Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Why you should be reading "Morning Glories"

Hey Todd Squad, yours truly here but not for what you think. As of late, all my posts have been about Ratings and Rantings, and reviewing my monthly comics, so you can imagine my surprise when I picked up six issues of a relatively new ongoing series called "Morning Glories", and enjoyed it more than most of the current ongoing comics on my pull list. In fact, besides all the critical acclaim that Morning Glories has gotten so far, many people can't get a chance to read it since it continues to sell so many issues that it has to go to reprint, and has done so every month since it's inception! So, instead of reviewing all six issues so far, which I doubt I could do well enough to convey them, I decided I'd do my best to convince my readers to give Morning Glories a try. So, here are five reasons why you should pick up Morning Glories.


1.) The Story - Morning Glories is a very interesting comic, in the since that you never really know the full story. Many people have compared it to the ABC television show Lost, in the sense that you learn a little bit here and there, and eventually may or may not get answers, but you still have enough to piece it together. I'd say this is a valid comparison, and a damn good one. Our story starts off as we see six teenagers, all sixteen years old as they prepare to embark on their journey to a prep school called Morning Glory. Morning Glory is a very prestigious school so when our characters find out about their acceptance we see how each of them deal with it. From there our students get to the school and everything changes. They can't call home, their families claim to not remember them, and things seem to be very different from how they imagined. From there, things get more and more weird, as our main characters find out they have eerie coincidences, like all sharing the same birthday. So in a world where you can't trust your teachers, can't reach your parents, and can only trust strangers you just met, there's bound to be very interesting results. If you ask me, I'd kind of like Lost mixed in with the classic movie, The Breakfast Club.


2.) The Characters - Morning Glories chronicles six main characters, and each are different, yet oddly similar in the sense that they were each "special" enough to be accepted to Morning Glory academy. Each of our characters has a quirk, we have the dedicated, smart and spunky Casey, the mysterious and quiet Jun, the Emo and possibly unstable Jade, former cheerleader and token "bitch" Zoe, the rich, preppy problem child Ike, and my personal favorite, the comic-loving, video game playing average (or so it seems) Hunter. Over the course of one issue, I became emotionally attached in some way or another to all six of these characters, to which I commend the writing of Nick Spencer. Each character, in their own way is guaranteed to remind you of someone in your life, whether it;s yourself, a friend or family member, or even your ex-girlfriend. (Zoe, anyone?) Add in the homicidal teachers and you've got a cast that makes the current cast of the JLA look even worse.

3.) The Mystery - One of the best, if not the best things about this comic, is the air of mystery about everything. Whether it's wondering why our characters share the same birthday or wondering what the Morning Glory faculty is actually looking for in their ever-expanding (and dwindling) body of students, it's one of those things that keeps you guessing, searching and re-reading for any extra clues you can find. Another thing is the mystery of who you can trust, and who you can't. Are our characters all secretly linked with one another? These are the things that make an interesting story even more interesting.

4.) The Art - I'd say I'm the average comic fan in the sense that I don't have any art training, I'm not an art student or anything of that nature, I'm just a guy who barely notices art unless it's really bad or it's really good, and Morning Glories definitely falls into the latter. Joe Eisma's artwork in Morning Glories is greatly done, from the action of seeing an explosion to the subtle look of heartbreak on a character's face. In Morning Glories six issues I've seen someone glow as they looked forward to the future and I've also seen some of the more brutal things I've seen in a comic book. The colors are vibrant when they need to be, but also project a dark and gloomy tone as well, which makes for a very interesting viewpoint. The art, able to change on the fly, blends well with the "anything can happen at any turn" type story that Spencer has crafted, and Eisma's work definitely plays off of that well.

5.) It's Just Started - Morning Glories has been raved about, and I'm just one of many people that seems to agree that this comic is one of the better new series in recent years. As a guy that mainly reads DC and Marvel superhero comics, Morning Glories is a welcome change of pace. And the fact that this comic has cause so much good press after only six issues shows that it may be as good as everyone says it is. The top draw to me was, the fact that this series is still new, there's still time to catch up without having to rely on trades or a wikipedia page to catch up. If you want a good, interesting read that will keep you interested for a time to come, I'd highly recommend you treat yourself and pick up Morning Glories.

And there you go, just five small reasons why I think you should be reading Morning Glories if you aren't. I'm also contemplating reviewing Morning Glories here at JTCS, starting with issue seven which comes out later this month. Here's hoping you guys enjoyed my hype session for Morning Glories and you at least think about giving it a chance. But that's all for me, I'll be back this weekend with my Ratings and Rantings post. Until then, this is Jason Todd, signing off.

15 comments:

  1. Hey JT, this was a really great post. I've heard from a lot of places that this is a good comic, but it was THIS post that really sold me on it. I just put the first trade in my cart on Amazon, so when it comes out at the beginning of March I won't forget to buy it! I'll do my best to review it on my blog and let you know what I think as well.

    Thanks again for the recommendation and for really selling me on this comic. Image should hire you as their new publicity agent! Or have they already...? ;)

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  2. Thanks Marc, I appreciate it. I was kinda worried my post wouldn't be well received since a good chunk of my followers are more Superhero based to my knowledge, so glad you enjoyed it. I'm definitely looking forward to your review, especially since you sold me on Ex Machina by saying how much it was like Lost, so it's kinda full circle now.

    Glad I could help recommend YOU something for a change, haha, and I can't comment on that job, I will neither confirm nor deny it. ;-)

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  3. Also much like Ex Machina, the first Morning Glories trade is only $9.99! That's a great deal for almost 200 pages of comics, especially if you were to miss out on the issues.

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  4. Really? That is a great price, hell maybe I should've added that and even more people would check it out.

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  5. I saw that you became a fan of this on Facebook and was rather surprised. I commend you JT on being the one person to actually tell what the series is about while recommending it to others. Most people are like "It's SO amazing!" and I'm left wondering about the basic premise.

    And you can never go wrong with a list!

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  6. Haha, I hate when people do that. That's kinda how it was when I asked people what Slumdog Millionaire was about and no one ever told me so I just watched it. But yeah, I figured a list with some reasons why I liked it would be good enough.

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  7. Well, I will say this, I completely and 100% agree with JT. I mean, I definitely dirt expect to fall in love with this comic so quickly. Lol, you were just like here, read this comic bay. it sat on my desk for a couple days then I finally gave it a read. so thanks for the recommendation. I can't wait to read the rest of the issues so I'm caught up. I'm definitely going to buy the TB's when published.

    This is definitely something a step up from the mess DC has created in the comic world recently. Now I have to rotate my reading between this and "The challenge of Artemis" TB I'm reading. So thanks again for the recommendation bay.

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  8. Awesome post, JT. Seriously, you NEED to do more posts like this one, 'cause it was extremely well done! Considering each issue has a cover price of $3.50, $10 for the first trade is a REALLY good deal. Much like Marc I'll be putting this in my cart and come Wednesday I'll put it on my pull list at my CB shop. That way even if #7 comes out before the trade is released on March 1st, I won't have to go hunting any errant back issues down. Nicely done, old chum.

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  9. Thanks Falisha and X, glad you enjoyed this post as well. I'm glad you enjoyed the first issue so far Falisha and I'm looking forward to you reading the rest of the issues and seeing what you think.

    X, glad I could convince you and Marc to pick this up. I'm pretty sure you guys will enjoy it. As for this post, I think I probably will start doing more of these for other non-Marvel/DC comics I read, like Empowered and such. Oh, and looks like everyone liked this post, even the artist, Joe Eisma liked this over on facebook, which was pretty cool.

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  10. I don't know if you guys heard, but Nick Spencer was named as the new writer of Secret Avengers yesterday. All the more reason to check out Morning Glories for superhero fans!

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  11. Wait, where is Ed Brubaker going?!?!?!

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  12. He's leaving the title. A lot of people were pretty surprised by the announcement.

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  13. What's with Image knocking it out of the park recently with they're new books? It seems like all of a sudden everything they put out is amazing.

    I haven't checked out Morning Glories yet, but I will now. I was thinking of picking up issue 7 first (I hear it's supposed to be a good jumping on point) to be sure that I liked it first, but I might just bite the bullet and go for the trade.

    As for the other new hotness from Image, have you checked out 'Who Is Jake Ellis?' or 'Infinite Vacation'? The former blew me away with it's fun action and inherent mystery, while the latter (also by Nick Spencer, BTW) intrigued me to a point that I'm not sure what to think about it.

    Nice blog, by the way.

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  14. First things first thanks for the comment Matt, needless to say I checked out your blog and after seeing a positive review of the Josie and the Pussycats movie I became a follower, yes, that movie ruled.

    I'd recommend the trade just so you can be aware of everything from the get-go, plus since it's not that expensive. I actually haven't read either of the comics you listed but I just wrote down the titles because they sound interesting enough since one has action and mystery and the other is by Nick Spencer.

    And thanks for stopping by, hope to see ya back real soon.

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  15. Anyone who likes J and the PC must have great taste. I'll be around.

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