Review: Gotham Academy #1
Olive Silverlock is beginning her sophomore year at Gotham Academy, which is basically Hogwarts. In fact, Headmaster Hammer (called Hammer-Head behind his back) walks the creepy halls with a lit candle and looks an awful lot like Hogwarts’ Filch. All he needs is a cranky cat. Hammer informs Olive she’ll be mentoring a freshman, Maps. Maps is talkative and a bit annoying. She’s also the little sister of Kyle, the boy Olive hasn’t gotten around to breaking up with yet, even though she wants to.
The students are warned away from exploring the North Hall of the school as it’s been deemed “unsound.” Unsound is possibly code for “haunted,” at least that’s what the students think. Of course, this means Olive takes Map exploring in the bell tower so they can get a better look at the goings-on (ghostly or otherwise) in the North Hall. She does this because she’d spent the majority of the issue throwing major shade to poor Maps.
Unfortunately, the bell tower in the old chapel is unsound and the two almost kill themselves, a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by most of the school and Bruce Wayne, who is giving a welcome speech at the school’s assembly when the two go sailing by the window. Everyone writes off the incident as further proof that Olive has changed since freshman year. She admits to herself that she used to be normal, but she’s not anymore.
When Olive’s roommate freaks out because she thought she saw two glowing eyes outside their window, Olive agrees to sit up with her all night. She’s convinced it’s just her roommates’ imagination. It is not.
Thoughts & Questions:
- Whatever it is that has Olive acting so differently involves her mother and has caused her to pull away from her boyfriend. I’m interested in learning more.
- More Hogwarts comparisons: Colton, the jerky ginger selling fireworks to his classmates on the side will remind some of The Weasley twins and Olive’s nemesis is a smarmy Draco-like girl named, Pomeline Fritch.
- The weirdness of the girls having Disney princess-like features aside, the artwork is gorgeous.
- Gotham Academy’s brunch-like lunch with waffles is the shit.
- Why is the Bat Signal on all the time?
