At the end of Lumberjanes / Gotham Academy #2, we had left Jen, Olive, Professor MacPherson, and Rosie participating in the strangest Sweet Sixteen dinner party ever, and the balance of the Lumberjanes and Gothamites were gathered outside the party venue, ready to break in to rescue them.

SPOILERS AHEAD, BEWARE!

Things don’t exactly go as expected.  This isn’t for a lack of planning.  Our assault team separates into three groups (Team Alpaca, Marmot, and Narwhal, because best team names ever!), wisely assuming that, this way, at least one group is sure to “achieve the castle keep”, as it were, and the others will be available for back-up and distraction as required; however, the mysterious floating skull creatures continue to prove to be formidable opponents, throwing a legion of virtual creepy crawlies at each of the teams.

“The Smaller spiders. Are. Making. A Bigger. Spider.”

Yeah, folks…time to run for the hills and radio in the napalm strike.

The valiant attempt to break into the dinner-party prison winds up with two of the teams joining the previous captives in a nice round of karaoke (The party has progressed to the after-dinner entertainment.) and the third team in full retreat back at the Lumberjanes camp contemplating their next move.  So, in a complete reversal from the start of this issue, we now have the majority of our players in need of rescue, and a mere handful of rescuers left to do any rescuing.  We are halfway through the story and things look grim, indeed.

As has been the case from Issue #1 of this series, the tension, humor, and inventive supernatural imagination are on full display.  We are also starting to get a few themes fleshed out.  Olive and Professor MacPherson take a moment to ponder the universal inability for teenagers to conceive of the older generation ever having been young and inexperienced and afraid once themselves.  We get a significant amount of backstory for our Sweet Sixteener, who appears to be living out an elaborate fantasy in which she gets to reset an emotionally traumatic event from her past.  And, in true Lumberjanes fashion, it looks like we’re getting set up for Friendship to Save The Day, once again.

But, this is Lumberjanes and Gotham Academy, so I’d put my money on three more issues of the unpredictable and unexpected to keep coming our way.  But hopefully not any more of those spiders.  *Shudder*