Review: Gotham Academy #2

Previously in Gotham Academy #1

I am so confused! Whatever happened to Olive over the summer, it has changed her. Some people (like her teacher and her arch nemesis, Pomeline) seem to know something happened, but maybe not exactly what. Even more frustrating, Olive admits to herself that she can’t remember what happened!

Olive’s been reading The Diary of Millie Jane Cobblepot, which also happens to be the title of this issue, and finds she can relate to the young girl as they both are drawn to darkness. As the rest of the school gossips about the possible haunting of the North Hall, Olive is paired with Pomeline on a Gotham history project. The teacher thinks the two girls, who are always fighting, can learn a lot from each other. Yeah, because that always works so well.

While working in the library, Olive spots a demon (or a boy possessed by one), and brushes it off. When Pomeline realizes Olive has found a copy of Millie Jane’s diary that has notes written in the margins and a hand drawn map, she insists on keeping it.

Olive tries to do some of the things that she used to enjoy before the mysterious events of the past summer, like watching her boyfriend Kyle play tennis. But this time she does so while hiding under the bleachers and her teacher points out, rightfully so, that isn’t healthy and it’s also a little creepy. She advises Olive to reach out to him and tell him she’s still the same girl… except Olive doesn’t believe she is.

All I know is, someone needs to tell me what the hell happened!

Olive finds Maps in her room, two seconds from hammering holes in the wall to figure out what’s behind them. She stops her, but then they spot hooded figures carrying candles and headed to the graveyard. Can I just say I wouldn’t want to attend a school with its very own graveyard.

They find the three figures performing some kind of ritual in a hidden cave. When Olive spots the diary, she interrupts the ritual and snatches it. Of course, one of the three is Pomeline, and another is her boyfriend Heathcliff. Pomeline screams that Olive has no idea what she’s done. From the look on Olive’s face, she’s all out of fucks to give.

Thoughts & Questions

• Olive accidentally spills something on a boy in the cafeteria who may have been sketching a picture of Maps. Harmless crush or creepy stalker?
• What up with the special attention paid to the menu in GA’s cafeteria? Is it to make us feel bad that fictional children are eating better than we ever really will? If so, it’s working.

• How amazing is Maps? I love her so much. She approaches everything with a fangirl’s eye and views everything like it’s an adventure. Before they enter the underground cavern: “All of my dungeon-crawling fantasies are about to come true. I’m gonna loot the crap out of this place.”
• What’s with the demon/creepy guy in the library?
• I love how conversations that begin on the next page are started on the bottom of the previous page and how they seem to tie-in with the current panel. For instance: a teacher’s classroom lecture is posted on the panel where Pomeline rudely exits the library with the diary. “That peculiar suffocating odor, ladies and gentlemen, is a notable characteristic of brimstone…” Yes, because Pomeline is evil.
• The art continues to be gorgeous.