Comic Book / Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy

Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy is a six-issue miniseries published in 2016, a co-production between Boom! Studios and DC Comics, and (if you couldn't guess by the title) a crossover between Lumberjanes and Gotham Academy.

Rosie is investigating a seemingly abandoned lodge near the camp when she gets confronted by a mysterious creature. She manages to shoot off a flare before it takes her away, alerting the Lumberjanes and prompting them to search for her.

Meanwhile, at Gotham Academy, Olive and Maps discover that Professor MacPherson has mysteriously disappeared when the former tries to get a term paper to her. Through some investigating, they discover an old invite to a party held at a lodge — the same one Rosie was investigating. With this evidence, they and the rest of the Detective Club steal the Professor's car and drive off to check out the lodge.

Naturally, the two groups end up meeting and team up to solve the mystery.

This series provides examples of:

• Alpha Bitch: Louise fell into this role pretty quickly when her family found their fortune. It turns out she was just trying to emulate all the rich people she'd seen in movies.
  • Simon was a male version of this during his days at Gotham Academy. Despite this, Louise had (and still has) a huge crush on him.
• An Aesop: The adults in your life were your age at one point, and had pretty much all the same problems.
  • Forever living in the past isn't as great as it seems. Moving on is often the best solution.
  • Taking risks can be a good thing.
• Air-Vent Passageway: The Detective Club uses one to get into MacPherson's office without being spotted.
  • Rosie also uses one to try and find an exit in the lodge.
• Anachronism Stew: The lodge is trapped in 1986, which means we get to see a lot of outdated clothes and ideas.
• Art Shift: The first four issues have a different art style from either series. The last two issues also end up having a different art style than the rest.
• Bat Out of Hell: April, Pom, and Colton are attacked by these.
• Bears Are Bad News: And mountain cats, and dogs, and tiger heads, and antelope...basically, any of the taxidermy animals Olive and Kyle come across while trying to escape Louise's wrath.
  Kyle: Someone needs to revoke the license of that taxidermist!
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The spiders attacking Molly, Jo, and Maps turn into a larger spider. It's all a ploy to get the three into the mansion.
• Big Damn Heroes: During the climax, Mal comes to Molly's rescue when a Chaperone is about to get her.
• Both Sides Have a Point: After Olive and Jen are captured, Jo and Kyle have an argument on how to deal with it: the former points out that they shouldn't just barge in wildly, while the latter argues that they have no idea what might happen to Olive and Jen. Maps takes a third option and suggests that they come up with a plan quickly.
• Brave Scot: MacPherson claims that fighting skills are a standard policy for Scots — right after she takes out three Chaperones with her bare hands.
  Colton: I'd better buckle down, I'd hate to see what would happen if I flunked her class!
• Brick Joke: Colton claims he's trained in fireworks safety to a highly skeptical Mal in issue five. In issue six, he puts out the excess fire caused by Calamity and gives Mal an "I told you so" about it.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Simon is first mentioned when Louise notices he's not at her party yet. He ends up being a crucial part of both Louise's backstory and the gang's plan to get out of the lodge.
  • The guy that gets taken away by the Chaperones after accusing the Nithercott-Greenwoods of being sorcerers turns out to be completely right at the end.
• Clothing Damage: Not the sexy sort, but the Gothamites' clothes are dinged up enough that the Lumberjanes decide to get them new outfits.
• Continuity Nod: When Colton reveals that he snagged MacPherson's car keys, Kyle asks him if he's planning on wrecking all of the faculty vehicles, after what happened to the Headmaster's car.
  • April shows a diary entry on the merpeople from the lake when talking about how she and her fellow campers have seen things.
  • Mal mentions raptors in passing.
  • Given the minor Running Gag in Lumberjanes about how Mal's plans tend not to be used, her crying Tears of Joy after being told by Maps that her plans are great is this.
• Deadpan Snarker: Various characters pass the snark ball around.
• Dwindling Party: The cast all realize that they could get taken away by the Chaperones if they screw up, and at least two unnamed people and Pomeline actually are. None of them die, however.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom: Maps accidentally creates one when deflecting a Chaperone's electric blast. It takes care of at least two others.
• Fate Worse than Death: Pom considers being locked in a room with nothing to do but watch Facts Of Life and Family Ties episodes to be this.
• Fountain of Youth: If you're not one already, you turn into a teenager the minute you enter the lodge. Just ask Rosie and MacPherson.
• Fusion Dance: During the climax, no less than five Chaperones fuse together to take care of our heroes.
• Gilligan Cut: Rosie is at least happy to know that the girls are still safe at camp...then we cut to them and the remaining Detective Club members ready to head to the lodge for a rescue.
• Go Seduce My Archnemesis: A heroic version; the entire escape plan depends on Kyle pretending to be Louise's crush.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Louise's parents, who cast a spell on her and the entire lodge so that she could be happy.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Louise is stuck in one, reliving her birthday weekend over and over again until she gets a good birthday party. Unlike most examples of this trope, she doesn't have Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory to go with it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Olive holds off a Chaperone in order to let Mal, Molly, and Jen get to the bridge. Jen goes to save her afterwards.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Olive figures that this is Louise's motivation, and decides to be a friend to her. This ends up backfiring spectacularily thanks to her getting mistaken for a crush stealer.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Mal's plan after everyone but her, Kyle, and Ripley are captured; she theorizes that, once everyone's back together again, they'll have a better chance of taking care of the Chaperones.
• Just Following Orders: The Chaperones are only antagonistic when someone threatens Louise or her chance at a good party.
• Mistaken For Crush Theft: Twice, friendly interaction with Kyle makes Olive a target of Louise's rage.
• Monochrome Past: Flashbacks are presented in sepia-red tones.
• Never Say "Die": When discussing Simon's death, MacPherson claims he's "not on this plane of existence" rather than outright say it.
• Noodle Incident: The '90s Macarena/roller blading accident that did Simon in, which was apparently "tragic on so many levels".
• Off with His Head!: Ripley decapitates a Chaperone with a baseball bat during the climax.
• One-Hit KO: The fused Chaperones can do this with a swipe of their hands. Just ask Maps.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: No one recognizes MacPherson and Rosie after they get turned into teenagers. This is especially odd considering that the former has a pretty obvious Scottish accent that Olive should've picked up on.
• Posthumous Character: Simon.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Pom: "I. Don't. Karaoke."
• Sarcastic Confession: Pomeline gives one to a panicking Jen about how she and the other Gothamites are "in a kung-fu street gang masterminded by Quentin Tarantino."
• Shock and Awe: The main power of the Chaperones.
• Shout-Out: After meeting the Lumberjanes, Kyle admits to being worried that they'd ended up "on the set of Meatballs or Camp Crystal Lake."
  • Posters for Labyrinth, Back to the Future, and Purple Rain are clearly visible in the room Olive and Jen end up in. Jen ponders whether they've entered The Twilight Zone on the same page.
    • Also related to Back To The Future, Kyle, when looking over his new outfit, wonders if he should "hop in a Delorean to go find a crazy scientist".
  • "Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"
  • Jo compares telling Louise that her crush is dead to telling Gozer you're not a god.
• Skewed Priorities: When Maps drops her map while being chased by a Chaperone, she immediately goes back for it, only managing to avoid capture thanks to Ripley.
• Spit Take: Jen does one when she learns that the machine "nobody has over here" that Louise is talking about is a karaoke machine.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Colton's fireworks vs Chaperone! Colton wins! However, as pointed out by Mal, there's a chance that he could've taken out a chunk of the lodge, too.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Although they did manage to find MacPherson, the Detective Club gets three weeks of detention for stealing a faculty member's car and leaving school grounds.
• Take That!: Pom calls karaoke "a special kind of torture".
  • See Fate Worse than Death above for the other instance of this trope she gets.
• Thinking Out Loud: Jen does this when worrying over Rosie's fate. When she realizes that the Lumberjanes overheard her, she lampshades it: "When will I learn to inner monologue?!"
• Verbal Backspace: This exchange:
  Colton: Let's KICK OUT THE JAMS, everybody!!!
  MacPherson: I'm playing a slow song, ya big numpty.
  Colton: Let's kick out the SLOW JAMS, everybody!
• Weirdness Censor: We see Louise's point of view on everything at one point after a guest yelling about the Nithercott-Greenwoods being sorcerers gets taken away by Chaperones. She just sees two security guards taking the poor guy away after he'd apparently "taken ill", and him giving her an amicable handwave. This also causes her to think that Kyle is her (long-dead) crush, Simon.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Louise's parents thought they were helping Louise by causing her to relive her birthday over and over again. April decides that it's the most excessive helicopter parenting she's heard of.
• Wham Line: The end of issue 3:
  Kyle: You have a plan?
  Mal: More of a solution. We're going to surrender.
• Wham Shot: At the end of issue five, Maps is knocked out by a giant Chaperone. As Kyle runs to see if she's okay, Olive directs a Death Glare at the monster, and the flames in the fireplace become a lot more lively. Anyone who reads Gotham Academy knows what this means...
• What Are Records?: Olive has a minor freakout when she finds a rotary phone in the lodge.
  • Pomeline has no idea what an encyclopedia is. Colton describes them to her as "hardbound collections of Wikipedia entries".
  April: Aw, how cute...culture shock!
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The Detective Club, Louise, and the Lumberjanes are all communicating with each other through letters, Louise is off to check out Paris like she dreamed, and the Detective Club has been saddled with three weeks of detention.

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