Morning Glories #13:
What Happened: All of the classes at Morning Glories Academy are canceled for the day so the student body could take part in something called Woodrun. Upon hearing this Casey immediately tells Jade to stick close to her and rushes outside to find Hunter. Unfortunately Hunter is avoiding Casey due to their kind of/sort of break-up. Casey and Jade end up getting stuck with Ike as the third member of their Woodrun team. Casey leads Ike and Jade to a hidden cave on the school grounds where the school guidance councilor, Ms. Hodge, was waiting for them. Hodge is pissed to see Ike there and not Hunter but decides to go ahead with her plan to help Casey escape from the Academy. Casey wants Jade to go with her but Hodge tells her that was impossible and that once Casey had made good her escape she could try to rescue not only Jade but the rest of the student body. Casey reluctantly agrees and goes along with Hodge's plan, which is to sit on the ground while Ike and Jade remain standing in front of a big fire. Ultimately a wacky light show takes place which knocks Casey out and when she wakes up her and Hodge discover themselves in some field near a fence. Hodge seems to think they were in the wrong place and this issue ends with Casey's father and a bunch of other soldiers approaching the two telling them to get on the ground. The problem there? Casey's father was supposed to be dead.
The Good: The Good? The mystery in this series is The Good! Ike is such an unlikable character that I can't help but like him... Wait, that doesn't make sense... Hunter's outburst at Zoe finally gave him some personality besides “token nice guy”. Casey gives off the vibe of a natural leader. The cliffhanger was fantastic. As always, Joe Eisma's art was great.
The Bad: We never really find out what “Woodrun” was all about. The evil faculty members didn't have an appearance. Um, that's all I can think of.
The Verdict: Awesome, last issue WAS an aberration! This issue was WAY more like the 5 issues before issue #12, spotlighting the students and making me care about their plight. One other thing that I've noticed about the past couple of issues, and it's a little thing but it actually helps... The first couple of issues this series would censor the word “fuck” but nothing else, which I found REALLY weird for a comic with a mature rating attached to it. Seeing *$@&, but every other word of profanity kind of pulls you out of the story a bit. Or it pulls me out of the story a bit. The past few issues the censoring has ceased, which actually helps this story out. Now, I'm not advocating that every comic book should have mounds and mounds of profanity, but it DOES help certain comic books emphasize the seriousness of certain situations. So there's my piece on comic books and profanity, probably my weirdest rant ever! Anyway, if you're tired of Marvel or DC and want to try out a comic from one of the other companies, I'd have to say that THIS series is the best one I'm reading right now.
Score: 9 out of 10.
HA! I like Ike!
JUST read and reviewed this for next weeks R&R, and I loved this issue. I didn't even notice the profanity thing but you read the issues back to back so that makes sense. I loved Hunter snapping at Zoe and it was justified and Ike always comes off as a jerk but a likable jerk, kinda like Jason? The ending was really interesting, I'd have to guess they went back in time, but I wonder if this will have any implications on the current-day MG Cast.
ReplyDeleteDude, the profanity thing bothered me SO much during the early issues... I couldn't understand why "shit" wasn't censored, but "fuck" was... It made me feel like Nick Spencer shouldn't even use the word if it was going to be censored. Imagine watching an R-rated movie where only the f-bomb was bleeped... It would be jarring! Like I said, it's one of those little things, but it would drive me CRAZY! SO I'm glad they righted that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Ike is a total jerk, but I find myself liking him regardless. This was actually the first issue I really found myself liking Casey as well. Before this she was the obvious lead character, and I tend to shy away from the leads and find myself enjoying the secondary characters more, but for whatever reason, I found myself liking her more here. The characterizations all the way around are super strong here.
I def thought the same thing, that they went back in time, which would be fine because that raises all sorts of questions, such as how the hell can the faculty at MGA go back in time and stuff? Just how powerful is the mysterious Headmaster?