Morning Glories #1 - Mobile Edition

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Morning Glories #1
By Colin Andersen
August 15, 2010 - 18:43

Image Comics
Writer(s): Nick Spencer
Penciller(s): Joe Eisma
Colourist(s): Alex Sollazzo
Letterer(s): Johnny Lowe
Cover Artist(s): Rodin Esquejo
$3.99 US

You know how when you’re in school in can sometimes feel like you will never get out and you’ll be stuck there until you die? Well that is essentially the plot Nick Spencer’s Morning Glories, only for the students of Morning Glory Academy, they really do seem stuck there until they die. The plot revolves around six mentally gifted teenagers from around the world being accepted to the aforementioned prestigious Academy, only to find out that once they get there, there is no leaving and that there is clearly something much more sinister going on. So it is pretty much how every teenager feels high school to be, only for them it’s truly that bad.

I didn’t really know what exactly to expect coming into this series. I’m not even entirely sure what drew me to it; it doesn’t exactly have the most original plot or characters. Each of the six characters is pretty stereotypical. You have the spoiled, princess girl, the bratty womanizer, the silent but nice guy, the screaming emo one, and then the shy and awkward guy that inevitably develops a crush of the main female lead, and she’s the one who almost immediately catches on to darker side of the school. It is all pretty standard in that regard, and yet it is still an interesting book. I enjoyed watching the way each of the six lived their lives before coming to the academy. It was a good way to establish their individual voices early on, so that we could move into the plot more quickly. Also, the inherent mystery of what exactly the school is up to is a constant draw. Just what do they want and why do they need to force teenagers to do it for them? The first issue, as expected, only hints at the answers to this and it proves rather compelling for it. The single biggest mystery at this point is who is the weird purple energy man that can apparently kill with a touch. It may not be the most unique comic book ever conceived, but it is written with a nice flair that makes every character interesting and makes you hungry for answers.

Artist Joe Eisma works well on Morning Glories as well. His thick line work creates some very commanding characters and he does wonders with facial expressions. There’s a particularly great expression early on where one character realizes that effectively sprung a trap on herself and you can just tell that they know they messed up badly from their face. He also does something a lot of artists seem to have a lot of trouble doing: drawing teenagers that actually look like teenagers. These actually look like people you could see walking around and that is pretty impressive. Though it is brief, Eisma also shows that he is quite capable of illustrating some decent gore as well. His characters do occasionally look stiff and awkwardly positioned, though, and I think he could benefit form a better inker as well as some panels look a good bit scratchier than others. Also of mention is the cover by Rodin Esquejo, who gives a gorgeous cover. Like the rest of the book, I’m not sure what exactly draws me to it so much, but it just looks great and summarizes each of the characters’ personalities without having to use any words. I would honestly love a poster of it if I could ever get my hands on one.

What really pulls this book along is the mystery surrounding everything and the surprisingly well-developed characters. I may not have seen anything too new here, but that didn’t really bother me. Morning Glories managed to get its hooks into me early on and it now has me intrigued. I’ll definitely be back for issue number two, but I really want to see Nick Spencer add some new twists to the plot that can make it stand out a little more. I am a little worried that if this doesn’t happen, I will start to lose interest, but I hoping this is not the case and want to see great things from Morning Glory Academy and its students.

Rating: 7/10