Teenage life in Gotham City is not much fun no matter your social class.
Creative Staff:
Story: Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher
Art: Karl Kerschl
What They Say:
WELCOME TO GOTHAM ACADEMY! Gotham City’s most prestigious prep school is a very weird place. It’s got a spooky campus, oddball teachers, and rich benefactors always dropping by…like that weirdo Bruce Wayne. But nothing is as strange is the students!
Like, what’s up with Olive Silverlock? Is she crazy or what? Where did she go last summer? And what’s the deal with her creepy mom? And how come that Freshman MAPS is always following her around? And is she still going out with Kyle? P.S. Did you hear the rumor about the ghost in the North Hall?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the things that has long been an allure with Batman mythos for me is that it’s so rich and built up over the years that there’s a lot of ways you can go with interpretations, side stories and offshoots. With Gotham Academy, doing a series focused on an elite prep school that gets some generous grants from the wealthy alumni and citizens of the city, including obviously Bruce Wayne, makes for something that could be rather interesting. We get exposed to a lot of different aspects of Gotham over the years, but for the most part it’s related to a specific story arc or something related to a particular character. With Gotham Academy, the school itself and its students are the focus and that presents a nice change of pace that could bring about some neat stories that add to the overall rich history of Gotham.
Written by Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher with artwork from Karl Kerschl, the opening issue is certainly something that’s a curiosity. We’re mostly just thrown into things as we’re introduced to the sullen second year student Olive Silverlock who is just trying to get through her day. The start of the new school year is not something she’s excited about as she had some serious issues with her boyfriend, Kyle Mizoguchi, over it and they’ve broken up. Sort of. It’s just not been formalized, though both seem to know it. To make matters worse, she’s been assigned by Headmaster Hammer to guide the new first year student that was late to orientation through her first day. It’s both good and bad that she knows the girl as it’s Kyle’s younger sister, who seemingly goes by the name MAPS. MAPS knows something’s up with Olive but can’t pin it down, but she’s also really focused on exploring the school.
The character dynamic between the two is easy to see, especially with MAPS being outgoing and wanting to see the various sections, but we also see something deeper going on. During one of the explorations that takes them to a rooftop, the batsignal goes up and Olive is dismissive of it as something that just isn’t welcome, especially since it goes on far too often. but MAPS is enticed by it, wanting to know more and hoping for a look at something, anything, that could be more related to Batman. MAPS is also the one that’s really interested in the history of the school itself, since there are claims its haunted and has other issues. Isn’t every place in Gotham haunted in some way? Suffice to say, there’s plenty of avenues to explore there and with some of the characters as we get that simple and mild introductory nods towards various students, most of whom seem to have various levels of antagonization with Olive.
The opening issue is more about setting the stage and getting the basics down, while also including a Bruce Wayne cameo that fits in neatly enough and avoids any real Batman moment. But the bigger character here, the one that I’m potentially more excited about than anything else, is the school itself. With the haunted aspect, a rich history that can be utilized well and the ease of bringing in new characters and exiting ones that don’t work, it can be pretty fluid as need be – and hopefully is since that keeps it realistic. The place also has a very Harry Potter kind of feeling in a way, again playing to that rich history that can be utilized. With just a nod towards the headmaster and one or two teachers at best and a few students, they’ve barely brushed the surface here as the main focus is on Olive and MAPS. But you can sense that there’s such rich material to mine here that there’s an eagerness to get into it, especially if those two manage to really play off each other – and the academy – well enough.
In Summary:
I’ve enjoyed some of Becky Cloonan’s works before, so seeing her write in this element definitely has me interested, and to see how it works with Fletcher as well. Karl Kerschl definitely finds the right tone for the series with the artwork used in terms of layouts and architectural designs, but I’m waffling a little bit on the two page map spread since that just felt a little too forced in a “youthful” direction. By and large, this is almost a hard to read book in a sense because it spends its time introducing the two main characters but doesn’t provide a significant hook beyond that. There’s no immediate threats or dangers, but if you read between the lines you can see so much potential there. It doesn’t knock it out of the park at the start, which you may want it to in order to have a good book with two teenage female characters, but what it does succeed in doing is making you engage with them, their situation and where it can go from there. It’s a solid if curious start that’s full of potential.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 1st, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
