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.
Interestingly, there are two places in this issue where a character basically breaks the fourth wall and tells us what is going on. At one point, Future Jade tells a confused Hunter, “We could stop here, and sit down and we could just talk. I could try to help you make sense out of everything. We could – draw out diagrams with twigs here…” and continues to explain to Hunter/Us that while she is pausing to explain, bad things will happen. Then, later on, Irina (of all people) says, “Yes, I lied to you. For that, I am sorry. But you were not ready to hear the truth. You would not have been willing to do what must be done. Your eyes have not been opened.” It’s noteworthy that in both of these scenes, the characters is plausibly speaking to other characters, but the panel is constructed so that we only see the speaker and she is speaking to the reader. You can tell from how Eisma draws the panel: even the speaker’s eyes are locked onto you and not looking at some other off-panel object.
What does this mean? Well, I think it’s a recognition from Spencer and Eisma that some readers are champing for answers, dammit. They are speaking through the characters and asking for continued patience. I have to say, it’s a pretty clever trick. It’s just tossed in there very sneakily, but I’m sure that’s what they mean. I’m willing to give creators capable so such cleverness the benefit of the doubt.
Now, it isn’t all perfect. Just because it isn’t time for answers, doesn’t mean that it can’t be less confusing. This story is NOT served by the fact that I have a hard time remembering the characters’ names. We already have roster on the inside cover of the original students. I look at it at least once in every issue (“Who is that?” flip, flip, flip….”Oh, it’s Casey.”) Season Two needs to start with an expanded roster that includes Irina’s crew and some of the adults as well. Some basic biographical information might be nice as well. MG has about 25 important characters and that is simply too many without some sort of cheat-sheet.
The art makes me worry about Eisma’s health. Wow–48 pages! Can someone go to Eisma’s house and make sure he is okay? I mean, the guy posts cute family pictures on Instagram, but Spencer may have kidnapped him and is using those pictures to throw people off. And, this isn’t the first extra-length issue of MG either. We live in an era of comic artists needing a break after three 20-page issues, so it’s hugely impressive to Eisma just grinding away. And, he isn’t getting to draw lots of cool stuff either. Spencer isn’t giving him full-pagers of zombies or WWII fighter planes or dinosaurs. Eisma is just laying down panel-after-panel of effective talking heads. He’s so good at the little bits of body-language that sell these scenes and keep they from just being “two dudes talking”. Pure professionalism.
Conclusion: A confounding issue. There are no answers here, but the readership should know by now not to expect answers…yet. VERY clever fourth-wall breaking and a stubborn commitment to telling a story on their own terms make it impossible for me not to love this title even if I don’t love every individual issue.
Grade: B
– Dean Stell
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