Gotham Academy: First Year #5 continues the trend from last month of being a more front loaded Gotham-focused story rather than strictly a soapy teen melodrama that happens to take place in Gotham. However, I find it even more effective than Gotham Academy: First Year #4, because it strikes a balance through the reliance one firmly puts on the other. This issue is melodramatic teen soap, delivered only in a way Gotham could muster.
This issue firmly puts Olive in charge of her mind and emotions, which is great because I was starting to miss her after largely seeing her lose control to Livi, her more aggressive personality. Wracked with guilt over things she doesn’t remember when Livi was in control, Olive has the full weight of her demons to bear here and it’s brought to life in gorgeous fashion.
DC
The first few pages start off realistic and grounded, but Olive’s world quickly descends into a surrealistic hell. Marco Ferrari absolutely crushes it this month, doing smart things that remind you comics are a special medium where you can take liberties. Heck, even the first page has Olive standing in front of a group of her peers, appearing as light blue silhouettes against the shadows of a tree line. Olive stands out in a cully colored outfit that’s framed by a white asymmetric pentagon that effortlessly catches your attention.
This white outline persists throughout the book, almost like a bubble protecting her until her nightmare becomes too strong for her to feel safe. After that, the white frame reappears and it feels less like a bubble and more like a cage, trapping her in her absolute worst fears, both socially at Gotham Academy and more personally. It almost makes her look like she’s pasted into the book, unable to turn away from the slideshow of her mistakes and fears.
DC
The reason she’s reckoning her past in such horrific fashion is because she’s been spiked with a dose of Scarecrow’s fear toxin, which while not confirmed until later in the issue, it’s on the cover so please don’t come after me about spoilers. That said, this nightmare fuel is basically the worst imaginable immersion therapy, forcing her to confront pretty much everything she doesn’t like about herself and everything she’s afraid of the world learning.
The colors from Eva de la Cruz really deserve their own special shoutout. Balancing the super natural feeling blues and purples of backgrounds with harsh bright colors is such an impressive feat, nailing the world we’ve gotten used to with the flames that threaten to burn it all away.
I find it telling that the start of her journey begins in her dean’s office where she learns that her mother is actually Calamity, an arsonist and murderer who’s responsible for several deaths, including some people with students at Gotham Academy. She then deals with the fallout from her relationship with Kyle that’s been on the fritz for most of the summer thanks to Livi being more prominent. After that she confronts Scarecrow and then, ultimately, her mother.
DC
The journey from fearing what her mother has done to other people to ultimately what her mother had done to her was a satisfying moment as a reader. Olive realizes she’s been living in the shadows of her mother and doesn’t want to be like her. It’s really nice scripting from Brenden Fletcher. Whether she has the strength to do something about it remains to be seen, but there’s one more issue and the story is in a nice enough place where I think we won’t get a rushed ending as the series concludes next month (fingers crossed).
Gotham Academy: First Year #5 strikes the perfect balance of Gotham bizarre and teen melodrama by telling a melodramatic teen story in a way that only makes sense in Gotham. Olive takes center stage and confronts her greatest fears in quick, exhausting succession. Gorgeous surreal art tells the story effectively and poignantly.
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