+

Morning Glories #9 – This title continues to be confusing, but in a very good way.  Sometimes I get highly annoyed by books that are being mysterious and opaque (see: Batman, Inc.), but I think Nick Spencer is pulling off the confusion because we actually have a hope of learning some answers.  In this issue, we follow one of the students, Jun, and see his back story, how the Morning Glories Academy became interested in him and what lengths they were willing to go to in order to get him as a student.  Yikes!  Once again, I can’t wait for next month.  I’ve heard a lot of folks complain about the art in Morning Glories, but I really don’t get it.  It’s true that it isn’t JH Williams or Mike Kaluta, but I think Eisma is doing a wonderful job with telling the story in terms of his panels and layouts.  Grade: B+

FF #2 – The story here is pretty top notch as the FF has to fix Doom’s brain damage and it has all the moralistic tropes where there are opportunities to kill Doom that are passed upon.  Fortunately, Hickman doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on the morals because the idea of the FF seriously killing Doom is just preposterous.  And, we get a pretty cool cliffhanger ending featuring Valeria who is having a really nice run as a character under Hickman’s pen.  The only thing holding this back for me is Epting’s art.  It isn’t that I think Epting is a poor artist, but I just don’t think his realistic style is suited for FF.  I’d rather see Epting illustrate a crime story and let us have an artist who is more cartoonist on FF.  It doesn’t have to be outlandish cartooning. Let’s just have someone like Dale Eaglesham.  Grade: B

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.

Morning Glories #6 – Review

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

The Story: A scientist on the run is given an offer she can’t refuse: pardon for the crimes of her past in exchange for working on that mysterious metal object we’ve been seeing around the Academy.

What’s Good: It’s a testament to Nick Spencer’s abilities as a writer that he can write an issue starring entirely new characters in a storyline that’s just barely comprehensible, more mysteries and shadows than anything else, and still make it an engaging read.  On a basic, technical level, Spencer’s writing is impressive.  His characters’ emotions feel real and sincere, quickly making them sympathetic, or at least understandable.  More than that though is the tone of his dialogue; throughout this issue of Morning Glories, Spencer’s dialogue just feels smart.  It’s something that readers following his THUNDER Agents series over at DC will be familiar with.  The writing is slick, fast, and intelligent and the characters, and hence the plot, come across accordingly.  It’s clear that Spencer does the conspiratorial very, very well.

It’s really based on these technical strengths alone that this issue is a success.  The new protagonist, Julie Hayes, that we meet for the very first time quickly, becomes an interesting character that you’ll want to see more of.  Despite her crimes, it’s easy to support her.  It also helps that Spencer buoys this issue with twists and turns aplenty, some of which give rise to effective, emotional writing that could so easily feel contrived and yet somehow completely dodges that bullet.  Though he teases it throughout the issue, the final page will make you gasp; you’ll probably have seen it coming, but the very idea is so ludicrous, that you can’t really believe that that’s what Spencer’s up to until you actually see it in that issue-ending splash.

I have also come to fully accept Joe Eisma’s art.  Once the weakest link in Morning Glories, Eisma’s artwork has polished up quite a bit since that first issue and now compliments the series quite well.

Morning Glories #5 – Review

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

The Story: Backed into a corner, Casey and Zoe try to evade their pursuers while doggedly continuing on with their rescue attempt.

What’s Good: This was my favourite issue of Morning Glories since the series debut blew me away.  It’s compulsively readable and it’s a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat, flipping the pages, marveling at Spencer’s expert storytelling.

Let’s start with how he structures and plots this issue.  Spencer alternates between a monologue by the rather intimidating Mr. Gribbs and the actual action at hand.  Gribbs, we learn, is very different from Daramount, but no less intimidating.  He does something terribly disturbing in the most mundane fashion at the end of the conversation that is guaranteed to haunt you.  More than that, his dialogue is simply superb and unveils Gribbs to be a fully realized character and a very different antagonist from Daramount.

Better still, however, is how Spencer has Casey’s plan unfold.  At the end of the issue, it’s hard not to be blown away by how things work out.  By the end of this issue, Spencer reveals that he has misled us just as Casey had misled the teaching staff.  We were led to believe exactly what they were.  When we’re told what the plan really was, it’s absolutely brilliant and causes us to respect Casey and, of course, Spencer by extension.  It’s a genius piece of misdirection by Spencer and one that makes us question the faith we have in the text itself; we readers can be tricked just the same as the characters we’re reading about.

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 #3 – Review

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

The Story: Casey tries to rescue Jade, who discovers another secret on her way to the nurse’s office.

What’s Good: There’s some really awesomely powerful stuff going on at Morning Glories Academy.  From the first page onward,  Spencer is great enhances the power and scope of the Academy and its secrets.  The menace is, as a result, more palpable and there’s a greater sci-fi/fantasy edge to it all.  Basically, we’re able to get a better handle on the sort of mystery we’re dealing with here, and it’s one that is ancient, powerful, and seems to involve human experimentation (maybe?).  Either way, I’m interested, and thinks get a whole lot bigger and, at time, portentous than last month.

Spencer also gives us some really good dialogue between Casey and Ike.  It’s one of the many unique dynamics between MG’s characters.  The conversation between the two characters also makes Ike into more of a Lex Luthor type figure; he’s an arrogant rogue and an SOB, but he’s always just about ready to be a good guy.  Regardless, his voice is bang-on and a joy to read.

Casey is also positioned quite expertly by Spencer.  On the one hand, it’s clear that Spencer intends her to be the “hero” of the story, and the group.  However, despite this, she’s easy to relate to and root for and she never comes across as bland.  She’s a fully realized character with real emotions and qualities and I find her to be a sympathetic and strong lead character.

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).

Morning Glories #1 – Review

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

The Story: We meet six sixteen year olds as they arrive at the mysterious Morning Glory Academy and get to know one another.

What’s Good: While it may not be an outright explosion of a first issue, make no mistake: Morning Glories’ first issue is a rousing success.  The key reason for this is that it manages to ask a great deal of questions, wrapping itself in a cloak of mystery and outright weirdness.  Yet, unlike a great number of first issues that try to do this, it completely avoids feeling confusing or incomprehensible.  It manages to intrigue rather than befuddle, and given just how many questions it poses and how many bizarre occurrences transpire, that really is a major feat that Nick Spencer cannot be commended enough for.

The clearly defined cast is one of the major means through which Spencer accomplishes it.  The six students provide a solid core amidst all the strangeness, anchoring the reader’s experience.  Despite each following a high school stereotype, all of these characters are likable, well-realized, and incredibly distinct from one another.  Each has his or her own voice and I think that readers will all have different favorites; despite their differences, there’s a sense of equality among the six in that each of them feels equally defined, lively, and special.

Furthermore, the fact that each character gets his or her start from a high school stereotype also means that the six are already looking like a well-oiled machine in how they all fit together.  There’s perfect synergy and chemistry between them all.  When they interact with each other, it’s fun and it’s genuine and it’s already clear that each one of them will have a fun and unique dynamic with each of his or her classmates.  The characters are likable enough on their own, but it goes up threefold when they come together.

While the characters serve to anchor Spencer’s book, so does the Academy itself, providing a single, contained atmosphere for all the weirdness.  The end result is a greater feeling of control, making the book feel more accessible, while also lending Spencer’s world a kind of conspiratorial claustrophobia.