The plot is getting thicker. And thicker. In fact, if it gets much thicker it may just collapse under its own weight.
Gotham Academy is good, don't get me wrong. It's funny, it's smart, it's wicked cool. It's got some genuinely interesting characters, a fascinating protagonist in Olive Silverlocke, a creepy/fun setting and mysteries everywhere you look. It's like a prep school version of Lost.
The problem is that in storytelling, each mystery requires an explanation, lest the reader feel cheated. And it's totally okay to compound your mysteries, "stacking" them so to speak, so that your reader has plenty to ponder. But if you keep adding more and more mysteries without ever explaining anything, your reader's going to get mighty frustrated. Aside from that, it's also challenging to just keep up with all these unanswered questions -- and maybe why they even matter.
Who is Olive Silverlocke's comatose mother? What happened to Olive over the summer? Did she wield fire-based superpowers in issue #2? (And why did no one question this if so?) Who's the blonde mystery guy who seems to be watching over Olive from a distance, and why does he already seem to know her? What's this symbol Olive, Maps, and Pomeline keep finding all over the place? Why did Pomeline want to conjure the spirit of Millie Jane Cobblepot? What is Pomeline after? What's Bruce Wayne's connection to Olive? And why is she so averse to bats?
Perhaps it's not entirely fair to say there haven't been any answers. One mystery is fully resolved in this issue, and it's kind of exhilarating when it is since we get to see Olive being very proactive. Another big question is partially answered, but its answer poses at least two more really big questions.
But there are hints in Gotham Academy #4 that these many, many various plot strands may soon converge. Could it be that these disparate storylines are all links in the same chain?
Issue #4, "The Secret of the Symbol," finds Olive and Maps playing detectives, on the case of the strange symbol and how it's connected to the creature haunting the school. It's fun to see peripheral characters from back in issue #1 continuing to pop up and get fleshed out.
It's also surprisingly gratifying to see Olive and Pom slowly building something that resembles a friendship. Didn't see that coming. It's in the relational stuff that Karl Kerschl's art continues to grow stronger with every issue. Some of the scene transitions and time jumps built into Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher's story can be far from smooth, but Kerschl's excellent work goes a long way toward making the whole thing more cohesive.
"The Secret of the Symbol" culminates in the series' juiciest cliffhanger so far, a whopper of a reveal that will have readers desperate to devour Issue #5.
Story:
★★★★
Art:
★★★★★
Overall:
★★★★½
