Morning Glories #26
Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma
Colors by Alex Sollazzo
Letters by Johnny Lowe
Review by Joey Braccino
Uh… WHAT JUST HAPPENED!??!?!?! Sure, Image may have advertised this week’s special $1 issue of Morning Glories as the start of Season 2, which in turn might suggest that this is a great jumping-on point for new readers, but let me be the first to say, as a long-time reader of Nick Spencer’s mind-bending mystery series, I DON’T EVEN KNOW!!!
Okay. Okay. Let me slow things down for us here.
First, this issue is classic Morning Glories. So, in that sense, this is a great starting point for new readers, because if you’re gonna be confused, it should be at the start of something rather than in the middle. Also, “classic Morning Glories” means really great comics storytelling.
Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma kick off Season Two of Morning Glories with a character-centric issue focusing on series “lead” Casey Blevins, who has been off the grid for the last 8 issues or so. By “off the grid,” I mean, of course, back in time. Of course.
This week’s $1 issue gives us the 4-1-1 on what exactly Casey’s been up to in the XX years she’s been living in the past. In traditional Morning Glories fashion, the “answers” in this issue are more like “questions that I didn’t even want to have but now I have them and I don’t know what to do with them.” And these feelings of befuddlement abound in this issue, as Casey (?) essentially goes back to the future the hard way.
I’ll leave it there.
Throughout the series, Spencer and Eisma have employed a unique technique involving silent montage sequences that provide alternative or indirect perspectives on similar scenes. This technique is used several times in this issue: twice to provide a secondary context to familiar moments from earlier in the series; once to portray a montage of Casey’s (mis)adventures incognito in the past/future. It’s a brilliant technique for the series, playing at the “perception is everything” motif that runs through the series.
And, man, perception is a b!t#h. I’m sure we’ll see these clips again in season 2, but right now, I feel like I’m just along for one crazy ride. Like in Willy Wonka.
Actually, EXACTLY like Willy Wonka.
Verdict
Morning Glories is one of the best comics on the stands. While the review above might seem to suggest that this is a brain-buzzling piece of surrealism, Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma do provide a “good” jumping-on point for Season 2 in that issue #26 captures the aesthetic, mood, and confusion of the series proper. I still don’t really know what’s happening as I read through it a second time, but Eisma’s art is still gorgeous, Spencer’s story is still enthralling, and the mystery is still profound. Oh yeah, and it’s a DOLLAR. Join the Glories-train people!!!
