Are we introduced to the "Messiah" of MGA?
No magick talk today. Archetypes is what I want to explore. There is a new character introduced and we get to meet Miss Hodge. Miss Hodge is an interesting character in which so much of the student body love her and she generally seems like she wants to help. This "archetype" I am going to present might seem offensive and I am truly sorry if it does, but I have to point it out, Miss Hodge seems to be being groomed as the "Messiah" archetype. From Miss Hodge we can see that she is being set up as the "savior" for the children, maybe it is me over reading the series, but on page 6 middle panel Hodge has arms extended when she enters the schools gates, which can be interpreted as the "teacher opening her arms" like like how the Shepard welcomes his flock, but then again it could just be her opening the doors... who knows? But one thing is established that Hodge is the Guidance Counselor and she really knows the students. I feel she is the savior I thought would be Abraham until the last issue. We still do not know what Ike did with his father.
The Messiah archetype is interesting because it call be good like " Jesus", evil and Anti-Christ like Dan Didot (okay just kidding) more like Joker or even a blend of the two being the anti-hero or "Dark Messiah" like John Constantine tends to be portrayed. We don't know which of these three Hodge is if she is one and I am leaning towards to traditional Messiah. The messiah is needed in a story like this because the children are seen as sheep. This image of sheep slaughter is established in the first trade, for give me if I cannot remember the issue, but it is the subliminal message panel when Hunter sees the sheep killed. Spenser has established a religious undertone with such imagery and give a name like Abraham to Ike's dad. It would not surprise me if religious archetypes start popping out. Ike can easy become the Anti-Christ of the Prodigal Son as an example.
Another interesting thing about this issue is the monster character and how it is not seen but its presence is felt. Some have compared the monster character to Rover from the series The Prisoner and I agree that the use of the character is on pair with Rover of the Prisoner. Another possible nod to the Prison is in the name of the Nurse, Nurse Nine. I don't know if we learned the nurses name in earlier issues because if we did I forgot it, but I didn't in this read because seeing the name Nine stuck out. The main character in the Prisoner was called Number Six as a number designation rather then a name and I wonder if name the nurse Nine is a form of homage to the Prisoner, since Nine can be seen as an upside down Six, it is almost fitting Nurse Nine embraces her prison number until Number Six who rejected it and wanted to be a free man.
One thing is for sure that a year of Morning Glories and I still fell the same high I did when I first read issue number 1. I love the direction in which Nick Spencer is taking this series and it is fun seeing everyone's different understand of the series. Morning Glories is either a brilliantly layered series which I pray pays out in spades or the greatest mishmash of ideas fooling us all. I really hope it is the first one.
Cheers
- Silkcuts
