There are only so many comics you can read, unless you have a really boring day job, and I just hadn’t had a chance to get into Morning Glories, despite the rave reviews about Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma.
Fortunately, Spencer and Eisma have made it simple: The first issue of the second “season” is a buck. And it’s a dollar worth spending.
It’s a relatively quiet opening issue, but it’s to Spencer’s credit that I not only had no trouble following the book walking in cold, but found myself getting really into it. Furthermore, Spencer has a gift for dialogue and character on full display here: I found myself deeply amused by how he nails the tactics and backhanded insults of bitchy teenage girls. The last few pages pretty cleverly get us up to speed on the basic personalities of our players before dropping a tantalizing cliffhanger in a seemingly innocuous splash panel.
Joe Eisma’s simple, clean layouts and style are refreshing. There are long, wordless stretches in this book that Eisma handles carefully and cleverly; establishing a character as an action hero, for example:
His work is all in the subtle details, and it works quite well for the book overall.
In all, it’s a great introduction to a book I’ll happily keep reading, and if you haven’t been following the book, now is most assuredly the time to start.
Some other books worth picking up this week:
Mind MGMT #10
We reviewed this yesterday, but it’s a stand-out book even for this series.
Deathmatch #5
Another good place to start with a book: This fills in a few plot gaps while introducing some new wrinkles into the superhero-killing series.