Gotham Academy #15 Review

Eggcellent!

Written by: Brenden Fletcher, Zac Gorman, Eduardo Medeiros, Rafael Albuquerque, and Helen Chen
Art by: Adam Archer, Zac Gorman,  Eduardo Medeiros, Rafael Albuquerque, and Helen Chen.
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 10, 2016

The Pizza Club is still all about their yearbook as Maps and Olive continue gathering stories and at Gotham Academy they expect more than the standard "Most Likely to Fall in a Vat of Chemicals" copy that plays at Gotham High across town...nope, this is serious business. This anthology-like story arc is fun enough, but is the overall story good enough to actually hang out with later or will you just sign "See you this summer," and then immediately forget about it?




The first story features Maps and Colton as they decide to spy on the staff party to see if they can get a great story. I know I always suspected that crazy stuff went on behind closed doors and with the faculty of GA, that possibility is like times ten.  While it's a fun premise, there really isn't much character development here and worse, their interactions are starting to get a bit stale. The art is good so at least we got that as the individual stories kick off.

The staff party stars a couple of classic Batman '66 villains, Bookworm and Egghead.   Bookworm might as well change his name to Wallflower (though Louie the Lilac may cry foul) because he is such a party-pooper and just hates having to deal with real life party issues (I can honestly sympathize with the guy).  Then there is Egghead who is having no such problem coming out of his shell.  He's chatting it up with the ladies with his amazing "Egg" puns.  You know that nobody can resist a good yolk! The way he's going, he may be the first egg to get laid more than once!  Is this on?

 Besides Bookworm and egg puns, my favorite part was Professor McPherson screaming "Kirk"!  It was a really cute panel. While I can't and won't  try to convince you this story was "big" or "important", it was fun seeing these great characters interact and made me smile.

The next bit was all about Dungeons and...I'm sorry, my lawyers say it's "Serpents and Secrets."   While playing the game, Olive and Maps meet a magic crow and BAM!  They are in the game. I thought it was going to be like that movie with Tom Hanks where he loses it and becomes a scary monster that everyone runs away from...you know, Philadelphia. Instead it's more like Mazes and Monsters...or Joe Versus the Volcano. I'm not sure now, I'm so confused.

Where was I?  Oh yea, the girls and the game then go all Adventure Time on our asses and we find our heroes in a magical land of RC Cola and Piñatas  (at least that's what I see when I close my eyes) where they have to fight "The Lich". Why is it always a Lich?  I hate Lichs!  They are not doing so well when it's revealed that a cool Gotham Villain is behind it all.  Oh snap!  The art is this story was good as well and really fit the tone and mood going on here.  There is also the bonus of a continuing mystery of one of the characters that is enough to keep me coming back next month.

Our last vignette was really fast and was not much of a story. We follow Professor McPherson's dog, Ham, as he goes to his hiding spot where he has tons of Gotham Academy treasures.  What kind of name is "Ham" for a dog?  Everyone knows that's a name for a three legged cow, right?   The story is just Trystin going to give Ham more treats. Really, there wasn't that much going on. The thing that  caught me off guard was when a couple of students are talking negative about the Pizza Club. The Pizza Club is weird??? What what??? It was like sitting in lunch hearing people making fun of that dork in the red shirt and grey chords just as the camera pans out and you can guess the rest.  I don't understand...my Mom always says what a catch I am and the grey really accents my baby blues!

Bits and Pieces:

Gotham Academy continues the Yearbook story and while this whole arc is pretty silly, I enjoyed this issue a bit more than the last one. While seeing classic Batman villains heroes never gets old in this book, the lack of a strong overall narrative really brought my score down. This was fun, but I want the regular Gotham Academy back.  

6/10