Review: Gotham Academy Vol. 2- Calamity
Quick Summary
Pros: The mysteries contained here are fun and watching the characters solve them is even more fun. Olive’s story becomes more interesting and readers get some satisfying answers to questions about her past. The artwork continues to be a wonderful accompaniment to the story.
Cons: The two opening chapters are not that entertaining.
Overall: This is a solid continuation of a series that is showing a lot of promise. It follows the adventures of a great cast of characters as they make their way through a beautifully drawn world. These adventures center around personal drama, ghosts from the past, and mysteries that are entertaining to see the cast react to. Anyone who enjoyed the previous volume should continue reading with this volume.
Story
Gotham Academy Vol. 2: Calamity, by Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher, continues to tell stories that will delight both young and old comic fans. It follows the students of Gotham Academy as they seek out the answers to mysteries at their school, on a quest that feels like a pleasant throwback to lighthearted detective properties like Scooby-Doo or Nancy Drew. This series also continues to benefit from the mysteries and drama that surround the characters themselves, giving fans even more of a reason to keep coming back for more. There are a few chapters here which aren’t all that entertaining, but these chapters are in the minority. All in all, this is a worthy continuation to this charming series.
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Calamity opens up with a few average quality chapters that end up being the low point of the collection. The first is essentially a poem that introduces or reintroduces readers to the cast of this series. Having it come from Maps is somewhat endearing, but the chapter itself isn’t that entertaining. From here, the volume tells the story of Damian Wayne’s brief time at Gotham Academy. Though seeing Robin is always fun, his appearance here feels a bit forced and his story arc simply isn’t that entertaining.
Luckily, things improve dramatically from this point onward. The rest of the volume has the cast investigating various mysteries that have popped up around their school. Each one is fun in its own way and allows the members of the Detective Club to show off their skills. The ultimate solutions to the various mysteries are typically pretty obvious to guess at, especially in the case of Clayface, but seeing the cast come about the solution ends up being the real draw here. I particularly enjoyed seeing the group’s plan unfold, with each character taking on a different role in making one operation work.
Calamity also places a lot of focus on the mystery that has surrounded Olive since her introduction. Readers learn that her family has passed down some sort of malevolent spirit through the generations and that this spirit now resides within Olive. Learning all of this is satisfying and seeing it play out is tense, especially when the spirit begins setting fires and putting the main characters in danger.
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Art
Like the previous volume, the artwork in Calamity looks great and is a wonderful match for this particular series. Karl Kerschl is able to make the students of Gotham Academy look like the energetic group of young people that they are. This allows their somewhat darker adventures to retain the lighthearted attitude that the series seems to be based around, which is crucial in making this comic work. However, when necessary, Kerschl is also able to depict some more frightening scenes, making certain moments feel more serious and allowing the tension to build. In the end, this is another visual success for this series.
Continuity
Gotham Academy Vol. 2: Calamity continues the story started in Gotham Academy Vol. 1: Welcome to Gotham Academy (Review).
The story started here continues in Gotham Academy Vol. 3: Yearbook (Review).
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- At one point, the “We are Robin” movement is mentioned. This movement began with We Are Robin Vol. 1: The Vigilante Business (Review).
- The destruction of Arkham Asylum is mentioned a few times. This destruction took place in Batman Eternal #30, collected in Batman Eternal Vol. 2 (Review).