Not only is Batman one of the coolest heroes around, he also has the most interesting rogues gallery. There was a line before about choosing your enemies wisely because they define you. While Batman doesn't necessarily choose his villains, they do play a large role in making his comics one of the best around. It doesn't matter how great a superhero is if they don't have interesting villains to fight.
Batman might be the world's greatest detective but it's starting to look like he might be just a little too confident in how great he is. In the 'New 52' issues of BATMAN, a new threat has appeared in Gotham City and Bruce Wayne has been targeted. There is talk of a secret organization but Batman refuses to believe in their existence. The reason being he investigated them early on and found no evidence of them.
Batman will soon discover that even he doesn't know every dark secret belonging to Gotham City. The Court of Owls has been a part of an old folk song in Gotham and Batman refuses to believe they exist. He is going to be in for a surprise and it could turn out to be a deadly mistake. (There will be some minor spoilers to BATMAN #3).
== TEASER ==Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the Talon for your head.
If the Court of Owls does exist, what's the big deal? They just seem like another group of typical bad guys trying to make a name for themselves in Gotham. What we've been seeing is there is more to them than just that.
To begin with, it's not Batman that is targeted but rather it's Bruce Wayne. To Batman's surprise, a killer manages to enter Wayne Towers unseen. When Bruce Wayne is able to discretely put up a fight, he discovers his opponent is more of a match than he imagined. When the battle shifted to outside the Old Wayne Tower window, the fact that Talon was able to survive the fall suggests there is much more to him than just an average assassin.
But Bruce Wayne has been targeted before. This isn't anything new.
During the fight in issue #2, Talon mentioned he loved killing Waynes. This didn't make sense to Batman but he discovers that Alan Wayne, his great, great-grandfather, had developed a severe paranoia about birds. He felt they were conspiring against him. His focus soon shifted towards owls. That's simply too much of a coincidence.
It's mentioned how Alan Wayne eventually died. Because it was 1922, how much attention was given to the investigation? Is it possible that the Court of Owls were responsible for the death of Alan Wayne? Why else would the modern day assassin mention he loved killing Waynes.
That leads to another question. In a conversation with Alfred, they mention that no Waynes in the last fifty years died suspiciously. If Talon had killed a Wayne before, how old is he? Does he possess some sort of longevity or is it just a guy wearing the suit, channelling the essence of the guise of Talon, the killer?
To make matters worse, there is an insinuation that the Court of Owls has always been in Gotham. If this is true, that means they've been able to hide in the shadows away from Batman's investigating eyes. Batman thought he knew everything there was to know about Gotham. Harvey Bullock put it best at the end of issue #1.
...My view is, when it comes to Gotham, you don't know it, brother. It knows you. And the moment you think otherwise, the moment you get comfortable...that's when it stabs you right in the back.
The idea of the Court of Owls hiding under Batman's nose is a scary idea. They and Talon aren't just some crazed villains dressing up in kooky costumes. There is a lot more going on here than Batman knows about. For someone like Batman to be in the dark...that really makes it clear how much of a challenge they will be. Batman's able to rely on his contingency plans he comes up with against his known enemies (and allies). If there's a group working against him and he doesn't know anything about them, there's no way he can be fully prepared.
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