Review: Gotham Academy #4
Previously in Gotham Academy, #3
In The Secret of the Symbol, Olive and Maps track down several leads in the case of who (or what) is haunting The North Hall.
Olive and Pomeline are appropriately freaked out by their encounter with the hand from below. And though he won’t come out and say it, Headmaster Hammer totally suspects Olive has been snooping around The North Hall and warns her to stay away.
But there’s no way Olive is really going to do that, not when she’s seeing the mysterious symbol from the hall all over school, including taped inside Jane’s diary. She’s so caught up in the symbol, she takes a scary fall down the stairs. Scary and funny. Look at that panel below.
It’s hilarious because it’s so damn frightening. Thankfully, Olive is caught by the blonde boy who’s been lurking about. And, of course, Kyle witnesses this and mistakes it for something romantic.
Thankfully, there’s lots of Maps in this issue as she enthusiastically “interrogates” Eric, the shy boy who sketched the symbol in a notebook, and obsesses over prop swords in the school’s theater department. But the best is when Olive plays Good Cop to Maps’ Totally Insane Cop and they question Eric again, learning that he has also seen the symbol in the girls’ dormitory.
Back at their dorms, Olive busts Heathcliff as the person behind the ghost roaming the halls. Since Pomeline summoned the ghost and it didn’t work, he decided to make her think it did because he loves her. That’s some flawed logic, Cliff. Olive agrees to keep his secret from Pomeline, and he tells her the name of the blonde mystery boy: Tristan Grey. We’re not even going to acknowledge what his name sounds like.
When Olive comes across the symbol on yet another wall in the halls, she discovers a secret passageway that allows her to spy into rooms, including Pomeline’s and her own. It’s here she learns her roommate wants to move because Olive is kinda weird. Olive also finds signs someone has been living in the walls behind her room and they have a picture of her with her mom. Then she meets the person. And peeps his Arkham inmate number.
Thoughts & Questions:
- While I’m still invested in the major mysteries - what happened to Violet and her mom over the summer, what do the symbols mean, what grabbed Olive and Pomeline, and who is that blonde dude - there’s a small one brewing and it has me more intrigued than anything else. What in the world is up with Bruce Wayne and his interest in Olive? Also, what’s up with him and Ms. MacPherson?
- Blonde boy’s a vampire, right? *fingers crossed*
- Olive tries to tell Maps about breaking up with Kyle, but Maps cuts her off. I have a feeling Maps already knows.
- Speaking of, Maps continues to be the best thing about this series so far.
