If you had told me six months ago that a comic book about teenagers at a boarding school was about to become my favorite monthly read, I wouldn't have believed you for a second.

But here we are, six months later, and Gotham Academy is the book I look forward to most each month. It's the book I have to open immediately after getting my hands on it, unashamedly eager to find out what happens next.

With smart storytelling, a setting brimming with mysteries and unforgettable characters, this is a comic book worthy of passionate fandom.

In Gotham Academy #6, we finally get some long-awaited answers and resolution to the series' first story arc.

The issue hits its climax early, leaving plenty of time to address the fallout. Our newly-formed team gets another member before the end, the Killer Croc story comes to a head, and that mystery symbol hidden all over the school is explained at last.

Its explanation opens up some exciting possibilities for the future.

Since the first issue, readers have been dying to know more about main character Olive Silverlock's past. This issue provides the answers, with no less than three separate flashbacks. There's also a long-overdue chat between Olive and Batman that explains her hatred for him. Most intriguingly, that nagging question of whether or not Olive might have her very own superpowered abilities is answered in a way that begets further developments down the road.

Yet for all of these welcome developments, Gotham Academy proves one more time that it's not all of those unanswered questions that we come back for. It's this collection of characters. Olive, Maps, Colton, Pomeline and the rest are so colorful, so vividly defined and so darn much fun, I often find myself turning the pages just to see what they're going to say and do next. Best of all, all of these characters have changed and grown since the series began.

The issue ends on a little epilogue that hints at the next major story arc (which will get underway in June, after Convergence ends), while still leaving one or two mysteries dangling. But that's okay. The creators have established trust now, and I have no doubt that their long-term plans for the series are worthy of our trust.

As always, artist Karl Kerschl's art is on-point, always projecting the perfect mood for the scene at hand, and somehow melding a cartoonish look with a sophisticated sensibility. I don't know how he does it, but it works.

I kind of love that writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher were given the time and freedom to tell their story on their own terms, across half a year. The book has always given off a bit of a "rebel" vibe, as if Cloonan, Fletcher and Kerschl were determined to give Gotham Academy an identity that's solely its own and not in any way influenced by editorial agendas or reader demands. They had a vision, they executed it, and it's brilliant.

Marvel fans who still lament the loss of Brian K. Vaughan's magnificent Runaways, know this: That comic has a spiritual successor, and you'll find it under the label of the Distinguished Competition.

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