The series takes place in the DC Universe's Batman mythos and follows Olive Silverlock, a teenage girl, and her friends as they encounter the mysteries and threats of Gotham's most prestigious prep school, Gotham Academy,[1] which happens to be just across the road from the Arkham Asylum.

[3][4] Gotham Academy was launched in October 2014 as a part of the ninth and final wave of comics under DC's New 52 imprint.

[6][7] A second volume of the series, titled Gotham Academy: Second Semester, debuted in November 2016 with the DC Rebirth initiative.

[9] After distancing herself from her friends and boyfriend over summer, Olive begins a new school year after her mother was instated at Arkham Asylum.

[10] After seeing masked figures, Olive finds that her classmates Pomeline Fritch and her boyfriend Heathcliff are part of a secret society, and are attempting to capture the ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot, who is haunting the grounds.

That night, Olive discovers that Heathcliff has been faking the ghosts existence to convince Pomeline that her rituals were working.

When she returns to her room, she discovers tunnels that connect the campus to the underground and finds that Killer Croc has been living there, who broke out of Arkham when it collapsed.

Olive finds it is the blonde boy, Tristan, who has been affected by the Langstrom Virus, causing him to sometimes become a mutated half-bat creature.

[14] The cops show up amidst the battle, as the group runs, all but Olive, who lights the bag of fireworks and burns the North Hall once more to kill Batman.

[17] Olive stays at Gotham Academy for in- between semester break while all other attendees, including the detective club, return home.

Colton and Pomeline travel to the shop room to find tools to reverse engineer the circuit boards.

[20] As a flashback to the previous issue, Colton is shown to have uncovered numerous secret passageways when attempting to avoid being caught in the shop room.

Eric is shown to be eavesdropping on Pomeline and Tristan when they are discussing the location of the lost Book of Gotham.

[21] Back inside the Wedgewood Museum, Pomeline and Tristan use the map and follow symbols to find the Book of Old Gotham.

Eric jumps forward from the shadows, where he has been following Pomeline and Tristan and declares he is a sort-of villain named "The Symbolist".

Back inside the tunnels, Bookworm explains to Colton and Pom that Amity Arkham was burned as a witch and cursed a number of families responsible for her death.

When the two return to the surface, Olive reads the names of the cursed families from The Book of Old Gotham and disappears.

[24] As students evacuate the academy, The Detective Club plans to save Gotham Olive from Amity Arkham.

Olive tracks down Two-Face, as his family name is inscribed in The Book of Old Gotham and attacks him with fire.

As Colton, Pom, and Maps look for the Bones of Amity Arkham, they are attacked by three students in a shark, fox, and raven masks and trapped in a well quickly filling with water.

In order to discover the secrets of the academy, Maps attempts to join "The Terrible Trio" but is attacked by them instead.

Kyle awakens from his injured state and warns Maps that secrets about Calamity are contained in the Wayne Manor Vault can save Olive.

IGN called the first issue "Great", saying that "Gotham Academy offers a fresh take on the Bat mythos, driven by Karl Kerschl's fantastic art".