By Mark Rodriguez
The Court of Owls have unleashed their army of Talons upon the city, and they've started to storm Wayne Manor. Alfred send the call out to several members of the Bat Family including Nightwing, Batwing and the Birds of Prey, while Batman himself has to protect his home from the Talons.
This one is going to be kinda tricky since this comic actually takes place before and after the Night of Owls. His adventures will continue in Detective comics and an event that happens in Batman Dark Knight overlaps with the events of this issue. The first time I reviewed this I actually split it up to review half the comic, then the crossover stuff and then back to the events after the Night of Owls ended. This time I'll just review it normally but be sure to read my reviews on Detective # 9 and Batman Dark Knight # 9 to get the full story.
‘Night of the Owls’ starts with a monologue explaining that when the very first Waynes, Solomon and Joshua bought the house which would become Wayne Manor in 1855, they ran into an infestation of bats. They set loose some owls to get rid of them. Within a year all the bats were gone.
Back to the present, Bat-Iron Man continues to fight off the Talons as Alfred works on dropping the temperature of the BatCave. Bats tears into the undead assassins, but eventually he is taken down. The Owls try to tear into his armor, but luckily… a dinosaur stomps on the Owls. It seems the model dinosaur we always see in the background of the Batcave is an animatronic.
However, even with the dinosaur’s help, the Owls continue to overwhelm our hero, and are about to stab through the helmet. Alfred warns that Bruce may black out at any moment, but he still refuses any help. He then remembers that even when his ancestors got rid of the bats… as soon as the owls left, the bats returned with a vengeance. Just then, bats swarm the cave and attack the Owls. Batman removes the armor as the owls drop due to being frozen.
One of the Talons tries to escape, but Batman runs him over with the Batmobile. Alfred wants him to stay and recover… but The Dark Knight sees an ‘Owl Signal’ in the nightly sky and heads out.
It is now 8: 36 PM and Batman is on the road. Alfred informs him that the Talons are out attacking important figures all throughout the city and that the Bat-Family is taking care of them. The only ones he sees nearby are Jeremiah Arkham and Lincoln March. Bats decides to head over to rescue Arkham first… and this is where we go into Detective comics # 9.
After his battle at Arkham Asylum, Batman arrives to help March. The Mayoral Candidate pulls a gun and calls out Bruce Wayne. Bats is surprised, and March shoots down the Talon. Batman sees the Talon drop, and then tends to March. Lincoln has already been stabbed by the Talon and tell Bats he has a message for Bruce Wayne. He gives Batman a paper with some names of people he investigated that might be in the Court of Owls. He dies shortly afterwards. The fight between Batman and this particular Talon took place in Batman Dark Knight # 9
Alfred notifies Batman that the Talons have been contained by the members of the Bat Family. Batman reads the list March gave him and says he knows where the Owls live now. “They came to my house…now I’m going to burn theirs to the ground.” Oh yeah. It’s on now.
My Opinions-
This was a weird way to do this. Basically this comic begins with Batman fighting off the Talons in his house, then rushing off to rescue Jeremiah Arkham in Detective # 9, and then trying to save March in Batman The Dark Knight # 9, and then back to this comic to see what happens afterwards. I assume this is done so that if you don't care about the tie-ins and crossovers, you can just buy the Trade Paperback for the Batman comic and still get most of the full story. I mean, all you need to know is the Bat Family helped fight the Talons across the city and they all obviously won as Batman continues to deal with things from his end.
I'll be covering Detective and The Dark Knight, and then we'll get back to this as we wrap up the Court of Owls storyline. It seems the annual is not exactly the aftermath, but it does seem to follow shortly after all of this is over.
We'll continue with Batman's adventures that happened in the middle of this issue. I have to say, it would be a hell of a fun challenge if someone were to cut up all these issues and somehow rearrange the pages in chronological order, never mind the clash in art styles. Most of the critical scenes have time stamps, and the Batgirl issue had the Owls set up the Owl Signal, which Batman sees now, and Bird of Prey have Batgirl fix it. It would be a challenge, and an interesting TBP if someone released it that way, at least chop this comic up with Detective and Dark Knight in the middle.
The Court of Owls have unleashed their army of Talons upon the city, and they've started to storm Wayne Manor. Alfred send the call out to several members of the Bat Family including Nightwing, Batwing and the Birds of Prey, while Batman himself has to protect his home from the Talons.
This one is going to be kinda tricky since this comic actually takes place before and after the Night of Owls. His adventures will continue in Detective comics and an event that happens in Batman Dark Knight overlaps with the events of this issue. The first time I reviewed this I actually split it up to review half the comic, then the crossover stuff and then back to the events after the Night of Owls ended. This time I'll just review it normally but be sure to read my reviews on Detective # 9 and Batman Dark Knight # 9 to get the full story.
Back to the present, Bat-Iron Man continues to fight off the Talons as Alfred works on dropping the temperature of the BatCave. Bats tears into the undead assassins, but eventually he is taken down. The Owls try to tear into his armor, but luckily… a dinosaur stomps on the Owls. It seems the model dinosaur we always see in the background of the Batcave is an animatronic.
However, even with the dinosaur’s help, the Owls continue to overwhelm our hero, and are about to stab through the helmet. Alfred warns that Bruce may black out at any moment, but he still refuses any help. He then remembers that even when his ancestors got rid of the bats… as soon as the owls left, the bats returned with a vengeance. Just then, bats swarm the cave and attack the Owls. Batman removes the armor as the owls drop due to being frozen.
One of the Talons tries to escape, but Batman runs him over with the Batmobile. Alfred wants him to stay and recover… but The Dark Knight sees an ‘Owl Signal’ in the nightly sky and heads out.
It is now 8: 36 PM and Batman is on the road. Alfred informs him that the Talons are out attacking important figures all throughout the city and that the Bat-Family is taking care of them. The only ones he sees nearby are Jeremiah Arkham and Lincoln March. Bats decides to head over to rescue Arkham first… and this is where we go into Detective comics # 9.
After his battle at Arkham Asylum, Batman arrives to help March. The Mayoral Candidate pulls a gun and calls out Bruce Wayne. Bats is surprised, and March shoots down the Talon. Batman sees the Talon drop, and then tends to March. Lincoln has already been stabbed by the Talon and tell Bats he has a message for Bruce Wayne. He gives Batman a paper with some names of people he investigated that might be in the Court of Owls. He dies shortly afterwards. The fight between Batman and this particular Talon took place in Batman Dark Knight # 9
Alfred notifies Batman that the Talons have been contained by the members of the Bat Family. Batman reads the list March gave him and says he knows where the Owls live now. “They came to my house…now I’m going to burn theirs to the ground.” Oh yeah. It’s on now.
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| Man, 2012 feels like such a distant memory.... |
This was a weird way to do this. Basically this comic begins with Batman fighting off the Talons in his house, then rushing off to rescue Jeremiah Arkham in Detective # 9, and then trying to save March in Batman The Dark Knight # 9, and then back to this comic to see what happens afterwards. I assume this is done so that if you don't care about the tie-ins and crossovers, you can just buy the Trade Paperback for the Batman comic and still get most of the full story. I mean, all you need to know is the Bat Family helped fight the Talons across the city and they all obviously won as Batman continues to deal with things from his end.
I'll be covering Detective and The Dark Knight, and then we'll get back to this as we wrap up the Court of Owls storyline. It seems the annual is not exactly the aftermath, but it does seem to follow shortly after all of this is over.
We'll continue with Batman's adventures that happened in the middle of this issue. I have to say, it would be a hell of a fun challenge if someone were to cut up all these issues and somehow rearrange the pages in chronological order, never mind the clash in art styles. Most of the critical scenes have time stamps, and the Batgirl issue had the Owls set up the Owl Signal, which Batman sees now, and Bird of Prey have Batgirl fix it. It would be a challenge, and an interesting TBP if someone released it that way, at least chop this comic up with Detective and Dark Knight in the middle.
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