Brutally Honest: Morning Glories-- why have you forsaken me?

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GBrutality

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In case you were misled somehow, this is a piece about the comic Morning Glories. I’m pretty sure this series is one of the reasons I got back into reading comics after a long time of... well, not doing that. To find a story with such interesting characters, great writing and overwhelming sense of dread, how could I resist? And at its heart it's a mystery! I love reading mysteries. It has really been incredible. That was until about six or seven months ago.

The first problem is shipping. Holy god, does it feel like it takes forever for these things to come out. I’m not necessarily having that reaction because I’m just so excited to read them, but it’s in fact because the scheduling gets messed with. They don’t really stick to a routine week. I can’t imagine creating a comic would be easy, far from it. It’s like trying to rush a fine meal; if you give it time it's more than likely going to be spectacular.

This is where the second problem comes in. it’s a shame too because it’s also what got me into the series in the first place. It is a mystery and with mysteries they get quite addictive. Yes, people want to come in to find out the next chapter, but some lose patience. Morning Glories is an enigma wrapped in a riddle pretending to be an illusion. If comics were people, this book and the Joker would be in group therapy together it’s so confused. It has so many damn layers of mystery that I have honestly lost track of what’s happening. I can tell you with confidence that I have an exceptional memory, and find myself constantly clamoring over what happened to who and who’s where and what time are we in now. It’s become kind of a mess. Again, if scheduling was maybe a little closer together, and predictable and you know, routine, it probably wouldn’t be as much of a problem.

The third thing I’ve become utterly frustrated with is the amount of characters. Now, I’m going to talk about stuff that some people would consider spoilers. If you haven’t read it, and are looking to read it I would suggest you stop here.

Still here?

Okay.

Ranting will commence.

When we started there were six main characters. You were probably thinking like I was, “Cool, an evenly sized, manageable cast. I can follow along with this very easily.” Then you find out Jun isn’t Jun. He’s Hisao. He has a twin brother who is also at the school as a loyal soldier. Okay, so that’s why they look so similar. It’s not like it’s actual film or anything where you can clearly tell that them looking like the same person isn’t an artistic hiccup or anything. There’s an actual explanation and that's cool. Then the time travel stuff. I don’t mind time travel stories. They’re not hard to follow as long as you keep the pieces together. Which I’m sure the writer does. But as an audience, again, with very odd shipping schedules, it may not be the easiest for us. Certain characters I think are lost in the past or something? There are elements they touch on in the overall mystery, which is great because we needed some payoff. Something to remind us why it is that we’re being subjected to a lot of things going on with very little explanation. Then another of the main characters looks like they may murder another one, and gets killed themselves. So, we lost her. That’s not a big loss but still, whoa. Then we’re introduced to, like, six other characters who we’re just sticking with, with two of the original main characters (Hisao and Hunter, who is by far my favorite) in tow. Then you find out these guys are ex-students, who may have ratted out and killed others and Hisao was a part of them and…the guy that…that all the original characters knew, who met them when they were kids…trained them…yeah, even explaining it is giving me a migraine. The point is, a ton of new characters to follow when I believe it’s been something like four issues, which is like nineteen months in the Morning Glories shipping schedule (and dog years), since we’ve touched base with ANY of the other characters. Some seem nice then are evil, and some things that were mysterious about a year ago are now real tired and you either want it to never be seen again or answered. It’s all gotten stupidly hard to follow or to even care about.

My last gripe is something I touched on a little bit before, but what really, and I mean really did it with me and these characters, was the fact that I couldn’t tell who the hell anyone was. The Jun and Hisao looking identical was one thing, but dear god, why does every girl have the same haircut? Why does everyone look like a different model of the same other two people? Who the hell is this girl and why was she locked up in the loony bin? Oh, there’s that ghost again for the third time in the series with ZERO EXPLANATION just bothering people or something. That'll surely be touched on again in a year and a half.

Again, I really loved this series. It sounded like a lot of people did, too. But over time I noticed it wasn’t getting the usual reviews it had been getting some time ago. In fact, I haven’t seen too many sites reviewing it that much anymore (at least the sites I like). So, that's it. I don't know if anyone is feeling the same or anything but as always, I love to hear from anyone on what they think. Thanks so much!