Olive Silverlock has a secret. A big one.
She and the other students of Gotham Academy had a bit of a slow burn in the title's debut issue, but with #2, things get far more engrossing. Lost-type mysteries abound within the walls of Gotham Academy — both in regards to the structure and the many students who live and study there — and writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher are in no hurry to deliver the reveals.
What happened to Olive over summer break that changed her and caused her to withdraw from the world? Why does she hate Batman? What's her connection to Millie Jane Cobblepot, a distant ancestor of the Penguin? Why does one male student's eyes glow red? Is the Academy really haunted? What's the creature watching the students through the cracks in the walls?
By the splash page that ends issue #2, there's a huge new mystery about Olive's identity to add to the list. And it's very possible that this one ties all of the others together. Hopefully answers are coming in #3.
Relationships take the forefront in this one, further solidifying the partners-in-crime vibe between Olive and Maps (Maps gets several laugh-out-loud lines in this one), as well as teasing Olive's inevitable confrontation with ex-boyfriend Kyle, and finding an unexpectedly sympathetic ear for Olive in the form of one of her teachers. But the most striking character of issue #2 is Pomeline, an antagonistic "mean girl" bully type who seems to find a great deal of pleasure in hating Olive. As far as we know, Pomeline's antimosity for Olive is "just because," but maybe there's more to it.
Cloonan and Fletcher keep the drama darting from one location to the next, rarely lingering on one scene for more than a few pages. It's a needed format for a comic with little to no real action, yet occasionally the story skips a few beats that are probably meant to be inferred but turn out confusing instead. There's nothing to fault with Karl Kerschl's art, however. He's doing dazzling, highly stylized work that's a joy to take in.
The plot is thickening, and I'm more interested than ever to find out what it's building to.
Story:
★★★★½
Art:
★★★★★
Overall:
★★★★½
