This year has seen mainstream superhero publishers realising that there's an audience out there besides adult fanboys with an intimate knowledge of twenty years of continuity who expect - nay, demand - all that backstory be referenced, new readers be damned! Kamala Khan has especially drawn in a younger, female audience, and DC have gotten in on the action with the Young Adult-pitched Gotham Academy. Which isn't to say those who aren't teenage girls won't enjoy it... The elevator pitch for Gotham Academy is Harry Potter meets Batman, which isn't totally inaccurate. The series by Batgirl writer Brendan Fletcher with Becky Cloonan, and Karl Kesch providing art that looks like a high-end animation focuses on a private school in Gotham City, where supernatural goings on are investigated by the moody white-haired Olive and her energetic younger sidekick Maps (guess what she likes to draw). Like this year's similar Arkham Manor (about the asylum moving into Bruce Wayne's mansion) and Gotham By Midnight (focussing on the supernatural division of the Police Department) Gotham Academy expands the world of Batman in a way that's no dependent on the Dark Knight in fact Olive hates seeing the signal of an evening and the fresh viewpoint is a lot of fun.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
