Comic Book Review: Morning Glories

Comic Book Review: Morning Glories

This week’s Comic Book Review is Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma, and published by Image Comics.

This comic series wins the award for most misleading cover art ever. Don’t let yourself be fooled by the clean white background and illustrations of students in prep school uniforms. This is not a high school drama series … unless your high school drama’s happen to involve being held against your will in said school and seemingly senseless murder.

When I decided to purchase this series I asked a number of my friends what this series was actually about, but none of them could give me an accurate summary of the premise.

“You just have to read it for yourself,” was the constant frustrating answer I would always get from anyone who read the series. Even though nobody could give me an accurate description of the premise everyone who has read the books seemed to be hooked, so I thought why not give it a try.

Thus far, I have made it through the first two volumes of the series, and I have to say that it was actually an accurate description. I honestly still cannot accurately describe what is happening in the series so far. It guards its secrets well.

Here is what I have gleaned from Morning Glories so Far:

This series follows six students of Morning Glories academy: Casey, Zoe, Hunter, Ike, Jun, and Jade. They are all exceptional and troubled students who share a common birthday. They all receive invitations to attend the prestigious school and soon discover that they will never be allowed to leave.

The school has many secrets which include but are not limited to: ghosts, human experimentation, murdered students, murdered parents, kidnapping, arson, time travel, etc.

In the first couple of books the number of elements introduced is a mixed bag, and can be hard to follow at times. Some of the main characters’ motives are also questionable at best, and at worst I found myself wishing them harm (I’m looking at you Ike).

Despite – or maybe because – of these things I find myself wanting to read more and find out what the heck is going on. Why are these students important? What is the school’s end game? Does the mystery of the school have a scientific explanation or is it purely supernatural? Both volumes I have read so far leave a lot of cliff hangers and unanswered questions. Two books in I could not even begin to predict how Morning Glories will end.

As frustrating as this answer is to hear, this is a series that is difficult to summarize without giving major spoilers. You really do have to read the books for yourself to decide whether or not this is your cup of tea. The only thing I can say about recommending Morning Glories is that if you like supernatural, horror or thriller series you will probably like this graphic novel. There is some gore and other mature themes, so if that bothers you then I would avoid this series.

What I can say about this series is that is is crazy suspenseful, and the art style is fantastic. I guess if I had to make a recommendation I would say that if you got hooked by Lost (before it sucked) then this series will also catch your interest,

Thank you for reading. My next book review will be Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale by Benjamin Read and Chris Wildgoose.

Cheers,

Starchip13