Gotham Academy: First Year #6 Review

 

Gotham Academy: First Year #6 Review

Story: Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan & Karl Kerschl

Script: Brenden Fletcher

Artist: Marco Ferrari

Colorist: Eva De La Cruz

Letterer: Steve Wands

Cover Artist & Variant Cover Artist: Karl Kerschl

Editors: Kristy Quinn & Dacy Lim

Publisher: DC Comics

Price: $4.99 US/Variant $5.99 US (Card Stock)

Release Date: August 5, 2026

 

When she couldn't learn what happened to her mother, Olive pushed away everyone and everything that offered her a future she didn't believe she deserved. She sought refuge in Professor Crane's pills, but they trapped her in a nightmare and fractured her identity. Can Batman rescue Olive Silverlock again? Or will another hero arise to help Olive be the champion of her own story? Let's leap into Gotham Academy: First Year #6 and see what happens!

 

Story

This year, the limousine leaves the Mizoguchi residence with two students heading for Gotham Academy. While Kyle eyes a position of responsibility, Mia also envisions great things. Kyle may not know what the future holds in store for him and Olive. Yet Mia is certain that she and Olive will be best friends.

 

When Safi brings her bags into her dorm room, Mia cannot wait to see Olive. Yet in Gotham Academy: First Year #6, Olive isn’t around. So, after Safi leaves, Mia tells her roommate about her best friend. Despite everything Olive has gone through, Mia sees her as an indomitable force. While she waits for Olive to join them, Mia instructs her new roommate in how to play Serpents & Spells. Yet, as Mia and Katherine delve into the role-playing game, danger stalks the school.

 

After Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, and Karl Kerschl’s story begins with Mia, the story shifts to other people who care about Olive. When Olive makes her appearance, her experiences have changed her. Yet some things remain the same. Last year, she was the insecure girl who thought she didn’t belong in Gotham Academy. Now, she’s still unsure how to view her place in the school.

 

Brenden Fletcher's script highlights the circular nature of life. With a new school year beginning, the students, teachers, and staff fall into familiar patterns. The students need friends and leadership. The staff and teachers recognize that some children will need more attention and protection than others. Olive suffers from some of the same issues she did at the beginning of her first year. But now, she is a Junior and more is expected of her. As Olive ponders her future at the school, Mia represents the breath of fresh air that she, and everyone at the school, needs in Gotham Academy: First Year #6.

 

Art

Mia stands before a character sheet, wearing her school uniform. Her face radiates happiness. Kyle hangs his head as he trudges beneath his burdensome backpack. Muscular Safi easily lugs Mia's luggage to her room. Mia and Safi’s introduction to Katherine evokes how Lucy Hunt met her roommate. The next morning, drapes obscure her roommate in the top bunk while Mia sprawls on the bottom. As she awakens, books, maps, character sheets, and other game paraphernalia cover the floor. Yet as Mia spots a red object, another character demonstrates how a year has changed her in Gotham Academy: First Year #6.

 

As Marco Ferrari portrays Mia’s passion for life, the school colors showcase differences between characters. While the yellow and blue suggest a mixture of concern and hope, Mia often wears one color to contrast her disposition with another's. Yet Katherine and Mia both wear blue when they meet. And when danger threatens, Mia's yellow hairbow matches Katherine's yellow hair.

 

Eva De La Cruz suggests that two characters are surprisingly well matched by tinging Heathcliff's lenses and Pomeline's hair with orange. Green signals someone who steals others' willpower, while a frightened character regards her surroundings through yellow lenses. As Mia glimpses a fleeing figure, her blue shirt looks indigo in the night, while violet tinges her skin. Yet before the school year gets underway, red links two characters, perhaps temporarily, or perhaps forever.

 

Black lowercase letters fill white balloons and yellow boxes, while letters grow bold for intonation and fade for lowered voices. A glimpse of handwritten words provokes anger, while red exclamation marks signal a life-threatening situation. Sound effects enhance Mia’s first day at school, a fight for life, and an act of heroism. Still, white words on a brown poster suggest a more positive literary interest than rereading The Castle of Otranto. Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this story with us.

 

Final Thoughts

Mia has a plan. She intends to storm the school and reshape it in her image. Yet while “Maps” is forging her new identity, Olive wrestles with her self-worth. Some students and teachers will shine radiantly, others will lock themselves in prisons of their own making, and the rest will tread toward whatever future awaits them in Gotham Academy: First Year #6.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Gotham Academy: First Year #6. 

 

For what happened last time, see my preview of Gotham Academy: First Year #5. 

For what happened before that, see my review of Gotham Academy: Year One #4.

For how this series started, see my preview of Gotham Academy: First Year #1. 

 

 

 

Gotham Academy: First Year #4 Review

 

Gotham Academy: First Year #4 Review

Story: Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan & Karl Kerschl

Script: Brenden Fletcher

Artist: Marco Ferrari

Colorist: Eva De La Cruz

Letterer: Steve Wands

Cover Artist: Karl Kerschl

Variant Cover Artist: Marco Ferrari

Editors: Kristy Quinn & Dacy Lim

Publisher: DC Comics,

Price: $4.99

Release Date: May 27, 2026

 

For a few months, Olive Silverlock thought she could have it all. She envisioned a future with Kyle Mizoguchi. His family invited her along on their summer vacation. After her portrayal of Juliet in the school play, Olive was the toast of her drama class. Then Jonathan Crane detonated a bomb at Arkham Asylum.

 

Olive wanted to escape her mom's fate. So, she stopped visiting Sybil Silverlock, and Arkham went up in flames. Can Olive forgive herself for abandoning her mother? And how will she spend the summer in the empty dormitory? Let's leap into Gotham Academy: First Year #4 and see!

 

Story

Gotham Academy has its guardians. Headmaster Hammer still rules its halls. Harriet Cooper still welcomes visitors. But the students and teachers have abandoned the classrooms and dorms, leaving Olive alone with her thoughts and guilt. During the day, she awakens in places and wonders how she got there. And by night, Olive wanders the halls and stairways, while another resident looks on.

 

Olive Silverlock breezed through the classes in her first year at Gotham Academy. Her performance in the school production of Romeo and Juliet made her the belle of the prom. Yet in Gotham Academy: First Year #4, Olive remains the frightened girl who hid beneath the bed when her roommate Lucy arrived in the fall. Her passion for Gothic literature helped Olive fine-tune Mia Mizoguchi's campaign for Castle Crowhold. Yet as the summer passes, and hopes for her mother's miraculous survival dwindle, Olive slips into a trapdoor inside her mind.

 

While Olive’s conscious thoughts often revolve around Kyle Mizoguchi, Tristan Grey observes Olive. When danger threatens her, he rescues her. And in their isolation from other people, Olive escapes the fear that hovers over her like an unceasing storm. Brenden Fletcher reveals Tristan's concern about the girl who helps him feel more like an angel than an outcast. But as the people around Olive look on in concern, no one is more worried about Olive than she is about herself in Gotham Academy: First Year #4.

 

Art

After regarding the stately building from afar, Olive walks through the open doors guarded by glowing candlestands. When she reaches the fireplace, Olive spies Millie Jane ascending the stairs in the mirror. A towering figure, shrouded in darkness, grasps Millie by the neck. Then, as if through the looking glass, Olive looks down at the still girl. The candlestand behind Olive glows, while the candelabra the girl held has gone cold. When Olive picks up the candelabra, the broken candles reform and glow with light, as she retraces Millie's steps. Then a towering figure, shrouded in darkness, grasps Olive by the neck.

 

As Marco Ferrari interweaves dreams with reality, Eva De La Cruz lavishes bright colors on Gotham Academy: First Year #4. Kyle wears a white shirt when Olive awakens from her dream. Olive’s green gown suggests health and links her with Tristan. Along with the vitality of the natural world surrounding the school, blue also symbolizes Olive’s growing relationship with Tristan. Yet yellow, orange, and red signal danger. Flames engulf the school. Fire also threatens Olive when she seeks clues to her mother’s fate. And then, there is the red-and-white medicine in the yellow-orange container that former professor Jonathan Crane gave Olive Silverlock.

 

Sybil’s dark-orange words hover in light-orange clouds. Dialogue appears as black lowercase letters in white balloons and boxes, while Olive recalls Professor Jonathan Crane's words in gray boxes. Olive shares her thoughts in yellow boxes, and Tristan records his observations with handprinted words in white paper scraps. Steve Wands helps readers hear imminent death and the rush of air as a character risks their life to save another. Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this story with us.

 

Final Thoughts

When sickness leads to isolation, Tristan finds peace and meaning in life, while Olive starts to fall apart. Unlike Tristan, her illness seems more rooted in her mind than her body. Yet unlike Kyle Mizoguchi, both Olive Silverlock and Tristan Grey evince extraordinary abilities in Gotham Academy: First Year #4.

 

Rating 9.7/10

 

To look inside, see my preview of Gotham Academy: First Year #4.

 

For what happened last time, see my preview of Gotham Academy: First Year #3.

For how this series started, see my preview of Gotham Academy: First Year #1.