Morning Glories, Volume Two: All Will Be Free [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

NO SPOILERS -Morning Glories Volume 1 was the reader's introduction to a horrifying prep school. Six highly intelligent students, three boys and three girls, are accepted to the prestigious Morning Glory Academy. Each group become room-mates, experiencing the school together for the first time. A small amount of background is given on a few, but not all, of the students.

Within a day, it becomes painfully obvious that the new students have been cut off from the outside world, and are at the mercy of a sadistic staff with unknown goals. Even other students may be prone to violence. Physical and psychological torture, and even death, is a common experience for MGA students.

Volume 1 serves as an introduction to the major characters, plus the story of how Casey, the character with the most development at this point, executes a plan to save another student from a likely horrible fate.

Volume 2 picks up with a great deal more character development on the six students. There is more detailed background information on most of them. However, author Nick Spenser cleverly manages to raise more questions than answers are given! The reader still has little clue about what the headmaster and teachers' aims are. The characters are complex and interesting. As he delves further into the story, I foresee a real rounding out of everyone involved.

I was initially drawn to the series by an appreciation for Joe Eisma's artwork, after seeing the comic in my local store. The artwork does not disappoint! Sure, the girls are all sexy, but this isn't one of those series that seems to cater only to the guys' eyes; the male characters are also attractive young men. Each person has a unique look. The lines are crisp and clean; facial expressions and body language are very well done. Alex Sollazzo's colors at times appropriately subdued and at other times vibrant and jewel like.

In short, I cannot find a single thing about this series not to like!

I can't imagine that anyone would pick up Vol 2 without having read Vol 1 first because any such person would most likely be lost. This book wastes no time digging deeper into the bowels of Morning Glory Academy and the twisted faculty that makes up the place. This volume (issues #7-12) focuses each iteration on one of the characters introduced in the first volume. It also keeps up a storytelling trick that is used to more and more illuminating effect later on in the series, namely telling the same scene more than once in different contexts. For example early in the volume, we get a focus on Victoria where she has a confrontation with Ike. Near the end of the volume when the story has shifted to Ike, we get the same scene but now that it occurs in his story we get a better understanding of him and why he is doing what he does.

Some characters do come off firmly in either the hero's or villain's camp while some have motivations that are strictly based on self-preservation and I dare say I can't blame those that do. We get more back story that is set prior to issue #1 while also getting some meat for the main story in the present day. Characters are alive here, moving beyond the standard characterizations and expectations that were set in volume 1 The art is exactly the same as volume 1 - that's a compliment. I cannot tell you how distracting it can be when a book changes artists when telling an ongoing narrative. Not here, everything is on the nose on every page.

Now, there is a small criticism and here it is - by the end of volume 2, and another 160+ pages of reading, the main story does not progress very much farther than where we left it at the end of volume 1. Having already read this series as a monthly means I know what happens in the next dozen issues. But if I ignore that I STILL feel a bit of frustration here over not having any real clue about WTF is going on. Sure the context is enormously interesting and intricate and fascinating but the main story is still thin. I can tell you that things pick up in volume 3 so if you also feel this inclination at the close of this volume, have hope that a big chunk of what is going on is about to revealed.

Morning Glories is basically the Prisoner set in a boarding school. Six teens, each with their own secrets, have been lured to the mysterious Morning Glories Academy and then cut off from the outside world. Their teachers sometimes try to kill them, their classmates range from brainwashed to psychotic and our protagonists are not doing much better.

In this volume we learn more about our six characters, the surreal school and the mystery behind it. I won't give anything away but some questions teased in the first book are explained and some new mysteries appear.

Joe Eisma's art has improved since the first book, it's easier to tell which character is which despite them all being in school uniforms. But the art is still the main weakness, the Japanese student Jun and East Indian Zoe still look white, facial expressions and body language are still not as strong as they could be. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Rodin Esquejo's cover art which has all the strengths Eisma lacks.

But this is still a really great series, and hopefully author Nick Spencer will keep moving forward rather than drag the story out too long. I've seen a lot of books die because the writer was too afraid to give answers and move forward. But that's a worry for later. For now Spencer gave me just enough to keep me hooked. I'll certainly be here for book 3!