At least it’s not a culture festival.
Creative Staff:
Story: Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher
Art: Karl Kerschl
What They Say:
“Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!” To investigate a suspicious student, Olive and the gang join the school production of Macbeth! But is the play haunted?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As Gotham Academy moves forward the fun becomes in seeing all the connections and some of the weirdness that is Gotham itself seeping into the book. While I like the overall storyline that’s defining things at the moment about Olive’s mother, whether she’s truly alive again as Calamity, and what it all means, I’m also just enjoying the whole Detectives Club angle and more. Particularly the way some more well known characters have found a home here, from Simon Trent to Hugo Strange among others. While it’s hard to believe on some level that some of them could be rehabilitated, what we get through this is a new lease on life for the characters, new interactions for them to work through, and a chance to find their old selves again in new circumstances. And that has a thrilling aspect to it.
With this installment, Olive’s starting to dig deeper into where she thinks her mother might be having caught wisps of her where the play is being put on by the oh so amusing director of Simon Trent. Because of his using the space where they think she is, they end up partaking in the play and doing a few different roles, which leads to some beautiful sequences for Kerschl to illustrate and lay out in a great way. Though it’s easy enough to ignore the play dialogue itself, soaking up the atmosphere is wholly worthwhile. What enters the picture amid all of this is Olive’s roommate, Katherine, who herself is trying to get a part in the play in her own shy way. While she’s barely a whisper of a person because of her presence, you can see the dark track that she’s on ahead of her. What makes it intriguing though is that she doesn’t quite go to form and is part of a different play going on with who is truly controlling her. Katherine’s potential to be a part of the gang could add a new layer to play with in some fun ways.
Since it’s focused on the play and general exploration there’s not a lot of really meaty material here. We do get some interesting jealousy cropping up from Maps about how Pomeline knows what Olive saw before she told Maps, which Pom of course shuts down as just being foolish. But Maps’ feelings are certainly real and have to be dealt with – by both sides of it. I like the group dynamic in general and it’s fun watching them act in the rehearsal and completely get into it. At the same time, I really liked seeing Olive’s time with Hugo Strange in talking through her feelings and how Hugo of all people is warning her what a dark path she might have ahead of her if she continues to pursue it. I’ve long liked Hugo, going back to the first Legends of the Dark Knight series decades ago, and seeing him put to such intriguing use here just makes me giddy, particularly with Kerschl’s artistic interpretation.
In Summary:
Gotham Academy has a very solid installment here where once again the creative team feels like they utterly understand each other in a way that’s just crazy in order to bring it to life so beautifully. The story itself feels like we’re in the quiet patch, a discovery phase once more, and that has its own dark tidings around the edges that makes it exciting to read and see how it unfolds. Though the play itself doesn’t do much for me I thoroughly loved seeing Trent as the director, having Strange as a professor and counselor for Olive and the use of a creative way to deal with Katherine that could lead to her being a really neat part of the group if they decide to truly draw her in. A very fun installment overall and a really good part of the overall arc of the series.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 9th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
