‘Gotham Academy’ is getting lukewarm reviews from longtime Gotham fans, but I think this new direction adds some variety. The story so far follows a mysterious high school student named Olive Silverlock, who doesn’t seem to have very many friends, who hasn’t spoken to her boyfriend in months despite not actually breaking up with him, and who can’t remember something cataclysmic last summer.
WRITTEN BY: Becky Cloonan, Brendan Fletcher
ART BY: Karl Kerschl
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: January 28, 2015
Review by Katy Rex
If you were wondering if DC was intentionally making an ongoing comic in the tone of a high school romance manga, and Kyle’s weird visor/hair situation wasn’t enough to clue you in, I’ll help you out: At one point in this issue, Olive trips and falls down the stairs, literally into the arms of the mysterious stranger/hot guy who she’s seen hanging around campus. Who is that boy? And does he have a clue about her mysterious missing summer?
Make no mistake, this isn’t a criticism. From a company that has taken dark & gritty to new depths, this is sweet, refreshing, and honest fun. It’s still on the dark side of YA, but it’s so accessible. Maps is easily the most likable character, with her buoyant and infectious enthusiasm serving as the catalyst for many of the major plot points, without her encouragement Olive would probably mope in her dorm room. But while the past issues were about character development and build-up, this issue hits the ground running, facing the mysteries head-on, accumulating more key points in the inexplicable haunting, and confronting some pretty serious shit.
The best part of the art in this issue takes place in the actual art classroom. Remember how I mentioned how Maps is my favorite? Well, it turns out she’s a fantastic artist and a total weirdo. She’s in her class, just casually painting some seriously Lovecraftian monstrosity. It’s just delightful. I could actually probably just write this whole review about how much I love Maps, but that wouldn’t be fair to the book as a whole, which can hardly help the fact that Maps is unparalleled in how great she is. But all of the character designs walk this manga/western line beautifully, and are each singularly appealing in their own way.
If you’re one of the people who have been on the fence about this series, and you’ve been waiting for something to just happen already, jeez, this isn’t the issue to drop. Pick it up, this one’s a game-changer.
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Katy Rex writes comics analysis at endoftheuniversecomics.com, comicsbulletin.com, and bloody-disgusting.com. She also writes scholarly articles for various academic journals. She really likes butt jokes, dinosaurs, and killing psychos and midgets in Borderlands 2. She has a great sense of humor if you’re not an asshole.