Morning Glories, vol 3, Nick Spencer

"The critically acclaimed, smash-hit series rolls on with this collection of the blockbuster third arc, "P.E.!" The first days were just the beginning - when the faculty cancels classes and sends the students on an outing in the nearby woods, all hell breaks loose, sending the Glories on a mysterious journey through time and space. Nothing is what it seems to be as Academy's hold on the kids collapses and new threats emerge!"











Morning Glories is an incredibly frustrating comic to read, one that I picked up the first few volumes of as individual comics before dropping a few years again. There were a couple of massive issues that I had with it - initially sketchy artwork was a problem, but the deft characterisation and fantastic myth-arc were enough to keep me hooked. The major fault, the thing that eventually killed it for me, was the fact that the plotting eventually ran away with itself, ending up as less a Kudzu plotline and more an utter mess.

This volume then picks up where I left off, and more than anything I was hoping that some of the thirty or so big questions that were brought up would get answered. Sadly, this goes totally the other way. Much like Lost, something cited as an influence, this is a series that asks more questions than it answers, and it rarely seems as though Nick Spencer quite knows what should be happening next. Revelation follows revelation, but little of it adds any extra depth to a series that's swimming in extraneous details. It all adds up to a book that 20 issues in seems to be treading water.

Some of the blame for this has to lie on Joe Eisma, an artist who has little credit to his name other than Morning Glories, and who struggles to differentiate his cast from one another. Whilst the six main characters are obviously distinguishable, any time a new character is introduced they roll too much into the rest of the cast. With the rolling focus from Spencer on each of the characters there's little time to invest in new characters, especially when they don't show up for a while.

Every good thing about this book, and there are many, is undermined by the fact that the plot twists make so little sense - an engaging series about pupils at a mysterious school has turned into a plot ball about time travel and magic.+

Those things are great - I'd just rather not be confused every time I read a comic that I like.

Also Try:
Brian K Vaughan, Runaways
Jonathan Hickman, Manhattan Projects
Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim