Review: Gotham Academy Second Semester Vol. 2- The Ballad of Olive Silverlock
Quick Summary
Pros: The majority of the book is entertaining and addresses the most compelling mystery in this series. The book’s conclusion ties things together well and works as a conclusion for the series as a whole. Most of the volume’s artwork looks good.
Cons: The volume starts with a pretty lackluster chapter. The epilogue feels lacking. There are a few places where the artwork falters.
Overall: The final volume in the Gotham Academy series ends things in a positive fashion, for the most part. The story here is entertaining, it has exciting stakes all the way through, and it contains a nice message about adolescence. The entire volume also works well as a sendoff for this comic and the characters within it. There are a few problems along the way but nothing serious enough to truly damage the collection as a whole. Anyone who cares about the narrative of this series or its characters should continue their reading experience with this volume.
Story
Gotham Academy: Second Semester Vol. 2: The Ballad of Olive Silverlock, by Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, and Karl Kerschl, is a solid conclusion to this series. It has high-stakes adventure, exciting action, and some interesting messages about developing past adolescence. The entire volume also does well in delivering readers a satisfying conclusion to large narrative threads that have been present since Gotham Academy began. It, unfortunately, is not without problem though. The volume starts out with a mediocre flashback and offers readers very little in terms of an epilogue. Despite this, in the end, this is still a worthwhile volume for anyone hungry for a conclusion to the mysteries of this series.
(spoilers start here)
The Ballad of Olive Silverlock starts out with its most lackluster chapter. It is a flashback to events that took place before the Second Semester series began that has the Detective Club deal with a malevolent circus visiting Gotham Academy. Though each member of the Club has a brief moment to express their strengths, the adventure, as a whole, is pretty forgettable.
Luckily, things improve as the volume picks up the Calamity story arc from the previous volume. It has Olive/Calamity visit members of Gotham’s criminal underworld and threaten to burn them alive. Meanwhile, the members of the Detective Club work on figuring out a way to save Olive and separate her from Calamity’s spirit. These activities give this volume the highest stakes this comic has ever seen, as a few characters are shot at and Kyle ends up seriously burned.
This entire adventure is a satisfying continuation to the central narrative of this entire series. It has Olive go through an intense struggle for control over her own power, something that her friends attempt to help her with. This struggle is evocative of the struggle most children go through as they mature past adolescence, as they are assailed with unfamiliar emotions and constantly fear that they will end up exactly the same as their parents. The volume suggests that this problem can be overcome with the help of those around you and shows how ineffectual it is to attempt to isolate yourself from this help. This gives the adventure some thematic meaning to pair with the action and intensity.
The conclusion to The Ballad of Olive Silverlock also works well as a conclusion to the entire series. It successfully wraps up all of the major plot points in a way that feels natural. Even smaller plot points, like Pomeline’s obsession with magic, are wrapped up, as Pomeline actually succeeds in casting her first spell to save Olive.
Though the book’s conclusion is a satisfactory end to the series, the epilogue is a bit lacking. Readers are only given a few pages that show what the members of the Detective Club end up doing after they save the day. With four volumes of investment in this series, I was hoping for a little more information about the future of these characters. It really feels like one more chapter would have done a lot of good for this particular comic.
(spoilers end here)
Art
Like its predecessor, the artwork in The Ballad of Olive Silverlock is mostly positive and works well with the story being told. Adam Archer and MSASSYK’s pencils look good and allow the story to walk the thin line between cute and endearing and frightening and serious. They also allow for several moments that make the characters and their actions look wonderful and make the story feel more meaningful.
However, The Ballad of Olive Silverlock also contains a few artistic problems that weren’t as present in the previous volume. As this collection takes on more serious topics and more serious characters, there are places where the lighthearted character drawings don’t work quite as well. This is especially noticeable in a few confrontations against genuine Batman villains. In addition, there are a few pages where the structures don’t work out that well and panels are shown later than they should be shown. In general, these problems are not too significant but they do prevent this collection from being as solid of a reading experience as other volumes.
Continuity
Gotham Academy: Second Semester Vol. 2: The Ballad of Olive Silverlock continues the story from Gotham Academy: Second Semester Vol. 1: Welcome Back (Review).
The Gotham Academy: Second Semester series ends with this volume and, as of now, does not continue in any particular comic.