The Court of Owls are perhaps the most important new Batman villains of the modern era, and now a new comic is redeg their greatest assassins for a Gotham City horror story. As Bruce Wayne faces his Lovecraftian counterpart in this new terrifying story, he’ll also come face to face with a new version of the Court of Owls’ Talon, who looks very similar to another villain who’s his equal and opposite.
Looper recently provided a new preview for Christian Ward’s Black Label miniseries Batman: City of Madness. This preview reveals the first look at the redesigned Court of Owls assassins the Talon, reimagined in this alternate universe to look more like Batman’s dark opposite, Owlman.
As an evil Lovecraftian version of Batman stalks Gotham, Bruce will have to team up with the Court and their Talon in Ward’s striking horror take on the Bat-mythos.
The Talons are the Court of Owls' Secret Weapons
Introduced in Batman vol. 2 #2 written by Scott Snyder, penciled by Greg Capullo, inked by Jonathan Glapion, colored by FCO Plascencia and lettered by Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt, the Talons are themselves a horror concept, able to raise from the dead thanks to the alloy known as Electrum. It’s only natural then that the Talons would play a large role in Ward’s story, which is inspired by both the works of seminal horror writer H.P. Lovecraft as well as classic Batman stories like Batman: A Serious House on Serious Earth, written by Grant Morrison, penciled, inked and colored by Dave McKean and lettered by Gaspar Saladino.
This new Talon Bears a Striking Resemblance to a Classic Bat-Villain
Ward’s sketch of his Talon design draws a deliberate comparison to one of Batman’s most famous opposites, Owlman. Depending on the iteration, Owlman is either an alternate universe counterpart of Batman from Earth-2/Earth-3 or a Court of Owls Talon who claims to be Bruce’s long-lost brother Thomas Wayne Jr. (Introduced in Batman vol. 2 #1 by Snyder, Capullo, Glapion, Plascencia, Starkings and Betancourt) By deg City of Madness’ Talon to look like Owlman, Ward is adding another dark mirror to Batman to his tale. Bruce now isn’t just facing down one evil version of himself, but two.
One of the most interesting things about the Court of Owls themselves is how they quickly evolved past their initial origin to become more Lovecraftian in regular Batman continuity. As initially introduced, the Court did have the ability to resurrect the Talons, but this ability mostly fed into the metaphor of the Court being an entrenched generational rot in Gotham. However, by the time of Snyder and Caullo’s Dark Nights: Metal, the conception of the Court had evolved to be far more horrific, with the revelation that they worshiped the demon Barbatos. What remains to be seen however is how this history intersects with Christian Ward’s new Lovecraftian take on both the Court of Owls and Batman.
Batman: City of Madness #1 will be available October 10 from DC Comics
Source: Looper
