Gotham Academy: Year One #4 – Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Writers; Marco Ferrari, Artist; Eva De La Cruz, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: It’s been a long time since an issue of this comic, similar to Hush 2, and that always stands the risk of blunting the momentum of a story. Fortunately, in a bizarre case of serendipity, the gap here actually works because it sort of places us inside Olive’s head. Missing time? Can’t remember things too clearly? Same, girl, same! When we pick up with Olive, it’s been some time since the fire at Arkham, and Olive wakes up in the infirmary after being apparently caught in a fire at school. But while she just remembers talking to Jonathan Crane at Arkham and heading home, apparently weeks have passed. Her room has changed in ways she doesn’t recognize, Kyle has been confused by her absence, and she has whole chunks of her life missing as a voice in her head becomes increasingly persistent. We know where this is going from the original run – but she certainly doesn’t.
Much of the story is filled in from the perspective of Tristan Grey, the mysterious Man-Bat who becomes a student at Gotham Academy. A good, naive kid with a monster inside, he follows Olive as she begins to behave erratically, and winds up rescuing her multiple times. But it’s not exactly Olive he rescues – it’s her alter ego, who behaves like a wild card antihero and may have been triggered into the same mental instability as her mother – and given that she’s inherited her powers as well, that’s a big problem. There’s a great sense of unpredictability to this issue, showing us Olive’s descent from her own perspective as she loses control of her mind and memory. When we met her originally, she was well down this path and had recovered somewhat, but this is one of the most unsettling issues I’ve read in a long time – and one of the most compelling.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
