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All-Star Western (The New 52!) # 9 (Night of Owls)

By Mark Rodriguez

The Court of Owls have awakened their army of Talons and have stormed Wayne Manor as well as the rest of Gotham. Batman has alerted Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Robin, Red Hood and Batwing. However the Court of Owls have even crossed paths with the likes of Catwoman, The Birds of Prey and Jonah Hex!


"Vengeance on the Big Easy" starts with Jonah Hex attacking a guy involved in trafficking orphans. This was part of a set up to expose the rest of the terrorist group, The August 7 run by Thurston Moody, since some of them were hidden within the police force. Nighthawk and Cinnamon jump in to help Hex take down the bad guys.

One of the female terrorists ask Nighthawk why they didn't draw their guns, and he says he wants them in jail, not the cemetery. She manages to trip him up and pulls some knives on him, saying that line of thinking will get him killed. Hex shoots the knives out of her hands while Cinnamon holds another member at gunpoint, ending the battle.



Nearby one of the Talons hunts Moody down. The man says he never talked and moved out of Gotham but the Talon tells him the Court deems him too risky to leave alive. Moody pleads that Hex and Arkham are at fault but she says he's the one that hired Hex to begin with. She stabs him in the neck, killing him.


Just then Jonah Hex and Amadeus Arkham arrive and the cowboy opens fire. The Talon does fancy acrobatics to dodge the bullets and escapes. Arkham is surprised but Hex says he's seen those kinds of moves before when he used to be married to a Chinese acrobat. They note her outfit was owl themed and the knife used has an owl crafted on the hilt.

Arkham says Thurston Moody was the former head of Sanitation in Gotham. He also says Moody has been known to keep stuffed owls at his place bur he never thought much of it, wondering if this is related. The doc asked Hex to know more about his former wife and gets socked in the face for bringing it up.



Three weeks later in Gotham at the Wayne Casino, several men play cards and discuss how land is valuable to rich and poor alike and the power you gain by owning it. A descendant of Bruce Wayne says he's running for City Council and wants to build a botanical garden to reserve a reservoir. He doesn't see owning land as a way to control people like the others do. Just then, a woman arrives saying they kill people and take their land, like they once did to her.



Since this was a men-only gathering the woman is asked to leave. She introduces herself as Tallulah Black and pulls a gun. Just then one of the man calls in a guard who is also a costumed fighter. Tallulah says they should have brought in more than one man but stop her, but this person succeeds in kicking her out the window.

Tallulah lands outside the casino, right in front of Jonah Hex. The cowboy asks what kind of mess she's gotten herself into now.



My opinions

I must have forgotten back then that the Night of Owls included All-Star Western and was surprised to see it here. Since Jonah Hex and his adventures take place in the 1880s, he's not exactly part of the Night of Owls that would strike Gotham centuries later, but it might be one of the rare appearances of a Talon out in the open. As an organization hidden in the shadows, the Talon killed her target and vanished rather than engage Hex and risk further exposing The Court. It's a reminder that The Court of Owls have been around since forever and are just coming to light in modern day Gotham.

I don't know too much about Jonah Hex, like many, I remember him from his appearance in Batman the Animated Series and other such cartoons like Justice League Action and Batman the Brave and the Bold. He even got his own live action movie. I know the New 52 deals with him and Amadeus Arkham going around stopping evil, but wow, I know nothing of Nighthawk, Cinnamon and Tallulah Black.

The story was a bit jarring for me since it's right smack in a middle of an ongoing story line. The Talon was just a cameo that kinda crossed Hex's path for a second and vanished... and Hex then continues with his adventures. I mean, he was basically out to stop Moody's plans and the Talon killed him for them. The Catwoman comic will have a similar issue, but I was actually following that one and knew what was going on, though I know it might be jarring for some of my readers. It's a side-effect of working on your own series and suddenly being told to quickly add an event or character somewhere to fit a multi-issue spanning crossover.

I do have to say, I like the art, and love how the covers try to capture the look of old school westerns.

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