User:Jovianrich/Morning Glories (comics)

Morning Glories is a comic book series published by Image Comics. Described by writer Nick Spencer as "Runaways meets Lost," the series focuses on six "brilliant but troubled" new recruits at Morning Glory Academy, a prestigious prep school hiding "sinister and deadly" secrets. Featuring artwork by Joe Esmai, the series debuted in August 2010.

Publication history
Though sharing qualities with other long form, high-concept mysteries, writer Spencer points out that Morning Glories was launched with a planned run of 75-100 comics and a definite ending. The first pages of the debut, Spencer says, "completely prove that we knew what we were doing from the get go." The series has found commercial success from the beginning, with four printings of the first issue alone. Volume 1 of the series (issues 1-6) was collected in a trade paperback, which sold 10,000 copies in a month.

Characters
The six main characters are all new students at the Morning Glory Academy:
 * Casey: "There's a very maternal aspect to Casey's character, a kind of 'beyond her years' thing in terms of responsibility that makes her want to hold this group together and make sure they're safe. At the same time, I think she's like a lot of those kids you see getting straight A's and doing all the right things, in that she may be pushing herself a bit too hard and taking on too much."
 * Zoe: "She's not a bad person per se, but she's someone who's gotten used to living in the rarified air that is being beautiful and smart. She's very driven and tends to view the people around her within the context of how much they can help her reach her goals - especially guys."
 * Hunter: "Hunter is like a lot of people who grew up in a broken home - he took to pop culture and his own imagination as a way of coping with the world around him. He's eternally well-intentioned and optimistic in ways that often come back around to bite him in the ass."
 * Ike: "He comes from a very privileged but strange upbringing and he's got a bad reputation. He's the ultimate opportunist and happily inhabits a very sinful, very troublesome life. He's a schemer."
 * Jun: "He's a very serious, very direct person who isn't playing around. And yes, when he needs to, he can definitely kick your ass, so it's probably best not to put him in that position. There's a lot Jun isn't telling us.  [...] He seems to know more about The Academy than they do."
 * Jade: "She's from a very traditional small town where everyone seems to think and act differently from her. [...] She's been through a lot in her life so far, a lot of personal tragedy, and it's certainly done a great deal to shape the way she looks at the people around her."

Though the larger dark forces behind the academy are still largely mysterious, a few villains have emerged:
 * Miss Daramount: In charge of the Glories on a daily basis, she takes a sadistic pleasure in breaking new recruits to her will.
 * Mister Gribbs: More than just Daramount's muscle, he enters when students prove difficult to control.
 * Headmaster: The driving force behind day to day operations at the academy, so far this entity is mentioned but unseen.