Batman The Dark Knight (The New 52!) # 9 (Night of Owls)

By Mark Rodriguez

The Court of Owls has sent their army of Talons to attack the city and Alfred called the Bat Family to help stop them. The Talons attacked Wayne Manor and after Batman stopped this violent home invasion, he went to Arkham Asylum to rescue Dr. Arkham. Now he heads to rescue Lincoln March.

This is one of the most misleading covers ever

‘I can no longer be broken’ starts off with a Talon attacking Lincoln March, stabbing him fatally. However, the Talon is a bit old and careless and gets tased. Lincoln pulls out a gun and shoots him in the eye. We then flashback to the Talon’s life.

Like several potential Talons, he started off as a child in Haly’s circus. Due to being afraid of the high wire, the kid is tossed into a trailer that was set on fire. The kid survived the fire, and the ringmaster called him worthy to be the next Talon. 

Twenty seven years later, we see that adult Alton Carver as a Talon, killing someone in Gotham. However, he was spotted by police and had to kill them too. This displeases the Court of Owls and they say he might be retired soon since they found another candidate. Carver  then goes to Haly’s circus to check out his replacement, which would be Dick Grayson, still living happily with his parents.

The Talon had another mission that night, and lost time due to checking out the circus, so he had to hit the victim in the streets. And this is when he had his first encounter with Batman.

Carver failed his mission and the Court of Owls put him to sleep. He awakens with all the other Talons as the Court unleashes the Night of the Owls in present day, and we return to his scene with Lincoln March.

 Batman shows up and the Talon felt the same fear he felt so many years ago. This distraction led him to get shot by March, though he soon reawakens. He sees Batman tending to March and realizes that this isn’t some weird giant bat monster like he thought before. He realizes Batman is but a man in a costume and goes to attack him. After a short fight, Batman knocks him out the window.

It is now midnight for the Night of the Owls, and Batman sends Nightwing, Robin and Red Robin out to find this Talon, since they all know he can recover. The wounded and defeated Talon wanders the sewers… now with a slightly new outlook on things. He has no fear.

The only time we will see Red Robin in this issue.

My Opinions-

Oh man.... where do I start. This comic has 2 glaring problems, one being a cover fake out, and another being a major plothole.

We've seen Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, The Red Hood, Catwoman and the Birds of Prey deal with the Talons in their own series, and seeing this cover, you would figure this is the issue where Red Robin take down a Talon. I was glad to see the panel with Batman and his troops and figured this is where Tim would step up to chase after the Talon, but this was one of the last pages of the comic. Instead the comic went into further detail when Batman encountered the Talon trying to attack March.

The second problem is.. WHAT THE HELL? BATMAN HAS ENCOUNTERED A TALON BEFORE???? Now this took place when Grayson was still a kid, so it was very early in Batman's career. But this Batman we're talking about. He has an obsessive, almost encyclopedic memory when it comes to his crimefighting. I'm pretty sure after the first Talon tried to kill Bruce Wayne in the beginning of this story, he would have remembered encountering a similar villain in the past and he would have had more clues that might have led him to the Court of Owls sooner. This is just incredibly stupid. Plus, I also assume this Talon in his prime would have killed Bruce Wayne when he has only been Batman for a year or so. Luckily if you just stick to Batman's main comic, you can ignore this detail because it throws a monkey wrench into everything.

The other weird thing is, Carver got away. It's only left to assumption that the sidekicks got to him, but it would have been nice to have seen it. At this time there were already reports of one of the Talons was actually going to get his own series.... but it's not this guy.

Going back to Tim, at this time he was leading the new 52 Teen Titans, so he was busy with Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and the rest as that series was on the final chapter of a story arc. So basically Teen Titans skipped out on this crossover. Another member of the Bat Family that wasn't involved was Batwoman that also had her own separate story that doesn't involve the Owls. I also realized Suicide Squad, which has Harley Quinn on the team, also didn't get involved. It woulda been cool to see them on some mission that involved one of the targets the Talons wanted to kill.

The comic was ok, but the idea I'd be seeing Tim Drake kick ass in his New 52 outfit but it turned out to be something else and the plothole of Batman facing a Talon before and not remembering it kinda soured me on it. At least there was some good action and that David Finch art.

Just to throw this in here.... The Justice League # 9 had a short scene that featured the Night of Owls. Green Arrow was trying desperately to join the team and one scene had him interrupt the League as they were fighting the Talons. Honestly.... this makes absolutely no sense at all since Batman was with them and there was really no space anywhere for him to be hanging with Superman and Wonder Woman as he was rushing off to rescue both Arkham and March.