REVIEW: GOTHAM ACADEMY #2Something spooky's going on in GOTHAM ACADEMY #2 written by Brenden Fletcher & Becky Cloonan with art by Karl Kerschl, and you shouldn't miss it. Read Full Review

Things continue to be excellent in this book, and itll be great to see where this series goes from here. The artwork is superb and the storyline is equally great, and its good to see that the second issue has kept up this series good form. Next issue cant come quickly enough. Read Full Review

A wonderful addition to last months debut issue, Gotham Academy #2 is yet another delightful experience and a must-buy for all the kids in your life. My shop may start wrinkling their nose at my clearing off the shelf for extras. Tough. Theyll just need to keep ordering more. Read Full Review

Gotham Academy #2 at this point is the best book in at DC. The combination of the story and art brings this book to a new level. If this builds the body of the book then the characters are the soul. With characters like Olive, Pom, Heathcliff, Professor MacPherson, and especially Maps, they bring the world to life and creates a truly amazing issue. Read Full Review

Two issues in and I'm completely sold on this book.  There really isn't a more charming book out there and it's just getting started. The underlying mysteries surrounding the Academy and it's students (and teachers) has me completely under it's spell and I can't wait for more.  Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl have a winner on their hands and I can whole heartily recommend to almost anyone, comic fan or not. Read Full Review

The end result is somewhat unexpected as this second issue is even better than the first, having lost none of the novelty and even picking up some momentum. The main characters are fleshed out as the story progresses, and the creative team is clever in leading Olive around the grounds of Gotham Academy, allowing the reader to discover its secrets alongside the heroine. The main concern that I have with this issue is the same as with the first issue, that DC is interested in quantity over quality, in that it cancels a lot of good titles just because they arent selling well, and that could be the case here as well. Regardless comic fans are at a loss if they are to let this series die an early death, it is really one of the most innovative series to come out of DC in years and deserves a chance. Read Full Review

Hopefully next time we get to see what happened to Olive in the summer and what happened with her mom! Read Full Review

The wheels spin just a little bit on the story, but the character relationships and plot threads all get fleshed out. Read Full Review

Within its pages, Gotham Academy has become a world-inside-a-world, fully realized and captivating. Successfully dark (and a little spooky!) without losing its all-ages appeal and readability, it shows real promise as an entertaining and engrossing prep-school drama, seamlessly (and unexpectedly) existing within the canon of the world's oldest superhero universe. Read Full Review

If Gotham Academy were completely textless, I would still read it for the incredible colors by Geyser, McCaig, and Rauch. I can't wait to find out what went wrong between Olive and Kyle. I'm excited for Maps to have more interactions with other students — has she made any friends yet? Cloonan and Fletcher have sucked us into their world of mystery, and I'm enjoying every panel. Read Full Review

Gotham Academy #2's focus on setting makes the book light on urgency. There is no immediate conflict propelling the entirety of the series. Instead, the plot as it is pops up through character interaction. Problems appear whenever the characters reach them on their own. Gotham Academy's pacing is therefore slow by design. There is no overarching plot, as such. There is only immediate need that give our characters the opportunity to grow while we gleam bits of information about the school and themselves through their actions. Read Full Review

In terms of story, although the action tends to be less than what it was in the first issue it dives deeper into the character exploration and provides a bit of the history that this school is known for, and tiny hints about what's happened with Olive's family. There's even an appearance by a longtime Batman villain rarely seen in the comics (who had his origin in the 1966 TV series, out on disc for the first time this week) who I hope makes more appearances in future issues. Cloonan and Fletcher are creating something truly special with Gotham Academy and if you're looking for something different than most of the other Bat-Family books out there, then this is it. It checks off the boxes on all the major parts that make up a great comic for me! Do yourself a favor and see why! Read Full Review

(P.S. The blonde guy in the library? Who was he? How does he fit in to all of this? SO MANY QUESTIONS.) Read Full Review

Gotham Academy #2 is a very enjoyable issue of the series with a lot of good, quality aspects. It does suffer a bit with a lack of development in its story and supporting cast, but it does offer a lot of interesting ideas, intriguing surprises, good writing, and really lovely artwork. The next issue seems to be hinting at something big and I can't wait to see what happens next. Read Full Review

I still don't know what's going on here - but so far, I'm certainly enjoying the ride! Read Full Review

The potential for this still feels immense and I'm enjoying the pieces dangling in front of me, though hoping for a little more meat to grab onto and savor as it expands and reveals itself more. Read Full Review

This book is off to a very good start. It's original, and that's rare in a superhero-dominated world like Gotham. I wish Cloonan and Fletcher wouldn't try to toy with us readers so much, but that is easily forgiven in light of the joy one gets from reading Gotham Academy. Read Full Review

There's a scene where a dog digs up a suspiciously human-looking bone which serves as a particularly good analogy for the series. It looks innocent, but there's creepy stuff happening just below the surface.And any book the brings a villain from the Adam West Batman tv show into the New 52 and makes it totally work deserves your money. Read Full Review

What will keep this book gripping is finding the balance in the mysteries -- how long to tease them, when to introduce new ones, at what point to resolve them. The soap operatic nature of the plotting so far, reminiscent of Claremont's best work on the "X-Men" titles, shows that this is a creative team willing to take chances and discover how to find that sweet spot. The spotlight will be on when the tease is paid off with Olive's lineage and how satisfying that feels to the readers. If they can pull that off, this is a book that will pay dividends for DC down the road. Read Full Review

For a non-action book, these guys really know how to build up drama, and do it in a believable way. Read Full Review

It's so hard not to like this book. The art is just that good. Karl Kerschl has created a world and characters that you can't help but want to get to know more and more intimately Read Full Review

Maybe it's the innocence and allure of youth, or that Gotham Academy forces me to reminisce about simpler times in my own life, but I find this book charming and fun. It's a different take on Gotham, but one that is well appreciated amongst all of the weight and darkness of the other titles. I can't wait to see how this book effects the current continuity. It will only make it that much more interesting. Read Full Review

Although I admit this book was technically good, it wasn't entirely for me. Perhaps this will be most enjoyed by teenagers or those in their early twenties. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just didn't find it too relatable. If this book intrigues you even in the slightest, you should at least give it a shot. Read Full Review

Pacing and mysteries aside, I can really understand why this title has been so well received. This isn't a standard comic book packed with superheroes and/or super villains duking it out with muscles and gadgetry. This is a story about a young woman who's just as confused as we the readers are. Read Full Review

Imagine the challenge of introducing an entirely new cast of characters and a new story into an already established world, and only loosely connected to one of the best selling characters in the history of the medium. This is the challenge facing "Gotham Academy" and its creative team. Two issues in, and they're facing that challenge perfectly. This is a bat-book only because it takes place in Gotham. Other than that, Batman (or Bruce Wayne) haven't played any major roles so far. What that means is that driving the sales for this book is the cast of brand-new characters. "Gotham Academy" #2 manages to hit every beat it needed to: building the setting and environment our main character Olive is living in; showing her interactions with her teachers and schoolmates; and delivering a mystery worth coming back for issue after issue. This book is enchantingly well-written (which is an odd adjective to use, but it fits). Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher are delivering fantastic scripts, and Karl Kerschl's art alone is worth the cover price. It's obviously really early on in this series' run, but I already think it's going to be one of the standout books of this year, and (hopefully) many more to come. I highly recommend. more

I love Gotham Academy! As soon as I get done with a issue I am ready for more. It is a very fun read.

This is one of my favorite titles lately! It has been a long time since I looked forward to a next issue. I hope this creative team can keep it up! They had my curiosity. Now, they have my attention.

The story is building up, and the mysteries are pretty intriguing, the only problem being that most of the school kid characters are too one dimensional and typical, fitting into well defined high school drama roles, like the snob. And then there's the art. HOLY @*#@ING S@#T! That is Gorgeous! Even if the story wasn't interesting at all, it would be worth it simply for the art. Now that Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's run on WW is over, this is my second favorite DC series (behind Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo).

Gotham meets Harry Potter. Beautiful.