With “Robin War” out of the way, the Pizza Club of Gotham Academy begin the last weeks before break with a look of side stories of the going-ons around the school. How does it hold up?
Written by Brenden Fletcher, Derek Frioldofs, Katie Cook, Hope Larson
Illustrated by Adam Archer, Dustin Nguyen, Katie Cook, Kris MukaiAn all-new era of GOTHAM ACADEMY begins here with the four-issue ‘Gotham Academy Yearbook’ story! It’s yearbook time at Gotham Academy, and Olive, Maps and the gang share some lost adventures from the past year. Some of the best writers and artists from comics and beyond join forces with the creative team behind Gotham City’s top boarding school for this very special new chapter.
I’ll just say it straight out: This issue has left me massively conflicted.
Let me preface this discussion with the fact that I didn’t find any of these stories bad. They were fun little vignettes from a plethora of talented artists and writers. No, my big concern with this issue, as well as the whole upcoming “Yearbook” arc is if this is the kind of thing Gotham Academy as a series needs. I was talking with a colleague who skipped the “Robin War” tie-in (rightly so, it was the worst issue of the series) and he said he found it incredibly difficult to come back to the series with this issue. I can’t say I disagree. With a book that is so young, despite the massive critical acclaim it has, doing an anthology series as your third arc feels like a potentially fatal misstep. I’m saying this because I remember another book that ended with an anthology, “Young Avengers” and then it disappeared. This is not a book that deserves to go into the pile of the “Critically Acclaimed, Rarely Bought, But Fondly Remembered” books. It deserves a long healthy life and, despite the quality here, doesn’t do much to dissuade from the attitude that this is the last arc.
Now that I have that off my chest, let’s talk about each of the stories separately:
”Yearbook: Part One” by Fletcher and Archer
These parts serve as the framing device for the rest of the book and it does its job well. Fletcher does a great job with the characters he co-created. I think the biggest draw here for me though was Adam Archer’s pencils and colors. He came on last issue and… I was not a fan. Perhaps it was the combining factors of losing Karl Kerschl and my neutral feelings on “Robin War” and the majority of the “We Are Robin” kid that painted my opinion then, but now that time has separated me from it, I am liking his work a lot more. Helps that it looks nowhere near as rushed. Archer brings out that same talent for character expression that has been shown throughout the book. His colorwork also sets a wonderfully intimate ambiance. If he is going the be the main artist going forward, then he could be a worthy successor to Kerschl.
”Animal Science 101” by Fridolfs and Nguyen
Fans of “Batman: Li’l Gotham” rejoice! The team has reunited for a tale of hijinks starring Colton and Eric in their (okay, Colton’s) plan to steal something from Doctor Langstrom. While the artwork is more reminiscent of Nguyen’s work on “Descender” (albeit with the lack of Driller), that feeling and humor that had come from “Li’l Gotham” is in full sweep here. This story also brought us a Werebatgoat. Best Story.
Queen Glee by Cook
Katie Cook writes/illustrates this short story of music, popularity and cats. It’s cute. The artwork is cute. The character interactions are cute. The mind control… okay that’s not cute, but how it is solved is cute. It’s like James Tynion and Eryk Donovan’s “Memetic” but with fluffy cats instead of cosmic horror. It’s the kind of fun, light-hearted stories that Katie Cook does and does them incredibly well.
Scottie Dog by Larson and Mukai
We take a trip to the Gotham Academy of 1985, where we have a story of foreign exchange student Isla Macpherson trying to fit in. It’s a tale of being awkward and unaware of where you fit as Isla tries her hardest. She finds and loses a friend that allowed her to be herself a bit, which makes the transition to present day Professor Macpherson a bit sad at the turn of events. And if you’re a fan of 80s fashion, Mukai provides this in spades.
So at the end of it all, these tales were fun. I enjoyed reading them. I would like to hope that in the next three parts of “Yearbook”, we’ll see a variety of tone (not necessarily “grim dark”, obviously) and character. And here is hoping this arc isn’t the Grand Finale to a book that doesn’t deserve it.
Final Verdict: 7.0- While perhaps not the best direction for the book, the creators still provide a good set of side stories for the Academy.
