Morning Glories - Nick Spencer
Volume One - The Breakfast Club, or maybe "Gossip Girl," meets Cthulhu. The story opens in a prestigious boarding school, Morning Glory Academy, where six academically gifted but troubled teens arrive, and very quickly things seem eerie and off The six characters find they all share the same birthday, and the teachers are adept at evading questions. Spencer leans into secrets, hidden agendas, and "something is very wrong here" energy. The kids' cell phones lose signal, their parents claim not to remember their very existence, and the sinister teachers seem to have planned a series of deathtraps for the teens unless they toe the line. However, I thought it was ultimately unsatisfying. Spencer stirs a lot into the pot early on, including a set of murdered parents, with mysteries and questions building without immediate payoff. I also found the characters thin and overly stereotyped, while the writing was of the self-conscious, quippy kind (think "Gilmore Girls" meets "West Wing") in a rapid-fire babble that doesn't match how anyone, let alone teens, talk. "Our little suicide girl is your carrot on a stick, and they know it." "This is Guantanamo Bay for the statutory set." "Or we wave the white blouse and beg for clemency before these psychos get all Clockwork Orange-y with us." Lines like that might dazzle in a writer's room, but no panicked teenager would ever say them. Joe Eisma's art is crisp and detailed, but I found it also glossy and flat, with little dynamism or depth, in that way matching the writing. By the "shocking twist" on the final splash page, I found myself less intrigued than indifferent. The mystery may run deep, but the characters and dialogue never made me care enough to follow it further. [3]
