Review: Gotham Academy Vol. 3- Yearbook

Quick Summary

Pros: Most of the stories here are entertaining and involve charming escapades. The characters are as delightful as ever. Most of the artwork looks good and the book has a great level of visual diversity.

Cons: The opening chapter is mediocre. Some of the stories here are lackluster and disrupt the flow of the book.

Overall: Though this collection is very different from its predecessors, it still manages to bring enough to the table to be worth reading. The main draw here is the characters themselves, who are just as charming and endearing as they have always been. There are a few places where their adventures are less interesting than before, but these moments are in the minority. Readers who enjoyed previous volumes for the characters, rather than the larger narratives and mysteries, will likely continue to enjoy the series with this volume.

Story

Gotham Academy Vol. 3: Yearbook is a departure from this comic’s standard format. Instead of creating larger narratives centered around Olive Silverlock and the rest of Gotham Academy’s Detective Club, it primarily focuses on flashbacks from various moments in the past.

This change-up leads to a story that is a bit more mixed in quality than the past two collections. Most of the stories here are enjoyable and present cute moments from the lives of the characters readers are now familiar with. However, a few of the stories are not nearly as enjoyable and, temporarily, disrupt the flow of this book. The collection as a whole is still enjoyable for the most part but is simply not as completely positive as previous books.

(spoilers start here)

Yearbook opens up with a pretty mediocre Robin War (Review) (Reading Order) tie-in chapter. It has the Gotham Academy crew running away from one of the Court of Owls’ undead assassins while they struggle with the legality issue surrounding the “We are Robin” movement. It doesn’t really let the main cast shine as much as other stories do and even ends up casting Olive in a pretty poor light by the end of it.

From here, Yearbook ditches a traditional narrative and places almost all of its focus on presenting flashbacks from various moments from the Detective Club’s past. Some of these flashbacks are great and show wholesome moments between characters, like one that gives Maps a note from Batman or another that reconciles Pomeline and Heathcliff’s relationship. Some even succeed by simply showing unique snapshots from the Gotham Academy campus, like one that just shows a dog’s journey through the grounds.

However, there are also a few flashbacks that don’t work out quite as well. One is a wacky story about a student who discovers a way to control minds but, unfortunately, presents a pretty out of character take on Olive and Maps. Another is pretty average all the way through but, oddly, ends with one of the Gotham Academy teachers looking up to a wanted assassin. There are less poor quality flashbacks than there are good quality flashbacks but there are still enough to slightly drag down the reading experience.

Alongside these numerous flashbacks is a short story about Damian Wayne stealing the group’s yearbook in order to give Maps a first edition copy of a game book she likes. This is incredibly out of character for Damian and just seems a little strange in general, especially considering the chase leading up to the book’s reveal. I honestly would have been fine if this entire portion of the book was left out.

Finally, the volume closes with another non-flashback chapter that has the group facing off against a vampire and a time-traveling metahuman. In general, the story here comes a lot closer to capturing the magic of the first two volumes, which makes for a pretty good read. The concept is goofy enough to fit the series, the tension is exciting, and all of the interactions between the members of the Detective Club are enjoyable.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Yearbook‘s present day story ranges but tends to trend positive. The volume’s opening chapter, by Adam Archer, looks alright but suffers from colors that simply don’t do it any justice. Luckily, from here, Adam Archer takes over on colors and presents an experience that looks similar to the visuals that readers have become accustomed to over the previous volumes.

Yearbook also makes heavy use of flashbacks, with each flashback handled by a different artist. Some of these flashbacks, like the ones from Dustin Nguyen, Mingjue Helen Chen, and Annie Wu, stand out as great artistic pieces all on their own. Others, like those from Eduardo Medeiros, David Petersen, and Zac Gorman, stand out because they feel so wonderfully different than the artwork typically seen in mainstream comic books. There are a few flashbacks that end up being just average but none of them look downright bad. All in all, the way these visuals were handled helps create an artistically diverse book that is almost always pleasing to the eye.

Continuity

Gotham Academy Vol. 3: Yearbook continues the story from Gotham Academy Vol. 2: Calamity (Review).

The story started here continues in Gotham Academy: Second Semester Vol. 1: Welcome Back (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The first chapter in this book is a tie-in to the Robin War (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• The “We are Robin” movement began in We are Robin Vol. 1: The Vigilante Business (Review).
• Heathcliff started traveling with a band in Black Canary Vol. 1: Kicking and Screaming (Review).
• The final chapter makes hints about someone in the future named McGinnis. This is like a reference to Terry McGinnis, who serves as Batman in the future. His adventures start in the Futures End (Review) (Reading Order) series and continue in Batman Beyond Vol. 2: City of Yesterday.