Gotham Academy: Year One #1 – Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Writers; Marco Ferrari, Artist; Eva De La Cruz, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Gotham Academy was one of the best all-ages comics to come out of DC in the last few years, a unique supernatural adventure set at Gotham’s tony boarding school featuring a diverse group of students with their own unique backstories. The breakout character was Maps Mizoguchi, the youngest student and a hyperactive superhero fan who eventually wound up becoming a deputy Robin of sorts through sheer determination. But she wasn’t the main character – that was Olive Silverlock, a haunted young girl whose mother was a pyrokinetic supervillain and who held a deep grudge against Batman. Olive disappeared after Second Semester – but she’s back now, and this miniseries is her story, long before Maps came to the school. As this story picks up, she’s been living at Gotham Academy for several weeks during break – but now the other students are arriving, and her roommate isn’t pleased to find her there hiding under the bed.
In many ways, this first issue is very much a story of class struggle and finding yourself a misfit. Some of the elements are things we’ve seen before, such as Olive being abandoned by the older girls who are supposed to show her around, but they’re given a new twist through Olive’s voice and her very tentative mental state as she grapples with what happened to her mother. She never caught on as much as Maps, but Olive was a fascinating character and she deserves this spotlight. The introduction of Kyle Mizoguchi adds a warm element of potential teen romance to this story, but Olive’s focus is on her mother, leading her to visit Arkham at the end of the issue. There she meets a dangerous influence who takes her down a scary path, tempting her in a way that may explain some of the darker directions her story took. This series feels like it got a second life in collections, and this revival hasn’t lost a step in quality.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
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