Morning Glories #7 Review

In just seven issues Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma have crafted a fairly unique, vastly intriguing and mysterious title with Morning Glories. It's one of the best creator owned books to launch last year and it has had a consistently strong story. That continues this week as Spencer shifts his focus from the group to just one, Zoe. This is her issue, we learn a little bit about her past but all the while Spencer wraps it up in more mystery and you leave with more questions than you entered with. Which is not a bad thing at all. As well as focusing on Zoe they also show a little more of the academy. The evil, murdering establishment has a cheer leading squad for example, no surprise there then some high schoolers would say they are the epitome of evil douche-bags. So they fit in well at MGA. 

Zoe is still pissed at not being clued into on Casey's plan from a couple issues ago and stomps off to find more 'popular' friends. She finds the head cheerleader and we learn that she used to be one in her old school. This issue is all about learning how Zoe ticks, she is shown as a child in India where she witnessed her father murder her mother and already has some scary abilities, she accidentally killed a teacher at her old school and covered it up. All this information she gives voluntarily when prompted but when asked the question 'Who is David?' she bolts. All this was a facade perpetrated by the higher up's in the school, seemingly to find out who David is. The last thing we learn about poor little orphan Zoe is that her first murder may have been an accident but the next one? Not so much. Whoever David is she definitely doesn't want to talk about him. 

The thing I love about this book is just how much Nick Spencer manages to suck me in, then he delivers a great story that often leaves me scratching my head and yet I still go back for more every month. That's a staple of great writing, I don't need to know everything, I don't even have to have my question's answered, I just want to be entertained. In this respect Morning Glories  is certainly living up to the comparisons with the stellar Lost that have been thrown around since the book launched. Eisma's art is servieable again, not perfect but there is a massive amount of potential there and it's never what I would call bad, just inconsistent in parts. His characters look great though and they definitely fit the setting well. I like the direction the series is taking and I hope we will get some more issues focused on the single characters so Spencer can flesh them out for us before revealing more of the over arching plot.

Writer - Nick Spencer
Artist - Joe Eisma
Colors - Alex Sollazzo
Letters - Johnny Lowe
Cover - Rodin Esquejo
Publisher - Image Comics   

Iron Man #501 Review

In the past month we have been treated to two great issues of Invincible Iron Man issue #500 saw the conclusion of the 'Resilient' story line and the expertly written #500.1 gave us a recap of the entire Iron Man story in the unique form of an AA meeting. With issue #501 Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca start a new arc entitled 'Fix Me'. The story opens with the first meeting of two gifted scientists, one a cocky, brash young man, Tony Stark and the other an insecure, yes man, Dr. Otto Octavius. Their first meeting isn't exactly a success with Octavius' dismissal of Stark's 'God Number' theory, the minimum amount of moves that any problem can be solved in. Their next meeting goes even less smoothly, while Tony watches an interview he did talking up the future of the 'Resilient' brand he is attacked by Doc. Ock who threatens to detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of the city if Stark doesn't meet him face to face. He issues a challange, let's find out who is smarter, seems the old Doc is still smarting from that meeting all those years ago at the technology symposium and now, in true psycho fashion, he thinks he has found a way to get his own back. He tells Stark that he's dying and unless he fixes him, like he managed to fix himself and regain his mind after what Osborn did to him, he will detonate the nuclear bombs and let the whole world know that it's Tony Stark's fault, that he could have prevented it all if he had just admitted he wasn't smart enough to fix Doc Ock. 

That's what it all boils down to, he sees the way to beat the man is to attack his ego, drag him down by forcing him to attempt the impossible. As insurance he had Electro and Sandman kidnap one of Stark's employees, Tim, and he will die if Doc Ock stops checking in. In his madness he thinks his ultimate victory over Tony Stark will be for him to say 'I can't fix you'. In a nice little exchange Stark lays out his opinion on the Doc, he's nothing but a sad rip off artist whose 'octobots' are sad copies of old Stark tech and the reason why he has never appeared on Starks radar since the symposium is simply because he isnt worth his time. Then in true Tony Stark fashion he gets to work proclaiming 'I'm going to fix you, you sad weird bastard'. Just when you thought things couldn't get more interesting, Pepper show's up an Tim's apartment separated from Electro and Sandman by nothing but a door. Could we see Rescue in a little smack down with 1/3 of the Sinister Six. I hope so.

Overall it's a nice start to the next arc, I'm a fan of Fractions writing the more and more I read him and the quality continues here. I like his take on Tony Stark a lot, he really makes you believe that Tony is changing but there is still that old arrogance bubbling away and the possibility that he could implode at any time is always there. When I first started reading this series I have to admit I wasn't a massive fan of Larroca's art style but as the series continued it grew on me and now I couldn't imagine the book without his unique brand of visuals. Invincible Iron Man is still one of the most quality titles to hit the stands month to month and with Marvel seemingly pushing a return of the Sinister Six pretty hard over multiple titles I am interested in seeing where the story will go from here.  

Writer - Matt Fraction
Artist - Salvador Larroca
Colors - Frank D'Armata
Letters - Joe Caramagna
Cover - Salvador Larroca
Publisher - Marvel Comics

Detective Comics #874 Review

Remember the back up story from the first 2 issues of Scott Snyder's smash hit 'Black Mirror' story that focused on the return of Commissioner Gordon's son James Gordon Jnr? Good, because that means you have been doing the sane thing and reading Scott Snyder's great run on Detective Comics. Anyway, when DC announced their 'Drawing the line at $2.99' initiative, as a caveat they decided to remove the back up stories from their books so we never got to see the conclusion of that story. Until now. Scott Snyder took what would have been the final chapter of the back up story and wove it into a larger story featuring Batman and Red Robin, that story is Detective Comics #874. The first half of the issue continues the meeting of Gordon and his son, it's a creepy, overtly dark encounter that finally gives us some first hand insight into the character of James Gordon Jnr. He doesn't seem to be a very nice person and freely admits to being a psychopath. Blithely making jokes about cutting off a waitresses head and stuffing it into the toilet, a nice touch here is how they show the slow trickle of water coming from the bathroom giving the impression that he could have indeed done just that. The undertone created in the first two parts of this story were that Jimmy Jr returning was not a good thing and that he couldn't be trusted, that perception is solidified here as he comes off as a little bit sinister with an air of the crazies. References to Dick not trusting him, the Peter Pan killer and the death of his sister Barbara's friend Bess further add to the overall picture that Snyder is trying to reveal to us bit by bit. Slowly filling in his back story and giving us the impression that his return is no going to be easy on the commish. Gordon opening the bathroom door to find that the water coming under the door is because the sinks have been filled with rolls of toilet paper and left running. Stupid practical joke or the seeds of a manipulative mind game by an admitted psychopath?

As we follow the water down the drain it takes us to the second part of the story and to a Batman still recovering from the effects of the toxin used on him last issue, teamed with Tim Drake AKA Red Robin. This segue into a seemingly unrelated story is not only done well from an art point of view with the water draining and flowing to the outlet pipe at the docks where Dick and Tim are but handled expertly by the first line of dialogue on the page "You're fooling yourself again". A reference not only to the current scene and Batman's refusal to admit the toxin is still in his system but to the previous scene and Gordon's willingness to sit and listen to his son. It's a damned effective little piece of storytelling. The second part of the story is a little more standard Batman fare but call's back to the original story in the form of one of the missing birds from the aviary. Tendrils of this story are already tying back to the return of James Gordon Jnr. The dynamic duo bust up the animal smuggling ring hampered a little by the effects of the toxin still in Batman's system. In the end though they are still no closer to finding out who or what is behind the whole thing.

Overall this issue was really good, Snyder's writing was on point and the way he wove both stories together to give a complete issue that didn't feel disjointed in anyway was awesome. I love his approach to the Jim Jnr angle, by not just hitting us with a deluge of information and instead dropping breadcrumbs for us to follow it really adds to the whole mystery and overall atmosphere of the story. Speaking of atmosphere Francavilla's art is about as atmospheric as it gets. The muted, limited color palette only adds a great brooding aspect to the whole show and his bold textures really work well. He deserves just as much credit for the beutiful transistion between stories, with his depiction of something as simple as water running it's course and findings it way out to sea, as Snyder does for his bridging dialogue. They really play well off each other and one just wouldn't work without the other. It's looks like the darker, seedier view of Gotham is going to continue in future issues and I for one can't wait. Even after just four issues I would recommend that any fan of, not only Batman, but mystery books in general should start to pick up Snyder's run on Detective Comics.

Writer - Scott Snyder

Artist - Francesco Francavilla

Colors - Francesco Francavilla

Letters - Jared K Fletcher

Cover - Francesco Francavilla

Publisher - DC Comics