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.
What’s Not As Good: Spencer is really playing with fire the way he keeps tossing new mysteries at us without explaining any of the old ones. It works as long as he maintains his excellence on the storytelling, but it is a high-wire act because if he tosses out a clunker issue one month, I have a feeling that the reaction will be nasty because then we’ll have more mysteries in a less appealing package. It’s a creator-owned series, so Spencer can do what he wants. I’m just saying that keeping the mysteries coming without paying anything off is dangerous and wholly dependent on the quality of the new material he’s feeding us.
Not a huge fan of the shaded colors in MG either. It isn’t as offensive as some other issues I’ve read recently because the overall sense of color theory is very solid, but I still would much prefer flatter colors with more assertively shaded linework.
Conclusion: Another good and mysterious issue. We’re a year into the series now and still don’t really know what is going on. When this series reveals its mysteries readers will either be (a) blow away or (b) angry that they read so much for a payoff that they don’t think is worth it. But hey, it’s a creator-owned series and it is kinda cool to see a writer who is clearly doing things 100% his way and is confident enough in his story to tell it this way.
Grade: B-
-Dean Stell
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