By: Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (art), Alex Sollazzo (colors), Johnny Lowe (letters) and Jade Dodge (editor)
The Story: What were Jade and Ike doing while Casey and Ms. Hodge vanished from the cave?
A few things:
Long! - 34 pages for the same $2.99 price. Isn’t that nice? You know how when Marvel or DC does an “extra sized” issue, they charge $4.99 for it? Well, none of that here. Nice job fellas! By making this issue longer, the creators are able do the roadwork they needed to with the main story and also weave in some tidbits on the side. With a shorter issue, something would have dropped.
Lots of talking. - There are positives and negatives to this issue’s length, though. The best thing it is that we get to learn more about Jade. She is probably the least explored of the “main” characters in this title (along with Jun) and there’s no replacement for page-time for fleshing out a character. Spencer is clearly devoted to developing all of his characters, and that’s going to take some time at 22 pages per issue. So, he decided to quicken the process with a extra-sized issue. I do kinda admire how Spencer is telling his own story at his own pace and isn’t being distracted by silly reviewers yelling to “Hurry up!”. Isn’t that the point of creator-owned comics? Now, the negative of this issue is that the A-story is mostly Jade and Ike talking to each other. It isn’t very exciting. It’s kinda like eating your vegetables. Even though we learned a lot more about Jade in this issue, I think I’d rather go see what Zoe is doing.
Interesting moments happen in the B-stories. – One other benefit of the extra length is that the B-stories got full treatment. Compared to the main story, it was far more interesting to see Jade in the flashback sequences. THERE you really connect with her as a person. Then, there is a scene (I think) from around the time the Morning Glories Academy was built. THAT scene was curious and is the kind of catnip that MG fans enjoy. Finally, we have the return of a character we haven’t scene since the early, early issues of the series. This dude was kinda like the polar bear on Lost. It’s nice to see him back because it reinforces that Spencer does have a plan for this series. Sometimes you worry with these slow developing stories that the writer might be making it up as they go along, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Eisma has to do a LOT of heavy lifting. - I can only imagine Eisma’s reaction the first time he saw this script that was heavy on two kids sitting next to each other and talking. Or maybe he saw it as a challenge. Either way, Eisma does a wonderful job of keeping these pages from becoming boring. The body language of the characters is as important as what they are saying. Eisma always manages to capture little elements of body language that sell the scene whether it is someone’s grossed out reaction to vomit or how a petulant teenage girl sulks.
Conclusion: Not the most exciting of issues, but it was necessary to spend a little time on Jade because she was rapidly fading into the background of this large cast. However, there are a few bits of red meat in this issue that did pique my interest.
Grade: B-
-Dean Stell
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Filed under: Image Comics Tagged: Alex Sollazzo, Dean Stell, Image, Jade Dodge, Joe Eisma, Johnny Lowe, Morning Glories, Morning Glories #17, Morning Glories #17 review, Nick Spencer, review
