Review: Gotham Academy: First Year #1

In this review of Gotham Academy: First Year #1, Olive Silverlock, new scholarship student at the prestigious Gotham Academy, navigates her new life among the rich kids and her secret terror of Batman and her mother.

GOTHAM ACADEMY: FIRST YEAR #1
Writers: BRENDEN FLETCHER, KARL KERSCHL, and BECKY CLOONAN
Artist: MARCO FERRARI
Main Cover: KARL KERSCHL
Variant Covers: DUSTIN NGUYEN, SWEENEY BOO
Page Count: 40 pages
Release Date: 10/1/25

This review contains spoilers

September in Gotham Academy, Olive Silverlock, new scholarship student, hides under her bed as a new student enters. The student, Lucy Hunt, is surprised and a bit snooty about having to share a room with Olive (who is struggling with flashbacks to her violent summer), but is pleasant enough and willing to help Olive for her first day of class. Olive feels completely alone during orientation.

One month prior, in August, Bruce Wayne drops Olive off at Gotham Academy while he sorts out her situation after her mother went to Arkham. Professor Elle MacPherson greets Bruce at the gate, and Alfred tries to comfort the shell-shocked Olive. Professor MacPherson introduces Olive to Headmaster Hammer, and we flash back to the present where Olive’s sullen resentment proves a barrier between her and the other kids. Her older student guide, Annie, rejects her, but Olive tags along anyway, meeting Ducky and Pomeline Fritch, who unfortunately mock Olive’s sad vibe. Once again, we flash back to Olive finding her mother in the middle of a horrifying firestorm in their house, as Batman breaks in to help them. Unfortunately, Olive sees Batman as a monster.

After throwing away the shoes the older girls made fun of her for wearing, Olive trudges away alone, but a friendly and cute boy with a huge backpack picks them up and runs after her. He introduces himself as Kyle Mizoguchi, and quickly helps Olive feel better and more welcome. He offers his services as a guide instead of Annie, and Olive accepts. Kyle puts on a show for Olive, touring the athletic facilities and showing off his tennis skills. Back at her room, Lucy is happy to see Olive more cheerful, and Olive gets a visitor pass to Arkham to see her mother.

In flashback, we see that Batman saved Olive from her mother’s explosion by throwing her out the window attached to his belt and line. Present day, at Arkham, Olive meets Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow (though she doesn’t know that) and former Gotham Academy professor. Though warned by the guard not to talk to visitors, as Gotham Academy: First Year #1 comes to an end, Crane gives Olive a bottle of pills to “help” with her fear.

Analysis

It’s BACK! After Spring 2024’s “Mother’s Day” story by Karl Kerschl in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold anthology title, the whole Gotham Academy creative team reunites – Brendan Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, and Kerschl with Gotham Academy: First Year #1. They are joined for this prequel limited series (indicating that if this does well, there may be more Gotham Academy to come!) by new artist Marco Ferrari and colorist Eva De La Cruz, taking over for previous series artists Kerschl and Adam Archer. Though I’ll have to reread my beloved Gotham Academy trades, as I thought Olive’s Summer of Trouble where her mom went to Arkham was between her first and second years at the Academy, but it looks like, according to this first issue, it was actually before her first year.

Despite this confusion, it’s very delightful seeing Olive drawn out of her (honestly somewhat obnoxious) class-warfare sullenness and genuine grief and trauma by the sincere and really loveable Kyle Mizoguchi (last seen romancing Stephanie Brown in Cloonan’s title Batgirls). The mixing of a more detailed look at the clash between Olive’s mother “Calamity” and Batman and Olive slowly learning more about her new home is nicely done, and the creepy ending at Arkham with Scarecrow leaves a lot of tension about whether Olive’s first year will be ruined by Scarecrow’s fear toxin!

Of course, the elephant in the room is Maps, Kyle’s beloved younger sister who steals every scene she’s in of the first several series of Gotham Academy adventures. Thankfully, it appears that Maps and Olive will have their first meeting sometime in this series, leaving much to anticipate. The overall plot of the series is a bit murky, as the mystery about Olive and her mother were dealt with in the original series, thus that can’t be the main plotline for this run. The friction between Olive and the snooty girls, her blossoming romance with Kyle, and of course the dark hints of Scarecrow hopefully will form a delightful plotline that will carry these six issues to a memorable conclusion that will bring many new readers to this and the original series!

Original series artist Karl Kerschl’s main cover features Olive in a typical pose of looking back at the reader over her shoulder, highlighted in warm colors as Colton, Pomaline, Kyle, and Lucy wait for her at the gate colored in cool blues. Longtime Gotham Academy fan and contributor Dustin Nguyen’s cover is a lovely watercolor of Olive, Kyle, Lucy, Colton, and Pomeline lying in a circle on the grass. Sweeney Boo provides our final variant with Olive looking sadly out of the window while in class as bats fly past – a nicely evocative and symbolic piece!

Final Thoughts

The anticipation couldn’t be higher, and our original Gotham Academy creative team doesn’t let us down with Gotham Academy: First Year #1, along with their new artistic collaborators! Olive, Kyle, Pomeline, and more are back and having great adventures where the mundane mixes with the Batman!

Ian Miller

A latecomer to comics - I started reading Bruce Wayne: Murderer, Birds of Prey, Hush, and War Games in college. Over a decade and a half later, I'm still inspired by Batman, and especially the Bat-Family (Stephanie Brown!) I started out listening to BTO, then Stella drew me to TBUCP, I volunteered to write reviews, and the rest is history! Love recording the podcast, especially with my amazing cohosts. Also a huge fan of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and many more books!