John Hughes is pretty much regarded as the king of high school dramas. He just got what it was like to be a teenager and how to transfer that onto the screen. So what would happen if you placed a John Hughes high school flick in a sadistic high school where children are tasered repeatedly for the answer to a question? Well, you’d probably end up with something like Morning Glories.  

Morning Glories #2 starts off with, well, a girl, Casey, being tasered repeatedly for the answer to a question. After she refuses to answer, due to the woman leading the questioning killing her parents, she is sent to detention. There you get that real Breakfast Club vibe as we are introduced to the other kids in detention and the reason why they’ve ended up there. After the explanations are done the sadistic nature of the Morning Glory Academy is revealed again as the group are subjected to what can only be described as a test or challenge that puts their very lives at danger.  

The story is certainly something I haven’t read before and definitely gives new meaning to the idea of high school as hell. It’s also definitely the type of book that requires new readers to pick up issue one so they know what’s happened so far as Morning Glory Academy is one twisted and strange place.  

The retelling of how they all ended up in detention is a good way to show off the various personalities of the group. It helps to differentiate the characters from one and other and set them up as individuals. My favorite would have to be the womanizing Ike. He made a lot of witty and funny remarks throughout the issue and he just had a charisma and charm that you can’t help but like. It did feel like Jun’s detention story could have ended 1 page earlier so that there’d be a little more suspense and mystery but seeing as there’s already so much of that in the book I guess the writer has to give the reader something. The only thing I didn’t understand in the story was the two teachers. I didn’t quite get who or what they were talking about while they were watching the group and they ended up confusing me a little bit.  

Aside from the retelling of how they got into detention the dialogue also felt unique for each character. This was helpful seeing as not every character was named in the story. I did think the dark haired girl’s miss perfect, popular girl personality was a little overdone but on the whole the group all had some great dialogue.

The artwork was solid and there was a good use of facial expressions throughout the story. I did find the water to look more like ice sometimes and it was funny how the characters didn’t really look wet. Also the design of Ike and one other character were quite similar. This made it difficult to follow certain parts of the story as you could confuse the two.  

Morning Glories is a story that you just want to know more about. There are so many questions that the book leaves open. Why are these kids so special? What is the point of this school? It’s probably the only thing like it in comics today and I simply want more of it.