How can things go so right with Spider-Man yet go so wrong, narratively speaking? Bad luck is not a compelling story. And to make that a cliff hanger in the second issue? That’s just unneeded drama. I thought by now Nick Spencer would’ve learned not to rely on that. Since that worked so… well for Morning Glories.
Welcome to Comic Theory, where panels are looked under a microscope and I guesstimate the hows and whys.
Earlier I mentioned that Morning Glories is a successful but horrible mess without a complete narrative story that is best read in graphic novel form. Well now I’m gonna try and figure out the frustrating message of “A Better Future”.
Morning Glories Academy is easily the worst school to ever go to in comic books. The staff are psychos, the school murders and manipulates the students’ families; and they brainwash the students into joining their killer cult. All under the slogan “a better future” that nobody goes into detail about. Stick to the Film Theory-backed Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, special needs people.
Spoiler ahead for people who haven’t read this series.
Gathering the Evidence Around Morning Glories
However, like any mystery there is a trail of bread crumbs to follow. And after careful looks at the two “seasons” of Morning Glories run; I can make the best hypothesis that can be done under these circumstances. It requires a lot of patience and ignoring the need to pull out my hair for this.
Now the students all possess the same birthday and are in some way related to the school. Years prior to the series, Casey Blevin’s father was a soldier on a military base where the school is; with the rest of Casey’s family including a younger Casey living in a residential area. It even comes with the Chinese paranoia people like to throw in. One of the comments made by a soldier states that nobody should be able to find the base; kind of like the academy.
In another point, rich boy Ike is seen as a baby in a ritual; being run by his father Abraham and verbally intimidating teacher Mister Gribbs. Abraham is known to be involved with getting the school up and running but later turns against it. Ike at some point poisons his father after he is cut off from the family fortune. But later reencounters Abraham at the same time and place alive along with the dead one.
What the (Bleep)?
Finally there are a couple explanations that come from a physics lesson near the end of the second season. In the lecture is the Many World’s theory where timelines continuously split off from the decisions people make. In the same lecture is subspace and pocket dimensions; both of which have one space cut off and brought into another space.
Now this offers up a lot of explanations about the school itself; the reason why nobody can leave it unless willed to is because it exists in a pocket universe. As for the Many World’s theory; well there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense in the series.
Examples
For one Casey goes back in time with Miss Hodge to the above military base. Casey also remains in that time and lives out the rest of her life unconnected to the Academy. However Casey somehow manages to come back almost like nothing happened.
Zoe (the school serial killer) is killed when she is shot by Ukrainian Truant Irina. However she turns up somewhere else alive and well much like Abraham.
Then there are Casey’s parents who she finds dead in a secret passageway after being shown by her roommate.
However, the same thing had occurs when Irina is shown her parents some time before the main cast. But Irina sees through it as they weren’t her real parents. Now the reader might think that this is because only her mother is shown in Irina’s past; but to a theorist it’s something else. The school actually takes the bodies of the parents when they are dead in another timeline; bringing them to the school to control the students. Think how Rick and Morty replaced their dead selves in another reality.
But What About This?
That explains where the school is; but what about the powers the kids show? Irina is able to completely control the school security; twins Jun and Hisao (no further questions) switch positions when one is dying; and Jade is able to heal people back from the dead. Remember the rituals and military base? It seems like the students are subjects in experiments and rituals that give them supernatural powers. There is even a phrase that says “God abandoned humanity”. But I’ll come back to that later.
Morning Glories’ Headmaster
Everything comes back to the mysterious headmaster of the academy. The headmaster oversees all activities and according to everyone; the headmaster’s word is law. He’s so important that only the student body president and staff are allowed to speak to him. He’s also the father of two staff members, the murderous Georgina Daramount and the subtly manipulative Lara Hodge. Another more compassionate Daramount was around before Georgina until Hodge kills her for going against the academy’s goals. Hodge also displays the power to completely control other people along with glowing eyes. (On a side note, Irina is the current Miss Daramount’s half sister).
The headmaster’s office (more like a lab) is in a space that seems unconnected to the rest of the school. He even appears at different points in the series outside of the academy, never looking older or younger. Heck he even floats around some places. The headmaster’s hold on the school is so tight that if anything deviates from what the headmaster states is law; the area falls apart shown when one sports team beat the undefeated champions or when calling someone outside the academy.
Which brings me back to the “God has abandoned humanity” thing. The experiments, rituals, and the school’s conditioning is to create the living definition of an actual god. All-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful. Everything culminates into the head master.
The Not-So Small Details
Now all-loving doesn’t necessarily mean nurturing. Baccano! actually displays the character Elmer C. Albatross, an optimistic sociopath who doesn’t care about anyone’s well being; yet is such a whimsical guy most people don’t realize it. For people like Elmer and the headmaster; they can love everything but that doesn’t mean they need to care about them. The headmaster is also a manipulative psychopath untouched by consequences; he attempts to charm his way with people like he tries to do with Casey. Can you imagine any leaders who aren’t out for their own self-interests while persuading others into doing their dirty work? He’s completely untouched by time, empathy, and other physical boundaries because of the experiments.
But where did he come from? And why bring in more kids when there is already a completed subject? That brings me to the older Casey who gets married and has a son named David.
Let me Explain
Now Casey despite being one of the driving forces of the series, has been anything but making necessary development. She is little more than a puppet who ends up doing as the staff want her to do. Even her coming to the school is only because she wants to get an edge over her rival. The same rivals turns out to be another student at Morning Glories. Hodge practically counts on her victory to be Student Body President. Unlike her friends’ who’s portion of reality tore apart when they broke the headmaster’s law of the school; Casey is still on point. The older Jade even states that Casey isn’t supposed to be at the headmaster’s location.
As for the older Casey, well since she is following Hodge’s instructions, I can only guess what happened to her.
The Hypothesis
But I have a good guess with Susan Dagney, the librarian and first teacher the students are introduced to. Miss Dagney unlike the rest of the staff while enforcing the rules is not a sociopath. She never even forces her methods on others; security does that in her stead. She also gets in the way of Miss Hodge’s plan for Casey to time travel; pairing her and Jade up on field day with Ike instead of the more likable Hunter. Not to mention when Miss Dagney asks Casey if she is sure she wants to kill the headmaster becoming student body president; Miss Dagney gives her a knife saying that she didn’t have the strength to kill him herself.
For a theorist this lines the pieces all up. The Headmaster is actually the older Casey’s son David; the experiments done on Casey passed onto him and since his inception gains greater power. Miss Dagney is also the older Casey under a new identity. With the older Casey unable to stop David out of parental love; she leaves the task to her younger self. This actually makes sense when looking at things biblically. David is the name of the a poet whose life is filled with happiness and pain and after killing Goliath becomes king of Israel. In fact there are a lot of biblical names on here like Abraham. Then there’s why things are currently happening in the comic; to complete the loop that assure’s the headmaster’s birth and development or destroy it.
Where Does Lead Morning Glories?
Which leads me to conclude that the ending is meant to be that Casey has to stop charging headfirst. She has to convince the headmaster to disappear completely. With David untouched by most things; it would have to be the word’s of his mother to convince him to stop the academy’s plans. David despite his great powers is only human after all. However, it might come with a big cost considering everything that’s tied to the school and headmaster.
But the ink’s not dry yet. Thanks for coming, remember to like, subscribe, comment, and look between the panels.