Waiting for Trade? Morning Glories

Creative Team: Nick Spencer (W), Joe Eisma (A)
Price: $9.99
Available Now!

It should be no secret by now that I love this comic. Seriously, seriously love it. It is the first or second comic I read in my giant stack of 50-60 comics every month. Under the Shadowline imprint of Image comics Nick Spencer has created some great characters and an amazing environment to push them to their limits.

It is surprisingly difficult to describe this series without venturing into spoiler territory. The series has been described as Runaways meets Lost. I can’t speak for the Runaways side as I have not read the series (but really want to check it out) but, like Lost, this series is a long form mystery. Spencer envisions this series being 75 or 100 issues in length, and he is building toward a planned ending. He assures audiences that he is not making things up as he goes along, but since we are only 6 issues in, sometimes it might feel that way. I have faith that things will be explained at their proper time and am having more than enough fun along the way. That being said, if you are someone who wants answers RIGHT NOW, you might not enjoy this book as much as I do.

Our story takes place in the prestigious Morning Glories Academy and follows the six newest students as they find out that there is much more going on at the school than was mentioned in any recruitment brochures. The characters are what drew me into this series, and they are what has kept me coming back excitedly every month (more on my favorite Glory here).

I’ve heard some criticize that the characters are too stereotypical. Again, I would counter that we’re only 6 issues in and haven’t had a ton of time for multilayered character development. We all knew (or were) these sorts of people in high school; the flirt, the nerd, the “emo” girl, the sleazy jerk. It’s a comfortable place for us to START the story. We recognize the types of characters and it makes it easier for the reader to get into their heads in this first arc. If the characters do not develop further, then yes they are stereotypes and it’s a strike against Spencer for poor writing. But at the moment we are in a great place for continued development and for the characters to surprise us.

I absolutely love the covers for this series. I’m not sure if this matters to those who read in trade, as I am not sure if the covers are included in this volume or not. I will admit that I prefer the art style of the covers to the interiors, but that’s not to say that the interiors aren’t great. They have their own charm and depth to them, and I feel like it is a solid fit for the series. Faces are very expressive and the characters each have a unique look that is easy to tell apart. Backgrounds are descriptive and help set the mood.

Image is geniusly releasing volume one, containing issues 1-6, the week before issue 7 hits the stands. Any reader who picks up the trade and is enthralled with the series can start to follow the monthly releases the very next week on February 23rd (or wait the grueling six months for the next volume). This quick of a trade release is nearly unheard of, so take advantage of the opportunity to discover your my new favorite comic. To top it off, the trade is only $10 (which is like half of what I paid for the monthlies, seriously you have no reason not to try this!). And as an added bonus for all readers, issue 7 will be the first issue with the newly discounted price of $2.99.

A look at Morning Glories: Hunter

I have realized that I haven’t talked much about the wonderful comic Morning Glories. I was excited about it before it came out, but once I got the first issue in my hands I was hooked. It exceeded every expectation I had. As the first arc comes to a close (and the first trade on sale February 16th for only $10) I felt the need to gush over it some more and decided that a fun way to do that would be to take a look at my favorite character of the book, Hunter. Hopefully in introducing him to you I can give you all a small taste of why I love this comic so much.

Morning Glories features an ensemble cast of six new students to the prestigious Morning Glory Academy. As to be expected from such an honor, all the kids are intelligent and gifted, although some have demonstrated their talents more than others at this point. Of course, there is more going on at the school than advertised and it may take every gift the students have just to survive.

One reason I like Hunter so much is that I relate to him. Looking at the kids in Morning Glories I think that I was somewhere between Hunter and Casey when I was in school. I wasn’t quite as shy and awkward as Hunter, but I also didn’t have Casey’s insane drive. In the initial teasers for this series Hunter was described as the “Most likely to quote Star Wars at inappropriate times.” And he has. And that is something I can see myself doing. All of the kids are “smart” but Hunter seems to be the only “nerd” in the group. And for that, I love him.

While many of the students seem to have had complicated home lives, Hunter’s seems to rank right up there with the worst. We only get a brief look at Hunter’s life before coming to the Academy, but it seems clear that even if they escape the school Hunter won’t have much to go back to. While I did not get an outwardly abusive vibe, I would say that it’s pretty obvious that Hunter suffers from severe neglect. His father seems to have already forgotten about him before he even walks out the door. I’m sure we’ll get a better look into it down the line, so for now I can only speculate on what kind of disconnect could occur to cause his step brother to refer to him as “Uncle Hunter.” But this sad home life has shaped him in many ways that I will get to in a moment.

Upon arriving at the Academy, Hunter immediately made a connection with Jun, physically the strongest of the new students. Jun recognizes Hunter as someone who doesn’t have the same toughness that he possesses and tells Hunter to stick with him if things get out of hand. As someone who is capable of defending himself and others, he sees that Hunter lacks this but is someone worth sticking up for. This is not an open offer for just anyone, as he tells their third roommate, Ike, to stay away from him. But Jun sees something in Hunter and he seems like the type of friend Hunter could really use in a place like the Academy. I hope that his relationship with Hunter will be explored in the issues to come.

Now that I have called Hunter weak and all, I want you to take a look at this picture. This picture was the whole inspiration for writing this post, as I was originally just going to post the picture and gush about it. But I realized that without a bit of context the image was pretty but didn’t have the same impact. This was supposed to be the cover for issue 8, but recent solicitations have a different cover for the issue. I’m guessing that this cover has just been pushed back a few issues as it is a fantastic image and I can’t see them wasting it. *crosses fingers*

Here’s Hunter, and at first glance you can see that he isn’t the strongest of the bunch. I’d wager this is not Hunter’s first black eye. But if you take a closer look at the image (click on it for a larger version) you will see something in his eyes that speaks to an inner strength. This is a kid who is going to get knocked down, but you can see in his eyes that he’s still going to get back up again. There is a quiet determination there. He understands that if he gets up again he will probably end up back on the ground, but that isn’t going to stop him from doing it anyway.

I think I can explain a bit of his motivation here. In the comic, when Casey comes to him for help he agrees to help her before she can even explain what she needs help with. I would say that this behavior is only about 40% motivated by his teenage hormones and the fact that he has quickly developed feelings for her. The main factor in this behavior, I think, is his incredible excitement at being noticed. He gushes to Jun about how Casey came to him, him of all people, to help. As I said before, Hunter didn’t seem to have much of a home life. I would wager that Hunter’s good grades, and possibly even his application to the school, were driven by his need to be accepted by his father. It doesn’t seem like he was able to achieve this, but suddenly he has someone important in his life who notices him and confides in him. As such, he is very eager to please. He wants to help, wants to continue this relationship. And that has brought out a stronger side of him.

I think if you hit Hunter for no reason, or just because you like to beat up on other kids, he might not get back up. He’s not looking for punishment. But if he believes that his actions can help his friends, even a little, he will get back up and take anything you will throw at him.

Hunter has already had a few very strong moments in the comics. I won’t spoil them here for those who have not yet read the series, but rest assured that he is someone who you can trust in an emergency. He may not always know the right thing to do, but he is going to try his best to help out those few he is close to. And yet he’s still this awkward, geeky kid who is just trying to get by. Not all the kids like him or understand him which I think is something we can all relate to.

I look forward to seeing Hunter and the rest of the characters in action every month, and, if you’re looking for a great story with some great characters, you should give it a look too.

Top 10 List!

I like top 10 lists. They are easy to digest and compare your own picks with. They can say a lot while only saying a little. So I decided to write up a quick top 10 list of my own.

Below you will find my top 10 ongoing series. I picked them by looking at my pull list as though I had to drop all of my ongoing titles except for 10. If that were to happen, these are the books that would make the cut. The top few spots were hard to assign and in a few months they could easily shift around. But as of now, this is what I would pick.

Honorable Mention: Stuff of Legend – it can’t be on the list because it’s a series of miniseries and not an ongoing title. But I enjoy it so much that I felt it needed a mention and if I was dropping all of my books but 10 and a book had to be cut from this top ten list to keep this one I would probably make that sacrifice.

10. Batwoman – I admit it, this is a cheat. This book isn’t even out yet. But I have such high hopes for it that it still sneaks in at the number 10 spot on the list. When I actually have the book in my hands it could jump to an even higher spot, especially if the previous run in Detective Comics is any indication, but the new creative team has to prove themselves a little before that can happen.

9. Darkwing Duck – What can I say, I’m a sucker for nostalgia. The comic will never be as good as the cartoon (and the cartoon will probably never be as good as my memories of the cartoon) but it’s the only way I’m going to get new stories with these characters. And Darkwing, like Batman, has a great rogues gallery (and Batman doesn’t have a Negaduck!) and a fun family of relationships to explore.

8. Zatanna – I love magic. I always have. And really, who doesn’t love the very idea of magic? We all wish we could be magic, or at the very least, wish we could watch someone else being magic. This book is doing a nice job of treading into the magical side of the DCU that has been more or less ignored lately. Here our normal world and the magical world collide and it’s up to Zee to make sure that things don’t get too messy.

7. The Sixth Gun – I really like the weird west setting. Every time they give me another tidbit about the universe I am itching for more. The villains are scary and the heroes are maybe not so heroic. It’s a muddled environment without the clearest sense of who you can trust and who you should believe. And that helps to make it great. I saw someone describe this series as a western horror series but I don’t feel that really fits. It’s a western with fantasy elements (some of which, admittedly are scary). I look forward to seeing where this one will take me.

6. Batgirl – This book had so much to prove. It fought a hard battle to prove that it was a good book with an interesting character who deserved her place in the DCU. I have to say that I think the writer has a great sense of voice as the first year was full of Bat family guest stars and they were all portrayed believably. The stories have been great and the stakes have been high. This book doesn’t have to prove itself anymore, and now it can simply focus on being awesome.

5. Red Robin – Tim Drake is a great character. I HATED the idea of him being Red Robin, but the past year has really made it fit for the character. The book has a lot of great things going for it right now with some serious long term plotting going on. I hope the creative team can stick around for a long time to come because when Tim Drake is written well he is amazingly interesting and fun to read about.

4. iZombie – I figured I’d like this story because I like zombies, but this book is full of concepts that just really click with me. I love that one of the main characters is a were-terrier. When they sat down and laid out how vampires and ghosts and zombies and mummies exist in the world I really liked the explanation behind it all. With such iconic monsters it’s easy to just hand wave their existence as some sort of magic that doesn’t need explaining. But this book lays out easy to understand rules and shows a lot of forethought on the part of the writer. Also the art is fantastic. There are a lot of places this book can go and I look forward to being along for the ride.

3. Unwritten – This book continues to surprise me, and every surprise makes me excited to read the next volume. The characters are well developed and the threat they face is interesting and mysterious. And it has an adorable flying cat that I demand a plushie of immediately if not sooner. The pacing in this book is really solid and its one of the first things I read every month without fail.

2. Morning Glories – I’ve only read five issues so far, but the first one alone was enough to get me hooked and more than enough to earn the number 2 spot. This one could go down the list if it can’t keep up the insanely high standards it has set for itself, but it’s just starting out and with a long form mystery like this it’s an exciting time to be reading. The characters are fun and different and have great personalities that play off of each other in entertaining ways. The pacing of these issues has been fantastic with each issue ending in a way that makes me disappointed that there are no more pages that month and excited to see how things turn out as soon as the next volume is in my hands.

1. Tiny Titans – There is nothing better than this book. I feel like I gush about it all the time and if so it’s only because that’s how much I am enjoying this book. If they had an entire Tiny universe of books I would buy every single one of them and they would all probably be on this list. No matter what happens I know this comic will be fun. It will make me laugh. It will charm me with its whimsy. If I am feeling sad it makes me feel happy and if I’m already happy it makes me happier. Any book that can do that deserves the number 1 spot.


I’m honestly surprised by how many of these series are new (6 of the 10 haven’t even reached issue 10 yet, so in a way this list doubles as my best of 2010 list). I suppose the longer a series runs the more likely it is to lose readers for whatever reason. It doesn’t surprise me that half the books on here are independent titles. More DCU books would probably be on here if I could depend on the creative team sticking around for more than a year. But when I think about comics I want to read for a long time it’s too easy to assume that the writer I like will go away and be replaced by someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. Or that some big DCU event is going to come along and change everything potentially derailing stories that have been building for a while.

I noticed that I didn't talk too much about what these different series were actually about, so I've included links where I could to other places on my blog where I gush about the series in question.
Share your top 10 list with me! If you could only read 10 ongoings what would they be? Do you have less than 10? Share that too!

Tower Prep Impressions

I recently partook of a story that involved a group of kids at some prestigious school. The kids find out that they can’t leave the school and the faculty is mysterious and claims to only want the students to fulfill their full potential or something and all the kids seem to be gifted or special in some way and there is clearly more to the school than meets the eye.

Amazingly all of the above can apply to either the amazing comic book series Morning Glories or to Cartoon Network’s new live action show Tower Prep. I watched the first episode of the show and figured I’d write up my impressions since its at least tangentially comic book related.

First of all I admit that I am very biased. I HATE the idea of a show like this being on Cartoon Network at all. Count me among those who remembers a time when Cartoon Network said they would only play cartoons “forever and ever and ever until the end of time,” and wishes the network would go back to that standard. Their live action attempts thus far have been pretty terrible, and I don’t see why they continue to sink time and money into these projects.

So when I saw that this show was going to be on Cartoon Network I was already against it. But the premise sounded interesting enough to win me over into checking it out (and the fact that Paul Dini created it helped a lot). And as much as I hate to admit it, it’s not a bad show. The first episode did its job introducing the main characters, the challenges they are facing, and the environment. It also introduced some mysteries to keep viewers coming back for more. The plot of the episode was pretty standard pilot fare and I can’t remember ever really being surprised by it.

The acting was passable, although I felt many of the characters had very flat personalities (a problem that could easily be resolved as the series continues I suppose), especially Ian’s bullying roommates. The show did a lot of telling us about what the main characters were like rather than showing us, and that’s a big no no from storytelling 101. Of our four main students I liked Suki the best. She also has the most interesting gift of those we have been introduced to and I already have some thoughts on how they will make use of it down the line.

I felt like this show was trying to give me a sort of Lost vibe, with a group of people stranded and up against something far bigger than themselves with only their wits to help them. But the problem is that this is a kid’s show. I don’t really feel the same stakes as I did with Lost. None of the main characters are going to get killed off and I can’t see the big reveal of what’s really going on being all too shocking. There certainly won’t be anything like the shocking ending of the first issue of Morning Glories (which had a similar pilot structure introducing kids, a school, and mystery). There wasn’t anything that made me feel like the stakes were high. Sure the kids want to leave the school, but why? Other than the fact that the “evil” adults are telling them that they can’t. I didn’t see any indication as to why they didn’t feel safe or what might happen to them if they don’t get away. They’ll have to go to classes I guess…the horror! I get that they are scared and being kept in the dark about details, but I didn’t feel real concern for the characters or even motivation to root for them because I didn’t have anything concrete to root for them against.

At the end of the program I was left feeling like, “Huh…well that was a show alright.” I don’t have a burning desire to see more or to get answers to the lingering questions. I’m not sorry I watched it and I suppose I could see myself watching some more of it if I’m really bored or happen to stumble upon it, but I’m not chomping at the bit for more Tower Prep.

If you like the premise of this show, do yourself a favor and pick up Morning Glories. Most of the things that are interesting about Tower Prep are in Morning Glories and for me are done much better. But if it sounds interesting, check it out. At worst you waste a little of your time, but you might find that you enjoy it.

UPDATE: Yeah I wrote this article after watching the first episode and now I think they are on like 6 or something. I’m not exactly a timely poster… But if you are interested a very nice interview with Paul Dini and a bunch of the writers can be found here.

Comic Buzz – Morning Glories

Creative Team: Nick Spencer (W) Joe Eisma (A) Rodin Esquejo (covers)
Image Comics, ongoing series, starts in August

This is how teasers should be done. I first stumbled on the teaser ads for this series on Newsarama. I didn’t know anything about the series other than what the weekly teases told me. I really liked the look of the ads. And by the third one “Most likely to quote Star Wars at inappropriate times” I was really interested in where this was going. It took until the fifth one for me to find the interview Nick Spencer did with Comic Book Resources. And now it’s on my list to be added in August (which means ordered in June). The first issue will be double sized to give fans a really good taste of what is to come.

Described as “Runaways” meets “Lost” details are still being kept pretty quiet. The information in the exclusive CBR interview is our best look at what is to come for now. Our setting is a school, the prestigious Morning Glory Academy, and our main characters are students. But the school holds some major secrets and our students find themselves facing more than they may be able to handle. Many twists and turns are promised, but Spencer promised that he already has the ending set and won’t just be making it up as he goes along. All the mysteries and clues will mean something somewhere down the line.

Waiting on the final teaser to be revealed I expected a girl, and I was hoping for something like “Most likely to kick your ass at video games” or “Most likely to cause collateral damage.” After the flirt and the emo girl I felt we needed a strong girl to balance out the cast. But I think the confident looking Casey who is “Most likely to save the world” does that job nicely, even if the young blond does remind me of another tagline referring to saving the world. I just hope she’s not a cheerleader. (Seriously, the more I look at her the more she reminds me of Claire. Their names even sound similar.)

I’m already sold, but I can’t help but want it to be a big thing so it can keep going as long as possible. Another interview with Spencer came out recently letting him expand on the characters since they are all much more than their simple yearbook descriptions. We’ve been promised a look at some pages from the first issue soon, and I’m chomping at the bit for more.