4 issue Test #4 - Gotham Academy

If you’re a comics fan that doesn’t really see any interest in super-heroes or graphic horror there aren’t too many options for you in mainstream comics, and those that are I usually couldn’t care less about, but for once, I’m gonna take a look at one: DC Comics' (Detective Comics Comics?) Gotham Academy.

The cover to issue 1 is decent, it mirrors a scene that happens near the end and I like how the rope is going through the title

Issue 1 opens at, where else, the Gotham Accademy. Our titular character, Olive, is waiting outside the principal’s office with Maps, a new initiate in the academy. The headmaster in question is Mr Hammer (just as long as his first name isn’t Justin, I don’t care much) and he’s nicknamed Hammerhead.

Mr Hammer has summoned them as Maps missed orientation and doesn’t know she is to be assigned a tutor, Olive is assigned as hers. Whilst Maps is delighted, Olive does not look as keen. We find out on the next page it’s because her brother, Kyle is Olive’s ex or soon to be ex-boyfriend.

They enter the building and run to class where Olive runs into Pomeline, a school bully (essentially) she takes the mickey because of her Wayne Foundation Scholarship. In class Professor Machpherson begins to detail the history of Gotham City, particularly that of Millie Jane Cobblepot, an ancestor of the Penguin. Olive, having already memorised the book, is falling asleep when she is hit in the head by another bully named Colton, who wears sunglasses in class because… There’s really no uniform policy here.

At the Lunch hall, there’s rumours that the school is haunted (OK, maybe it is a horror book, but it’s fairly kid-friendly horror, I mean Scooby Doo kind of level) Maps calls out to Olive but upon noticing Kyle in front of her, Olive looks away, still shy about breaking up with him. Maps comes over and asks Olive to eat lunch with her and Kyle but she declines. She sees Colton trying to sell explosives a kid but she knocks the satchel full of them onto the floor, getting him in trouble with the dinner monitor (I think)

Olive retreats to her room, where she reminisces about her time with Kyle and about her mother, Her room-mate interrupts, wanting Olive to pitch in cleaning the room but Olive decides to leave instead. Olive finds Maps sitting underneath a statue drawing  a map of the school grounds. She suggests instead of going to assembly, they check out the creepy parts of the old chapel, Maps is clearly excited at the prospect.

They head to the top and see the Bat signal, which Olive claims she hates; suddenly the wall gives way and Maps falls. Olive tries to grab her hand but they can’t reach each other, so Olive swings down on a rope and grabs her, they are then attacked by a swarm of bats and are forced to descend. In the assembly, which is on the lower levels of the same building, Bruce Wayne is giving a speech. Clearly he donates quite a bit of money to fund the school. Anyway, as he makes his speech, the pupils become transfixed by the sight of Olive and maps being grasped as the rope goes taut. Bruce looks around and sees Olive, he recognises her.

Olive begins to recover and briefly sees Batman and begs him not to take her but it’s just Bruce Wayne come to check on her, Maps and Kyle come soon after (shouldn’t maps have been checked up on too.) Olive returns to her room where her room-mate, Lucy (we only find this out now) is scared, claiming she’d seen a ghost in our window. Oliver assures her that it was just the bat-signal and it’s safe to be there. We see a crack in the wall with an eye coming out of it to end the issue.

 

This cover is another decent one, all be it with a lack of backgrounds, it does foreshadow events later on in the issue (bare with me on this, there is a reason I'm bringing this up)

Issue 2 starts with Olive sat by the window, reading the diary of Millie Jane Cobblepot. It reveals that she’s somewhat unhinged, but Olive can relate, she looks out a window and sees 3 people with candles and bat-like costumes (because what other animal does anyone dress as in this city) running from the building.

In class Pom and her boyfriend are kissing, which Olive thinks is gross, Pom confronts her but she was her boyfriend’s tutor, so they get along quite well. Mrs Macpherson enters, discovering Pom and Olive confronting each other. She partners them up for a history project. At lunch, Maps and Kyle call Olive over to their table but Olive decides instead to sit with an artist (whose name isn’t revealed on this page) Olive sits down but accidentally spills his soda onto his art-book.

Kyle comes over to her, wanting to talk but Olive runs away, claiming she’s late to meet her project partner in the Library. After a while of totally silent reading, Mr Scarlette: the librarian interrupts suggesting a few books to assist in their project, Olive goes off to collect one of them, she collects it and sees a young male with blond hair and red eyes, for some reason (although Olive also appears to have red eyes, so maybe it’s a thing)

The book in question happens to be another copy of the diary of Millie Jane Cobblepot but this one’s different, it has scribbles of handwriting over it and a map to somewhere in the old Cemetery. Olive tries to grab it but Pom tells her to back off whilst she texts her boyfriend (whose name is Heathcliff)  Olive tries to get the book back but Pom brings up a thorny issue about Olive’s mother and Olive has to back off.

In science class, a teacher who looks alarmingly like Dr Milo (because he is) begins speaking about the properties of sulphur (ok, he says ‘sulfur’ but I’m English, not American) Colton removes a cork from a vial near Olive and it lets out a load of Green Gas, Olive grabs him by the shirt, angrily telling him to leave her alone but she soon walks off, needing to clear her head. She sits near the tennis courts, underneath the bleachers, watching Kyle play.

Professor Macpherson strolls by, walking her dog, and smoking a cigarette, the dog barks at Olive. Olive says she won’t tell anyone about her smoking and they talk. Kyle and Olive haven’t spoken all summer, Mrs Macpherson tells her to be honest with him, Olive wonder whether she’s the same person she was last year but Mrs Macpherson assures her that she’ll find herself again.

Olive enters her room and finds maps, trying to look for ghosts. Olive tries to get her to leave, citing that they’d both be in trouble if Maps was caught in the wrong room but then they both notice our bat-faced cultists on the move again and decide to follow. They follow to the Cobblepot crypt and find their way inside, hearing some kind of ritual being chanted. Olive is afraid at first but then sees the book from earlier in the ceremony and realises that Pom was behind this charade. As the fires rage, Olive takes the book proclaiming ‘you have no idea who you’re dealing with.’

This cover is well drawn, however, spoiler alert, there is no batman nor anti-batman sentiment expressed in this issue

Issue 3 opens with Olive explaining a case-notes version of what just happened to Colton, neglecting mentioning Pom or her friends in the story. Colton tells Olive that she’s gonna be lookout whilst he steals his explosives, Olive says no, whilst Colton gains her attention by spreading the rumour and she and Kyle broke up. Their conversation is interrupted by a massive scream by Lucy, she claimed to see a ghost. Pom claims that she summoned the ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot but because Olive interrupted the ceremony, it’s not bound to a host. Lucy faints at the prospect.

Pom founded ‘the order of the bat’ in order to summon the ghost.  Olive queries as to why but they’re interrupted as Milo (it damn well is him, nice hiring policy you have here) and Hammerhead discuss relocating the children from the North Hall. Pom tells Olive to meet her in the study hall after class with the diary. Pom says she owes Olive for not talking in class and apologises for bringing up her mother, given what had happened (we will find this out later this issue, otherwise this could be frustrating)

Olive has read the diary and found no connection between Millie Jane and the North hall, it probably wasn’t even around at the time. She reveals that Maps said she saw something the day of the assembly and Lucy had seen the ghost outside the dorm window more than once. Pom concludes that she perhaps summoned the wrong ghost. The grave was unmarked aside from a weird symbol. Olive wonders if maybe Millie Jane wasn’t crazy, she just knew too much.

Heathcliff arrives, listening to some new music; Pom is angry that he hasn’t answered any of her texts and walks off. Olive asks why he got involved in the cult of the Bat, Heathcliff says he believed it might make Pom like him more. Kyle interrupts, insisting that he and Olive talk. Kyle wants to know what happened last summer. She disappeared off the map. Olive admits that her mother, who had been in hospital (given what we know about her, likely Arkham) but it collapsed last summer (guessing that part of Batman: Eternal?) and she was rendered comatose, likely to never wake up again.

Kyle says he cares about her and agrees to give her some space, so long as she doesn’t let on to Maps. Maps surprises Olive that night, wanting to do a stakeout and wait for the ghost. Maps hears something outside and discovers an engraved tag or something. They look out to the North hall, Olive sees the blond guy again but then discovers a pair of glowing eyes in the North Hall. They agree they have to get there and Pom says he knows a guy that can help.

Maps delivers a message to Colton the next morning telling him to meet them and break in the next night. Colton agrees and introduces himself to the group. Olive calls him the resident liar. He picks the lock and opens the door; the place was boarded up last summer and seems somewhat familiar to Olive. She sees the place on fire and with what appears to be Batman amongst the flames.

Colton calls them over to a hole in the ground, the burnt floor may be recent but the hole is much older. Potentially created supernaturally. Pom drops her phone into the hole but isn’t worried as she has two more in her room. Olive reaches in for it but her hand is grabbed by something. Olive frees herself, and everyone’s told to run.

Artwork's lovely, but quit it with the Batman references! Also, neither this, nor anything like it happens in the book, Kyle doesn't even have an active role!

Issue 4 opens with Olive and Pom agreeing that that was not the ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot, they left but they left the door open, so the school know the facility was broken into and sealed it off. Coach Humphreys enquires as to why the girls aren’t running taps and sends Olive to the Headmaster. Olive spies on Bruce Wayne talks to Ms Machperson about Olive’s slipping grades because he does this for all his scholars? Hammer-Head interrupts, warning her not go near the North Hall. As she leaves the building, she sees the symbol again in the book, not looking where she was going she slips on some leaves and is caught by that blonde guy again.

Kyle looks on, distrusting the blond guy (or being disappointed in Olive, I don’t know) Olive rushes off. She finds Maps in her art class and warns that Hammer might be onto them, the key might well be the weird symbol. Olive recalls that the guy she spilled soda on, Eric, drew the symbol in his sketchbook and they try to interrogate him. When he sees the symbol, he panics and runs away, dropping a few papers behind him. Olive picks them up, recognising them as script pages for MacBeth and has an idea

They go to the School Theatre (this school really has everything) Maps looks upon the cast of the production but doesn’t see Eric on stage. Suddenly Mr Trent interrupts (that happens a lot in this, doesn’t it, can’t people here have a conversation without being interrupted) he is regretful that Olive didn’t take the part of Lady Macbeth, as she would’ve been good at it. The find Eric backstage, and he confesses that he’s seen the symbols everywhere, including one in the Girl’s dorm. In the dorm, Maps and Olive are preparing some rope when they see the supposed ghost.

Olive opens the window and grabs the ghost, revealing it to be a fake, she has an idea as to who might be behind this. She goes to the roof and finds Heathcliff and some other girl controlling the ghost. She berates him for doing this to Pom. He begs her not to tell Pom, lest he be used in the next ritual. Since last year, Pom has been obsessed with summoning the ghost of Cobblepot and he hoped if she thought she’d succeeded, it would make her happy. Olive agrees not to talk in return for ending this ghost nonsense, offering him his token thing back a sign of trust. She asks him about the blonde guy she’s been seeing. Apparently his name’s Tristen and he’s an exchange student.

Olive walks down the staircase and notices one of the symbols on the wall, she presses it and a secret passage is opened, she walks through it and hears Pom talking to Heathcliff on the phone. She still wants to communicate with Millie Jane’s ghost, their conversation (surprise) is interrupted by Pom’s mother. She realises the map in Millie Jane’s diary is of the passage and she finds her way to Maps' room and begins to talk to her. She’s very excited about it and wants to know the way. She walks on and sees Lucy and another girl talking. Lucy comments on how Olive has changed and she wants to switch rooms. She walks on and sees the room a mess, she finds a wall with a photo of her and her mother attached to it, she hears thuds, and sees Killer Croc coming towards her.

Oliver assures him that she won’t tell anyone he’s here but wants to hear about her mother.

And that’s the end of issue 4, but was it an A+ or was it an F? Let’s take a closer look.

I must admit, when I bought this book, I never expected to like it, I’m a bigger fan of conventional superhero tales. But… It’s actually a really well written tale. Olive clearly is the star and she has emotional depth. She’s clearly depressed and distant but the arc progresses, giving us explanations and steps to rectify the situation. Opening up to Kyle was an important moment for her and I’m glad they allowed that to play out.

The mysteries set out are intriguing and aren’t played out as if anything is an absolute. There’s still rumours of hauntings in the academy and the great big hole in the middle of the North hall is still unexplained.

I’m glad they quickly ditched the high school bully arc for Pomeline. Characters are much easier to develop when they don’t conform to a stereotype and her motivations make a little more sense because of this.

I love the atmosphere of the book, the sense of history the buildings around the school. This is partly down to the dialogue from Hammer but mostly down to frankly stunning artwork of the series. It may not be the most expressive artwork you’ve ever seen but it’s dripping with detail and atmosphere, the darkness of the walls (sometimes a little too dark, I could barely see that symbol in the wall) the shading and colouring are fantastic.

Having said that, the design of Hammer looks a little too much like Ra’s al Ghul for me, maybe a few tweaks could’ve been made there, ah well.

Kyle, Maps and Colton are the underdeveloped trio right now, I hope the story does decide to explore their characters more, especially with what’s going on with Olive and Tristen (which may still be nothing, but who knows)

Ratings:

#1 8/10

#2 7.5/10

#3 8/10

#4 8.5/10

Overall: 8/10

Recommendation: If you’re a fan of conventional superhero comics and nothing else, this isn’t your story. But for anyone else, pick this up, it’s going to survive the comic cull coming and should turn out to be a brilliant ongoing.

Next up: Come back in a couple months for a couple of Marvel outings.

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Edit: Geez I'm terrible with Comma splices, I think I've corrected all of them

Images used in this review are from Gotham Academy #1-4 and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.