Gotham Academy: Welcome to Gotham Academy

Gr 7 Up—This slick volume collects the first six issues of the DC comics set in a prestigious school in Gotham City. After a traumatic summer, Olive Silverlock struggles to get back into her school routine while showing around new student Maps Mizoguchi and trying to avoid her ex, Kyle, Maps's older brother. But with a possible ghost knocking on the walls and secret societies roaming the halls, Olive isn't coping well with the knowledge of her mother's precarious health condition, her studies, and her classmates' bullying. When the teen begins to recover strange memories about a fire and keeps running into a mysterious stranger with glowing eyes who seems to know her more than she knows him, she bands with other school misfits to uncover some of Gotham Academy's dark secrets. Filled with spunky and quirky characters and unexpected plot turns, this work adds an intriguing and fresh layer to the Batman mythos. In this tale, Bruce Wayne, the school's benefactor, is treated with disdain by Olive and the Batman signal is a daily occurence. Kerschl's campy art is by turns luminous and gloomy, enhancing Cloonan and Fletcher's energetic and sometimes contemplative text. The size and shape of the panels are used to great effect, adeptly building momentum with panache and verve.