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.