GOTHAM ACADEMY VOL. 2: CALAMITY - Becky Cloonan & Brenden Fletcher (illustrated by Karl Kerschl & Mingjue Helen Chen)

This second collection from DC Comics (following Gotham Academy Vol. 1: Welcome to Gotham Academy) begins with student Olive Silverlock attending the funeral of her mother.  Once back at school and with her Scooby-Doo-like gang of friends, the group finds a ready-made mystery not only in the form of not only a magic quill and seemingly possessed ravens ... but soon Olive finds herself seeing what appears to be the ghost of her mother on campus - a ghost who reveals its true nature, and Olive's true heritage, to the frightened young girl.  For the most part this graphic novel collection was a hit with me; even though I hadn't read the previous volume, I kind of like the old-school Scooby-Doo vibe of the friends (even though I think Olive herself was shunted too much to a background player, and while I love Maps I would have liked to delve more into the other characters, too).  There are a whole lot of subplots going on here, surrounding the main plot, but even an appearance by Damian Wayne (son of Bruce!) keeps your interest peaked.  While I found the first story, about the magic quill, a bit confusing in relation to the rest of Olive's tale, Gotham Academy Vol. 2: Calamity is beautiful to read in its artwork, and fun enough to read if you don't take it all too seriously, when the villain by the end practically needs to stand up and say "And I would have gotten away with too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!"  Gotta go back and pick up volume one, now.  ****

Note: I received a free ARC of this title via NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.