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alfredothegoose's review against another edition
2.0
There were soooo many guest artists!! TOO MANY!! Call me weird, but I read comics and graphic novels based on the artwork. When it's not the same artwork that got me interested, I lose interest. Also, there was hardly any plot, just a random group of stories. It was so hard to follow. I'm hoping the second semester series doesn't continue this trend.
drtx_bwt's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
crazybookishcool's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
laurenkara's review against another edition
3.0
I read this in single issue format
3.5 ?? // I'm not sure how I felt about this volume? All the short stories and different art styles were interesting, but it also made everything disjointed and there wasn't a natural flow. I would have much preferred an actual storyline like we got in the first two volumes. I feel like it lost a lot of the elements that made me fall in love with the series. Like always though the main art was STUNNING and I love all these kids so much! Super interested to see what will happen in the new run. Full review to come.
3.5 ?? // I'm not sure how I felt about this volume? All the short stories and different art styles were interesting, but it also made everything disjointed and there wasn't a natural flow. I would have much preferred an actual storyline like we got in the first two volumes. I feel like it lost a lot of the elements that made me fall in love with the series. Like always though the main art was STUNNING and I love all these kids so much! Super interested to see what will happen in the new run. Full review to come.
labunnywtf's review against another edition
5.0
Won via GoodReads First Reads program.
Gotham Academy is the DCU meets Harry Potter meets Scooby Doo. And if that doesn't get you pumped to read it, I'm afraid we can't be friends.
The best part of this volume is that multiple artists are involved, giving different styles to each story. You really get the feel for the flashbacks, along with the main arc tying it all together as the gang goes over Maps' "yearbook" stories.
I am kind of in love with this series. It's the Batworld told by the civilians. Poor Olive with her hatred for the bat because of her mom, but also we meet villains, and hey, they're not so bad, they're just misunderstood. And since Batman is Mr. Gray Area, it's fun to see this from the perspective of teenagers.
Love love love.
Gotham Academy is the DCU meets Harry Potter meets Scooby Doo. And if that doesn't get you pumped to read it, I'm afraid we can't be friends.
The best part of this volume is that multiple artists are involved, giving different styles to each story. You really get the feel for the flashbacks, along with the main arc tying it all together as the gang goes over Maps' "yearbook" stories.
I am kind of in love with this series. It's the Batworld told by the civilians. Poor Olive with her hatred for the bat because of her mom, but also we meet villains, and hey, they're not so bad, they're just misunderstood. And since Batman is Mr. Gray Area, it's fun to see this from the perspective of teenagers.
Love love love.
unladylike's review against another edition
3.0
I love these characters and the tone of the book. This was a pretty fun mystery, but it was dragged out a bit and didn't compel me to finish it in a short period of time.
jenlouisegallant's review against another edition
2.0
While the stories were connected, it was kind of all over the place. I wasn't fond of the changing art styles. I wanted more the mystery, and more or less got filler.
annalisenak97's review against another edition
5.0
This was just lovely. It's been cool to see these friendships grow, and I loved the inclusion of so many artists and art styles in this issue! The plots are clever and creepy, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next issue!
justiceofkalr's review against another edition
3.0
This volume is pretty much lots of very short stories, so it's kind of all over the place. It's semi-connected by the fact that they're all stories in or related to Maps' yearbook, but for the most part it just feels kind of disjointed. The stories were fun, I just wanted a little more cohesiveness to this volume.
quetzelish's review against another edition
4.0
Gotham Academy wraps up its first series here in a volume that is best described as a rocky ride. I'm giving it a 4, even though the volume is a 3.5, leaning toward 3 as a whole but the parts that are good are really good and everything else is either meh or bad. Gotham Academy is just such a rough series to begin with. Sometimes it feels like it has an overarching mystery and character development and other times it feels like a series of one and done stories that slowly throw out any progress made with the characters. Fletcher and Cloonan (although I feel it's more Fletcher's writing here) need to pick a tone with this series if it's to be better than it currently is.
As it stands, we have a cast of various Gotham Academy members whose personalities are hard to pin down and are just so flat. Maps is boisterous, Olive is troubled and (sometimes?) vindictive, Pomeline likes the occult and Kyle is cool sports guy and Colin is a bit of a felon. That's it and we don't see them grow or even attempt to change. The best growth of character that's been shown through the whole series so far was in this volume with Mrs. Macpherson's backstory. It was only a few pages but it had an arc, connected me with the character, didn't get bogged down in huge word balloons (a bit of a problem with the main book) and made me want to know more about her. I don' care for Kyle or Colin or Pomeline (heck I always have trouble remembering their names).
The biggest issue with the series is that there are all these teases as to a bigger story that never get resolved, even a little. Ostensibly, this is Olive's story. What happened to her mother, what is up with the strange things that have always followed her, and why is Gotham Academy so strange? While volume two vaguely tells us about the mother and why Olive hates Batman so much, it doesn't do anything to make the characters want to explore it more. They just go back to classes, saying that something is weird but never actively searching or finding anything. Let's use Scooby Doo as an example for tonal commitment. The school either needs to be like the original series, where there is just a series of monsters (fake or real doesn't matter) with no real connection other than the detective club searching for them or encountering them, or like Mystery Incorportated where there is a commitment to a large ongoing mystery that is broken up with episodic villains but also a constant moving forward of the mystery and character interactions.
I know this wasn't a discussion of this volume in particular but that's a bit hard to do. I really liked the anthology style of the volume (although the connecting story with the yearbook felt really forced and difficult to actually follow) as it allowed various artists and writers to build on the world and characters and mystery of the Academy. Did all of them work, no but enough of them did that I'm glad I continued with Gotham Academy. It's also bad that I want to know more about the teachers than the students at this point, since this is an all-ages book about the students. The authors just need to commit to a tone and story direction, which hopefully will happen in Second Semester. I want to see these people grow, to have emotional moments and to explore more of the academy instead of just putzing from class to class and from coincidental problem which gets resolved in one issue and then ignored from then on to another. Hopefully this gets better and I think that it definitely can.
As it stands, we have a cast of various Gotham Academy members whose personalities are hard to pin down and are just so flat. Maps is boisterous, Olive is troubled and (sometimes?) vindictive, Pomeline likes the occult and Kyle is cool sports guy and Colin is a bit of a felon. That's it and we don't see them grow or even attempt to change. The best growth of character that's been shown through the whole series so far was in this volume with Mrs. Macpherson's backstory. It was only a few pages but it had an arc, connected me with the character, didn't get bogged down in huge word balloons (a bit of a problem with the main book) and made me want to know more about her. I don' care for Kyle or Colin or Pomeline (heck I always have trouble remembering their names).
The biggest issue with the series is that there are all these teases as to a bigger story that never get resolved, even a little. Ostensibly, this is Olive's story. What happened to her mother, what is up with the strange things that have always followed her, and why is Gotham Academy so strange? While volume two vaguely tells us about the mother and why Olive hates Batman so much, it doesn't do anything to make the characters want to explore it more. They just go back to classes, saying that something is weird but never actively searching or finding anything. Let's use Scooby Doo as an example for tonal commitment. The school either needs to be like the original series, where there is just a series of monsters (fake or real doesn't matter) with no real connection other than the detective club searching for them or encountering them, or like Mystery Incorportated where there is a commitment to a large ongoing mystery that is broken up with episodic villains but also a constant moving forward of the mystery and character interactions.
I know this wasn't a discussion of this volume in particular but that's a bit hard to do. I really liked the anthology style of the volume (although the connecting story with the yearbook felt really forced and difficult to actually follow) as it allowed various artists and writers to build on the world and characters and mystery of the Academy. Did all of them work, no but enough of them did that I'm glad I continued with Gotham Academy. It's also bad that I want to know more about the teachers than the students at this point, since this is an all-ages book about the students. The authors just need to commit to a tone and story direction, which hopefully will happen in Second Semester. I want to see these people grow, to have emotional moments and to explore more of the academy instead of just putzing from class to class and from coincidental problem which gets resolved in one issue and then ignored from then on to another. Hopefully this gets better and I think that it definitely can.