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.