Morning Glories #25

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

I definitely think it might be time to re-read Morning Glories from the beginning.  Nick Spencer's series has always been a little confusing, as his story has circled back in on itself numerous times, adding layers of complexity to his plot, but this issue really takes that to a new level.  Over the last bunch of issues, Spencer has checked in on small groups or individual characters, leaving them in a number of different situations.  With this issue, almost every plotline converges, although strangely, more questions are raised than are answered.

Ike is holding Abraham, his father and the central force behind the whole series, at gunpoint, demanding answers.  Abraham wants Ike to leave before Irina shows up, because he knows that she will kill him.  The rest of Irina's group, who treat Abraham as if he is their father, don't really know what is happening, while Hunter is wandering through the woods with Jade, except it's Jade from the future.  Yes, it really is all that confusing.

At the same time, it's wonderful.  This issue is twice the size of a normal comic, and the whole book is taut with tension.  There is a strong sense of this being the last episode of a TV season, and I was once again struck with the similarity between this series and the TV show Lost, except that this book really does have a plan, no matter how strange it is.

As always with this book, I can't even try to make a prediction of where the book is going next, and I am very happy to just stick around for the ride.  Great stuff.

Bedlam #5

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Riley Rossmo

Just before reading this comic this week, I saw on Bleeding Cool that Riley Rossmo is leaving Bedlam due to 'creative differences' with writer Nick Spencer.  I'm never quite sure where I stand on Rossmo's art - when I started reading Proof, I loved it, but as that series continued, I often found his storytelling to be confusing and hard to follow.  Since then, he's sort of become the ubiquitous face of Image Comics, and that has meant he's drawn some books that I don't feel were well suited for his scratchy style.  Five issues into Bedlam though, I can't think of another artist that would be more suitable for Spencer's strange exploration of madness in a world of costumed vigilantes.  This title, with its disfigured nurses and genitally-scarred angel-wing wearing serial killers, would not work with a more realistic or a more cartoonish artist.  Really, no one is coming to mind right now except possibly Ted McKeever, although I'd kind of like to see Bill Sienkiewicz take over (not that that is going to happen).

Anyway, to talk about this actual issue, I'd have to say that my opinion of this book is continuing to grow.  Mr. Press, who we can all safely assume was once the Joker-like character Madder Red, continues to assist a police detective in her investigation into a string of murders.  There is some proof that these killings are connected to a sex-abuse scandal at a church many years prior, and Detective Acevedo reluctantly allows Press to continue helping her as she heads out to a prison to interview the man at the centre of that scandal.

Press is a difficult character to read, and he makes a few moves of his own this month that make his intent and his sanity rather murky.  We also see a lot more of his final days in treatment.  I did have the thought that Spencer has been playing with us, and that Press is not really Madder Red; it's not like Spencer doesn't regularly upend readers' expectations in Morning Glories.

As I said before, Rossmo's art has grown on me over the course of this series so far, and the news of his impending departure makes me wonder how well this book is going to work without him.

Morning Glories #24

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

This issue of Morning Glories has forty-four pages of story, and while it is priced at $3.99, that is more than twice what you would get from a similarly-priced Marvel comic, like say Secret Avengers #1, written by the same man.  I enjoyed that book, but I loved this one, even before considering the difference in quantity that my money bought me, because it also bought me the quality that comes with a creator-owned title.  Sure, this book is hella late, but when it's this good, and this fat, I don't mind at all.

In this issue, we finally return to Ike and Jade, who are the only students of Morning Glory Academy who have been left with the faculty when the rest of the school time-jumped away, or whatever that was.  They've been captured by Gribbs, who wants Ike to kill his father (again).

Now, perhaps I'm a little dense, but until this issue, I hadn't realized that Ike's father is the same Abraham that has visited each of the other students at some key point in their past, and who raised Jun's  friends, and trained them to infiltrate the Academy.  Maybe that was obvious before this point, but if it was, I never caught on.  Sometimes I don't notice things...

Anyway, this issue gives us a good amount of insight into Ike's personality.  He's always been portrayed as a hedonistic little creep who is only interested in looking after himself, and while that portrayal is accurate, it is also coloured a little by the experiences he's had, effectively growing up fatherless and ignored.

He's also the one member of the book's cast who always appears to have an exit strategy worked out, and this issue is no different.  Morning Glories is consistently an excellent read, in addition to giving good value for money.  Spencer and artist Joe Eisma have created a very unique book, that I always enjoy.  I'm pleased to see that Spencer is gaining acclaim for his Marvel work, and for his other Image title Bedlam (this really is Nick Spencer week), but I'm more pleased to see that it's not taking his attention away from this title.

Bedlam #3

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Riley Rossmo

Nick Spencer's new series is a strange one, but I feel like it's really hit its stride in this issue.  The series is about Madder Red, a Joker-style homicidal maniac, who has gone through ten years of psychiatric treatment, and has been sent back into the world by the strange doctor who treated him.

When this issue opens, he's confessed to a grisly murder that happened outside his building, but we readers know that he didn't commit this murder, or the others in a string of killings involving elderly people.  The cops like him for these crimes and others, and he's interested in helping them investigate the case.  Most of the issue is taken up with him going over homicide files, believing that he's in some sort of partnership with the Detective in charge of the cases, while she thinks that she's got the killer, and that he's toying with her.

It works very well, as Spencer portrays the guy as being off his rocker in a rather simplistic way, like an idiot savant of serial killers.  As the reader knows what's really going on, without knowing why the real killer is doing these things, the story becomes more and more intriguing, as we hope for mysteries to be solved.

I wasn't sure what to expect out of Bedlam, and I don't like it as much as I do Morning Glories, but at the same time that I'm bored out of my skull with the Joker in Batman, I'm really interested in learning more about Madder Red.

The Infinite Vacation #5

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Christian Ward

It was definitely a pleasant surprise to see this book show up in the shipping lists for this week (it was originally solicited for May 2011), finally finishing off the long-delayed mini-series.

Opening the book, it's not hard to see why this may have taken a while, as Christian Ward goes all out on the art, portraying some very complicated double-page spreads, incorporating photos into his work, and going into total psychedelia mode on multiple occasions. It's a lovely, lovely comic.

The story in this series has been more than a little hard to follow, which was not helped by the length between issues, but so far as I can tell, this issue wrapped the story up pretty nicely.  The Infinite Vacation refers to a company that has figured out a way for people to swap their lives with those of their counterparts on alternate Earths.  People use a bidding app on their smartphones similar to Ebay that allows them to transfer, for a certain amount of funds, between worlds.  Obviously the science is never made clear, especially when  these alternates are able to meet with each other, and occupy the same space on one world.

The concept behind this, shaky as it is, is pretty interesting, especially since Mark, our hero, has been targeted by the company that runs things for execution.  This issue has Mark finally taking charge of his own life, and turning the tables back on the corporate types.

It's confusing, but it's also very, very pretty.

Bedlam #2

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Riley Rossmo

You have to hand it to Nick Spencer - he does know how to put together an incredibly strange comic.  The first issue of Bedlam felt like a Joker story translated into a creator-owned venue, but with this second issue, Spencer reveals that he's going somewhere very different with this book.

Most confusingly, the issue opens with two old friends running into each other at a Somethings Anonymous meeting, and going out for coffee, where they talk about old friends.  Then the one drugs the other, takes him home, strips him, ties him up, gets naked, and puts on metal angel wings and fishnet stockings.  Yes, this does happen.

From there, the book shifts back to Fillmore, the guy we met last issue, who is probably Madder Red, the Joker-analogue character.  Fillmore is back in a medical clinic with the doctor we met last issue, who had Red tied up after his supposed death.  It looks like this doctor is in the business of lobotomizing criminals and reintegrating them into society on a secret basis, for reasons we have yet to understand.  We know he's up to no good though, because his assistants are a mixture of dwarves and women with slashed-up faces.

We also learn the consequences of Fillmore's rather bizarre call to the police last issue.  Things don't get too weird until the end of the comic though, which involves a horse dragging part of a corpse through traffic.

The weirdest part, though, is that as you read the book, none of these things seem all that odd.  Like with his Morning Glories, Spencer creates enough story logic and internal consistency in his tale that you just kind of follow along, and it's all good.  It's only when you try to recap the book that you realize how strange it is.

At the same time, there seems to be a growing interest in brain-experimentation in comics lately.  I'm thinking of the work of the character Dr. Rot in Jason Aaron's Wolverine run (later revisited in Cullen Bunn's), and of what's been going on in Uncanny Avengers.  I wonder if this trend comes out of the zombie-obsession that has gripped comics for years...

I continue to not be overly impressed with Riley Rossmo's art on this book, but I'm used to that.  I'm still not sure if this is an ongoing series or a limited one.  I can see sticking with this title for 6 issues or so - I don't see it becoming a long-term commitment the way Morning Glories has.

Morning Glories #23

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

I'm not uncomfortable admitting that I no longer have much of a clue as to what's going on in Morning Glories.  Nick Spencer's excellent series about a group of children who have been sent to a very strange, probably evil, secret school, has become very convoluted and confusing, especially for someone who is reading it in it's (not quite) monthly comics form, as there are way too many plot threads to keep track of from issue to issue.

I don't care though, because this book is still great, even when it's just way too confusing.

Hisao (who we know as Jun) is angry with Irina for her treatment of Hunter and her decision to leave his brother Jun (who we know as Hisao) to be a sacrifice to something.  We have learned that Hisao/Jun used to be a part of Irina's group, but we're still not very clear as to what their mission is.  Meanwhile, Fortunato and Akiko, other members of Irina's group, have made their way to Jun/Hisao's sacrifice, and witness first hand what goes on there (the cover is a hint).

We are also shown some flashbacks to a point two years previous when Irina's group made their first move against the Headmaster of the Academy.  It's these scenes that are among the most confusing, as it's hard to be clear on just what the kids are trying to accomplish (and because I have a hard time distinguishing between Akiko and Irina).  Also, we check in on Ike and Jade, who were last seen still playing the Woodrun game (I think - it's been a while).

This is a very solid issue, despite all the confusion.  Spencer has a great handle on each kid's personality and character, and in a lot of ways, it's just fun to sit back and watch them all interact.  Joe Eisma's art is always wonderful.

Bedlam #1

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Riley Rossmo

Bedlam is a very strange new series from Nick Spencer, a writer who excels at writing strange comics (Morning Glories is excellent, but almost impossible to predict).  Basically, this is a Joker comic, but featuring creator-owned characters.

Madder Red is very similar to the Clown Prince of Crime - he wears a creepy mask which shows off a toothy grin, and he likes to kill people - especially children.  As the series opens, in a flashback, we see his greatest crime - slaughtering a large group of children on a field trip to the symphony.  This vicious crime ends with his incarceration, after The First (in other words, Batman), beats him down.  This is part of Red's plan though, as he has a broadcast arranged that announces that, if he is not killed within an hour, bombs that have been planted at a number of local schools will go off.  This leads to bedlam in Bedlam, and the police station explodes, killing Red.

There are the usual conspiracy theories that he wasn't actually killed, although after then years, he's never resurfaced.  In the 'now' part of the book, we meet a man who is clearly mentally ill, and is taking a great interest in the murder of a few old men in a series of home invasions.  This man ends up interrupting an internal dispute among some drug dealers, and generally gives us the impression that he may be Madder Red.  The flashbacks suggest that he did survive the explosion, but not in a way that makes a lot of sense.

Basically, Spencer is using some of the same tricks that work so well for him in Morning Glories - setting up some mystery, and effectively using flashbacks to lead our thinking in one direction, without ever revealing the truth.  It works, as I'm very curious to see where this goes next.

Riley Rossmo has become Image's go-to guy for mini-series.  Since Proof, his ongoing series, went on what looks like a permanent hiatus, Rossmo has been involved in a large number of books, often having more than one comic on the stands in any given month.  That's pretty impressive, especially considering that this first issue is double-sized.  He's never been a favourite artist of mine - his work is pretty scratchy and hard to follow at times, but I do think he did a great job of constructing a sense of dread in this comic.  The use of colour (the flashback scenes are coloured only with some reds) works well to support the dual narrative of this comic.

I'm not sure how long this series is set to run, but they've got me on board for a mini-series at least.

Morning Glories #22

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

Things take a turn or two to the even weirder in the latest issue of Morning Glories.  Almost since this excellent title began, I've been comparing it to the TV show Lost, in its themes, structure, and execution.

If you accept that comparison as being valid, then we are at the point where people showed up at the base of the three-toed statue.  Irina and the group of students who we met over the last few issues (Jun's former classmates at Abraham's school in the desert) reveal that everyone has moved through time to some point after ancient Sumeria fell to ruins, and that their mission is to rescue Abraham from some sort of threat that is never really made clear.  Hunter continues to be our point-of-view character through this arc, and he's confused as hell, despite having spent his entire life steeped in movies that have similar plots.

Things get very strange in the ruins of a Sumerian temple, as the students all suddenly speak different languages, and it becomes clear that Irina is working her own plan, that has nothing to do with Abraham's original intention for these kids.

This issue is shot through with flashbacks to two years previous, when this new group of students arrived at the Morning Glory Academy.  Their experiences closely mirror what the students we know went through in the early issues of this book, with some differences.  Instead of almost being drowned in a classroom, they were almost burned alive.

This continues to be a very compelling read, although I'm getting a little confused as to just where everything and everyone stands.  The latest solicitation in Previews (for issue 25) claims that it will be the end of the 'first season' of the series.  That means that either a lot has to get resolved in a short space of time, or that Spencer is building towards one hell of a cliffhanger.  I hope there isn't a long hiatus between 'seasons', as I really enjoy reading this book semi-monthly.

Morning Glories #21

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

One thing that can kind of annoy about Morning Glories, Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma's brilliant series about students involved in a Lost-like story about a strange school that kidnaps its students and manipulates their lives for unseen ends, and that is that the series often waits a few issues before addressing cliffhangers.

A couple of issues back, Hunter, one of the core group of characters we as readers have been following since the series began, was at the mercy of another character, who was prepared to kill him.  He was suddenly, and violently, rescued by a girl we hadn't seen before.  Then Spencer moved the story to other places for a while.  Finally, with this issue, we get to see what happened next.

It turns out that Hunter's rescuers were part of the same group as Guillaume, Jun's old friend and lover, who we met a while back.  They'd all been studying under the mysterious Abraham before being sent to the Morning Glory Academy to carry out some kind of mission.

Most of this issue is given over to introducing these new characters - we see in flashbacks that they went through the same events as our heroes did when they first came to the school, and we learn that they all knew Jun from back in the day.  We also get a slight sense of their mission, but Spencer plays that part pretty close to the vest, choosing instead to add to the high number of unknowns currently gathering throughout this series.

Spencer's work here has always impressed me in terms of character and his ability to effectively use the individual issue to tell part of a larger story (really, this is a dying art in this day and age).  Eisma is equally adept at crafting a strong sense of atmosphere and dread in this comic.  Together, they give jsut enough information each issue to make me anticipate the next without frustration setting in.

Thief of Thieves #7

Written by Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough

I always love that moment in a good heist movie where the perpetrators sit down and explain what all went on off-screen, to show how the audience, like the police, were chasing the wrong thing, or were seeing events from the wrong angle.  Kirkman and Spencer pull off that same moment in this issue, as Redmond explains to his assistant the secrets behind his supposed 'snitching' out of his peers.

This is a masterful issue, showing Redmond to be as smart as we've been told he is since the series began, and showing the FBI Agent who has become obsessed with him as the victim of her own hubris.  Everything here is very nicely balanced, and Shawn Martinbrough does a great job of tying it all together visually.

I know that with the next issue, James Asmus is coming on board as the writer, and continuing with a new story arc.  I'm of mixed feelings about that - this issue ends so well, that I kind of feel like this would be the right place to finish the series.  I'm definitely on board to keep buying the book, but I worry that, like too many comics series, sometimes people don't know when to just finish their story and move on (like Fables).  I would hate to see this series end up in the same predicament.

Thief of Thieves #6

Written by Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough

There's nothing quite like a good double- or triple-crossing heist story, and as we get very close to the end of the first arc on this series, we start to understand exactly why Redmond is the 'Thief of Thieves'.

Last issue, Redmond made a deal with the police detective (or is she an FBI agent?  I forget) who has been pursuing him for years - Redmond would set up a gang of wanted thieves in exchange for his son's freedom from prison.  This issue shows how things go down, but Redmond's always working a step or two ahead of everyone else, and it's not sure that the cop is going to be too happy with how things end.  The only problem is that Redmond didn't tip off his assistant Celia, and she's come looking to even the score.

This is a very masterfully handled crime comic.  Kirkman and Spencer (whose run is going to finish with the next issue) have plotted this thing out wonderfully, and Shawn Martinbrough is second in my mind after Sean Phillips for drawing the perfect crime comic.  This is very good stuff.

Morning Glories #20

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

Twenty issues in, and the mysteries still keep piling up, but now Nick Spencer has decided to share a little about two members of the faculty at Morning Glory Academy.  During the Woodrun, a school-wide game of Capture the Flag (more or less), all of the students vanished.  We have been following some of them, and it looks to them like all the adults in the Academy have disappeared, but the opposite seems true to the faculty.

This has led to some problems for Georgina, the head teacher.  Her father, the Headmaster (who we have never laid eyes on yet) takes his anger out on her physically, and her sister Lara, the kindly guidance counsellor comes to comfort her.  Lara is a relatively new member of the cast, and we know her as the woman who helped Casey escape MGA.  This issue paints her in a very different light.

We learn that Lara and Georgina have different mothers (not surprising, seeing as they look so different), and that both of them never met their mothers.  The two girls competed for their father's attentions throughout their childhoods, and Lara's extra-sensory abilities made her seem the favourite, although it is eventually Georgina who gains control of the school.  We learn a few odd things over the course of the book - there are people kept prisoner under the ground, for one.  We also learn the story behind the cave that Lara used to help Casey escape, but we end up seeing this kind and caring woman as someone very different from what we'd thought.

This book is never dull, even though each new issue makes the series more complicated and obtuse.  I really admire the way that Spencer is spinning out such a strange story, yet still gripping my interest with each new instalment.  From almost the beginning, I'd been comparing this comic to Lost, but this has exceeded that flawed TV show in almost every way.

Thief of Thieves #5

Written by Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough

It's taken five issues, but now Kirkman and Spencer have made clear what they are doing with this comic, and have more or less set out a path for the plot to follow (not that we know the significance of the empty painting at the beginning of issue one and the end of issue four yet).  Prior to this, we've been spending a lot of time just getting to know Redmond and his family.

This issue shows us what ever happened to Redmond's brother-in-law, who was in the flashbacks for issue two, but hasn't been seen since.  It also introduces all of the remaining members of Redmond's crew, who are each given one page.

This results in a quick read, but still, this issue is very enjoyable.  Kirkman and Spencer are putting an interesting twist on the standard heist drama, and having established the characters so well prior to the crime actually beginning, they've made me actually care about what happens to Redmond and his son.

Great work all around on this comic, but Shawn Martinbrough deserves some special recognition for his astounding art.

Morning Glories #19

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

I don't understand why I don't hear a lot more buzz for this comic.  Nick Spencer's story, complex and secretive as it is, is very exciting.  This issue picks up on the events of a few months back.  The students of Morning Glory Academy have been participating in Woodrun, a kind of cross between a scavenger hunt and Capture the Flag. 

Hunter, the nice kid and sort of secondary point-of-view character for this series has been partnered with Zoe.  They were actually talking to each other a little, but then Zoe suddenly killed a girl that had been talking to Hunter.  Now she's chasing him, and he doesn't really know what's going on.

While he's running, the audience is given a series of flashbacks to Hunter's life before coming to the school.  We learn that his mother is in the hospital with a terminal illness, and that she is pressuring him to apply to MGA.  The scenes between them are touching, and also suggestive of the idea that Hunter's mom knows something about how the school operates, since she is certain that he'd be accepted, despite his average grades and test scores.

The story notes of this issue are all a little predictable (except for Hunter's weird inability to tell time - that's just odd), but Spencer and Eisma handle them with enough sensitivity to make them work very well.  The last couple of pages, once again, raise a bunch of questions, but that's just become par for the course with this series.  That's a big part of the draw for me, really.

Thief of Thieves #4

Written by Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough

With each new issue of Thief of Thieves, Kirkman and Spencer have been revealing a new side to Redmond, the series's titular character.  The first issue introduced him and his assistant, and the idea that he was ready to retire.  The second issue let us meet his ex-wife.  The third focused on the police detective who has been tracking him for years, while this latest issue is centred on his son, who looks just like him.

It seems that Augustus has followed in his father's footsteps, only without any of his innate skills and talents.  Augustus is in custody awaiting trial, and if convicted, will fall under a 'three strikes' rule, thereby placing him in prison for a very long time.  Knowing this, the cop (or is she FBI?  she's not identified in this issue and I forget) is trying to get information from him, but for now, he's standing firm.

This is a very well-plotted book, as the final pages loop back the beginning of the first issue.  I think that all the set-up is finished with now, and expect that we are going to find the book moving quicker from this point out.  I like that Kirkman and Spencer have taken their time to build this series, but I think it's time for a little more to start happening.  Still, with all this excellent Shawn Martinbrough art to look at, I'm fine with whatever pace they choose to set.

Morning Glories #18

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

If there's one thing about Nick Spencer's terrific series Morning Glories that you can always count on, it's that there is always another layer to the story waiting to be uncovered.  And it seems that each new layer adds new intrigue and mystery to the title.

This month, instead of the conclusion to the P.E. arc that we were expecting, we receive an issue that focuses on Jun, the quietest and most enigmatic of the main characters.  It's worth remembering that Jun's name is really Hisao, and that he switched names with his brother Jun, who is also a student at Morning Glories Academy.  Hisao has been thoroughly brainwashed by the faculty at the school, and it's been very unclear as to just what Jun's role in this series was going to be.

This issue begins a few years before the start of the series, where Jun (still called Hisao at that point) is being trained at an MGA-like facility.  We see him shooting a rifle, and then getting into a fight with his rival, a boy named Guillaume when he tries to take his target to Abraham, who appears to run this facility.  At that point, we see a glimpse of Ms. Darabont, the head teacher at MGA negotiating with Abraham for six students, one of whom is Guillaume.

In the present, Jun gets into a fight with Hisao, who believes that the strange events of a few issues back, which resulted in all the faculty and guards vanishing from the school, is his fault.  They fight, before Jun is rescued by Guillaume. 

Apparently, Guillaume and Jun are there on some kind of mission to rescue Abraham.  It's all a little complicated (not this series!), but also very interesting.  I would need to go back through some back issues, but I'm pretty sure that we saw Abraham visit each of the core cast members in flashbacks, but I'd assumed that he was recruiting them for the MGA, not for something else.  Also of interest is the relationship between Jun and Guillaume, which I'm sure could get the book banned in South Carolina...

Once again, Spencer delivers a compelling and mysterious book that raises more questions than it answers, but that is also a master class in character writing.

Thief of Thieves #3

Written by Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough

Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer have really been taking their time building up this new series.  From the first issue, it seemed that the story would simply be about a master thief who was looking to retire from his life of crime, and it looked like his colleagues weren't going to allow him to bow out.  The second issue introduced Redmond's ex-wife, and showed a slightly different side of him.

This issue turns things around a little further, as a couple of new characters are introduced.  At the beginning of the comic, Redmond wakes up to find a woman making him breakfast.  This is not a girlfriend or lover, but instead an FBI agent who has been pursuing Redmond for years.  They have an interesting, casual relationship considering how they know each other, and their conversation fills in a few more details about Redmond's life.  We learn that he has been living in a house that he bought fully furnished after a family died, and he has never removed their photos or personal effects.

This issue also establishes that the FBI agent has gotten herself in trouble a few times while pursuing Redmond.  This is not exactly a new approach to stories like this, but Kirkman and Spencer are adding a few new wrinkles in the way they tell the story.  The addition of Redmond's son into the mix will only continue to make things more interesting.

That said, I feel like this series needs to speed up a little, now that so many of these characters have been brought into the story. 

Morning Glories #17

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Joe Eisma

A few months ago, Casey (who is more or less the star of this series) and Ms. Hodge, the guidance counselor at Morning Glories Academy used a strange method of escaping the schoolgrounds, which we later discovered led to their being tossed back in time a ways.  In order for their escape to work, they needed two people to sit in front of some flames and cast a shadow on the opposite wall of a cavern.  These two people were Jade and Ike (who was himself a stand-in for the more amicable Hunter).

This issue returns to that scene, and shows us what happened between these two as they sat around waiting for Casey to disappear.  Jade has been the suicidal, tragic figure in this series since it began.  She's constantly needed Casey to bail her out of trouble or to save her life, and she's happy to be doing something to help her, even though by doing it, she expects Casey to rescue her.  Ike is the group sociopath, who has been giving everyone a hard time since the first issue, and has been quick to turn on his peer group (I can't really use the word friends).

Jade has easily been the most irritating character in this comic, but through this issue, Spencer explores her in such a way as to make her a little more sympathetic.  We learn about her mother's death, and some of the ways in which she chose to express her grief and frustration after it.  We also see her prevaricate on issues like the existence of God, and just what is going to happen to the students at the school.  Ike, on the other hand, is often fascinating, as he continues to put Jade down and mess with her head, but also sticks around to help Casey despite himself.

Spencer uses a few other scenes in this comic to help continue advancing some of the mysteries of this series, especially the one concerning Ike's father.  Every month I try to avoid speaking of this comic in terms of the TV show Lost, but really, there is no other long-narrative story I can think of that comes closest to the same formula of revelation followed by more mystery than that.  I just keep hoping that Spencer's big finish is nowhere near as lame.

The Infinite Vacation #4

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Christian Ward and Kendall Bruns

Fine, this comic is really late, but it is totally worth it.  Nick Spencer's star has definitely risen since he started publishing this mini-series in January of 2011, and he has been writing some very good comics (Morning Glories, Spider-Island: Cloak and Dagger, THUNDER Agents, and Thief of Thieves) and a couple of okay ones (Ultimate Comics X-Men).  It's easy to understand why this title, more than any other, may have slipped through the cracks, because it is much more complex than anything else, with the possible exception of the multi-layered tapestry that is Morning Glories.

The Infinite Vacation (last seen in November) posits a multiverse where people are able to swap realities with their alternate counterparts, or visit them whenever they wish with the use of computers or a mobile phone app.  Mark, our hero, has been targeted by the people who run the Infinite Vacation for extermination, for reasons I don't remember.  He has been helped by some of his alternates (ie. Hacker Mark and Nude Mark), but is also being pursued by himself (Psycho Cannibal Mark).  He has sought refuge with the Singularists, a religious group that avoids the Vacation, and who stay in their birth reality all their lives.

In this issue, Mark comes face to face with his psychotic other, and flees, leaving behind the Singularist that he is falling for.  He ends up in a reality where he has had just about the best life he could hope for, and within that, he finds new strength and direction, something he has never really had before.  Most of this issue is spent building up to next issue's big conclusion, and I hope that the momentum I felt here carries forward for however many months it takes for the next issue to come out.

While Spencer does some interesting work with this series, exploring the various consequences and ramifications of this technology, it is Ward who really shines in this issue.  He's always had a bit of a psychedelic style to his art (think Brandon McCarthy mixed with Dustin Nguyen), but in this issue he gets to really cut loose with some interest page designs and layouts.  I especially like the double-page spread where Psycho Mark chases Mark and the girl around a Mobius strip.

I also like the way photography (provided by Kendall Bruns, who apparently doesn't get a credit on the cover) is integrated into this series whenever Spencer needs some space to explain some of the science fiction concepts he's playing it.  It works as a very strong contrast to Ward's crazy artwork.

This is a very cool series.