In this review of Gotham Academy: First Year #5, Olive faces the start of her second year at Gotham Academy with great fear…and are those fears justified?
Gotham Academy: First Year #5 main cover by Karl Kerschl (DC Comics)
GOTHAM ACADEMY: FIRST YEAR #5
Written by BRENDEN FLETCHER, KARL KERSCHL, and BECKY CLOONAN
Art by MARCO FERRARI
Main Cover: KARL KERSCHL
Variant Cover: ANNIE WU
Page Count: 40 pages
Release Date: 6/24/26
This review contains spoilers
On the first day of Olive’s second year at Gotham Academy, Olive avoids all the students and teachers, and breaks into Headmaster Hammer’s office, discovering the truth about her mother, the supervillain Calamity. She notices Professor Crane’s file as well, but before she can read it, Pomeline interrupts, then tells the whole Academy about Olive’s supervillain mother. The students surround Olive, screaming for revenge for her mother’s crimes. While fleeing, Olive is grabbed by Kyle, who says he will protect her, but when she confesses she woke up with a boy’s sweater on and doesn’t know if she cheated on him, Kyle slaps her, and Olive pushes him off the roof. Horrified at what she did to the boy she loved, Olive flees again, pursued by the Batplane in the night. Meeting Professor Crane, who promises to take her to her mother, who appears out of a scarecrow in a field. Her mother embraces her, but then bursts into flames, saying that the two of them belong in the fire. She hears Maps and Kyle trying to reach her, but she collapses.
In reality, it’s still August, and Batman and Tristan the Boy-Bat have found a catatonic Olive at night, along with the pills from Crane, which are a fear toxin. Tristan declares he didn’t kiss Olive, not wanting to infect her with the Man-Bat virus, and Batman takes Olive to the Batplane while Tristan writes down all of his interactions with her over the summer, promising to keep his distance from now on.
Analysis
Thankfully back on track after a winter-long hiatus, Gotham Academy: First Year barrels towards the conclusion. Astute readers will know something’s wrong when Olive talks about being at the start of her second year, since the first issue of the original Gotham Academy series starts on her first day of her second year. The hints that it’s all a Fear Toxin nightmare pile up, as Pomeline and Kyle become evil in Olive’s worst fears instead of the complicated but warm people we know they really are. Artist Marco Ferrari brilliantly highlights the nightmare by creating the art in a collage style – cutting out Olive and other figures, so their white outlines make a sense of disassociation between reality and the characters.
The ending, in reality with Batman and Tristan, is also very enjoyable. Not only does it explain the strangeness, never fully explained, of Tristan and Olive’s relationship in the original Gotham Academy series, it also offers some very cool Batman gadget action as his glove analyzes the toxin – I wonder if Ferrari made that gadget up, or collaborated with Jorge Jimenez in his gadget covers! The mirror between Olive’s nightmare vision of the Batwing against the moon and the Batwing flying her to safety against the moon shows how reality probably shaped her nightmare dreams – more fun layers to peel back.
And it all comes down to one more issue, this one promised to star Maps as she works to save Olive before school starts and all we know has to happen! I’m incredibly eager to see how it plays out, and have enjoyed every issue immensely. I hope that this prequel brings more people to Gotham Academy, and maybe they’ll start a webtoon or YA graphic novel series to continue the story!
Our main cover by Karl Kerschl shows Olive lost in the rain with the ominous Scarecrow behind her – a very symbolic and appropriate work for this month’s story!
The Annie Wu cover is surprisingly less interesting than Wu’s recent work for Birds of Prey, though it is striking – Olive’s face sideways sinking in a sea of neon poison green, a nice depiction of her drowning in Scarecrow’s toxin.
Final Thoughts
Olive’s nightmares make for a fun issue, but all attention turns towards Maps for the finale!
