Are You
Ready For the Summer?
Written
By: Brenden Fletcher, Steve Orlando, Natasha Alterici, Faith Erin Hicks
Art By: Adam
Archer, Sandra Hope, Moritat, Serge LaPointe, Minkyu Jung, Natasha Alterici,
Faith Erin Hicks
Letters
By: Steve Wands
Cover
Price: $2.99
On Sale
Date: May 11, 2016
**NON-SPOILERS
AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
I can
still remember the end of every school year being something magical. As days
got longer and the weather warmed, children’s brains would delete all stored
files and Empty Trash in anticipation of two-plus months of doing as little as
possible. For me, possibly as a by-product of being in the New York City public
school system, it was time for me to say goodbye to the bulk of my classmates.
We all likely lived within a couple of miles of each other, but without the
daily reinforcement of forced proximity, no one intended on venturing outside
of their known neighborhood to visit another. I wonder if that’s still true
today, in the smart phone/Internet age. Back in the long ago, I had a phone
number and a home address, both of which were actually owned by my parents, and
if you didn’t know either of them then there was no way to contact me. Now,
kids are linked up through various social media platforms twenty-four hours a
day, so I suppose even if they don’t see each other throughout summer vacation,
they can still follow each other’s Instagram accounts. I can’t help but wonder
how this shapes the expectations and obligations of summer vacation for school
children today; I was pressured by wine cooler commercials and ribald teenage
movies, to maximize my summers with as much “partying” as possible, I would
have been beside myself with envy to learn that one of my peers was having way
more fun. There’s one group of kids who are always having way more fun than
anyone, the students of Gotham Academy. They’re always having adventures and
hanging out with monsters and ghosts, it’s like a regular Beetlejuice school over there. And now we come to the close of the
first matriculated year of this title’s existence, with the finale of the
anthology clip show arc titled “Yearbook.” Does it finish strong with a long,
wistful autograph on the blank pages at the back, or is it the comic book
equivalent of “I hope you have a pleasant summer”? Read my review and find out!
