A little time with a mini-event.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brenden Fletcher
Art: Adam Archer, Sandra Hope Archer
What They Say:
A “Robin War” tie-in! With Robins fighting cops all over the city, the student body is starting to take sides. What happens when Olive and her friends find themselves on opposite sides of this struggle? And what happens when the real war comes to the halls of Gotham Academy?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Within the first thirteen issues of this series we’ve now had two Batman-related crossover events hit it, first with Endgame and now the Robin War piece. With both of those I haven’t been reading the other books going on as I prefer to stick on the fringes of the Bat-verse where the character is not central but the concepts and ideas surrounding Gotham is. Which is why I loved Gotham by Midnight and have a huge fondness for Gotham Academy. Thankfully, the book manages to work in just enough to be relevant while also being its own thing and advancing at least one character’s story just a bit in a good way. This installment also sees just Brenden Fletcher writing and Adam and Sandra Hope Archer stepping in to do the artwork on it before we get on with the next arc.
The book works the Robin War storyline well enough as we know that things are bad in Gotham with the whole group that operates as Robins that are now being sought and hunted down since their work is illegal. There’s an incident that happens early on at the Academy where one of the students is revealed to be a Robin when he stops his roommate from stealing a lot of funds from the school. Both end up expelled for different reasons and it highlights what’s going on. For Olive, she’s pretty glad about it as she has little love for the bat and his acolytes, which includes any and all Robins. For Maps, this is a far different issues as she’s gotten close to the Red Robin and can see herself totally taking on that role herself someday. Maps really is a kind of slightly off kilter, I won’t say ditzy, Robin archetype herself. And that enthusiasm is a big part of her draw, as is her focus on solving mysteries.
Naturally, a mystery comes into play with a zombie being reanimated mysteriously on the school grounds and the group going to figure out what’s going on cause that’s their thing. it gets the addition of Riko, a potential transfer student that’s checking out the Academy as her parents want her out of Gotham and all the Robin nonsense. It’s amusing to see Maps shooting daggers at her since Riko ends up rooming with Olive for a night, only to see it flip completely when she discovers that Riko is a Robin herself, albeit one that’s kind of freaking out over what she’s really seeing that this team is involved in dealing with. It’s amusing in how Maps so casually references all that they’ve dealt with and it makes such an impression on Riko for how little she’s really gotten involved with herself. It also speaks well to just how much the group has done while also reaffirming the whole Silverlock angle and the material to be mined there.
In Summary:
Adam and Sandra Hope Archer do a solid job with the artwork here, though longtime fans may miss what we usually get in terms of visual color pop – particularly us digital readers. They definitely capture the designs and look with their own spin on it, not straying far but making it their own, and the visual pacing and layouts are well done, though perhaps lacking in some of the creative overall page layouts we get. I certainly wouldn’t mind this team coming back for more standalone tales. Fletcher’s story is one that weaves into the larger narrative and it works well, though it does feel like a little bit of character personality might be missing without Cloonan involved. With its focus more on Maps and Riko, that’s understandable as well. While I cringed at an event tie-in – and having another issue a week after the previous one – it worked out better than I expected and gave Maps a little more time in the spotlight, which is always a good thing.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 9th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
