Batman And Robin #23.2

The Team

Writer James Tynion IV Artist Jorge Lucas

 

James Tynion IV, current writer of the Talon series writes this stand alone issue focusing on the Court Of Owls. When Scott Snyder left the plot thread of the court dangling in Batman the rogues were in complete disarray. Hopefully going forward he can flesh out a new angle on them, while still respecting the current level of continuity set in place. Talon has shown how expansive this idea can be over a set amount of time. The idea of Nightwing like characters populating agents of the court has been expertly utilized by Tynion in the character of Calvin Rose. The establishment set in the underground parts of Gotham have been stretched to their very limits in the form of this Batman adversary. Talon recently had a fairly large plot twist when Bane entered the story, to which the quality of the title was vastly improved.

 

The best compliment that I could possibly give this book is that it feels like Scott Snyder penned the script. Like Snyder did with this same concept, Tynion took the mythology back to the beginning and shows readers how far this can be stretched. There is also more justification here detailing why and how this secret organization could have existed this long. This is one of the rare instances of a Villain’s month title that seems to be completely justified by the addition of this story chapter. This is a wide organization that features a bevy of interesting characters waiting to be explored. Tynion goes back and forth picking some of the most interesting stories to illustrate how this group of antagonists can be scary throughout the span of time. Some tales within the narrative flesh out some of the characters, while others show the influence of the group over the city. Nonetheless this was a widely successful installment of Talon repackaged as something different.

 

The art of Jorge Lucas is exactly what was needed for the book. The moody all black backgrounds shows off the sinister nature of The Court Of Owls. The dark lettering present in all of the stories is made more sinister in this one, because of the bleak nature in the title. The colors of Dave McCaig really add to some of the strange natures in the story, the classical moments for instance have a slightly different color scheme than the rest of the comic. The scenes set in modern times feature a color set that readers of McCaig would be more used too. Some of the art in this issue is very uneven, which is odd because there is only one penciller and no inker credited. The answer as to why the art looks so different is differentiated in the duality in the classical scenes versus the modern ones. There are some truly gorgeous pages here, along with ones that do not quite reach the potential of the art.

Jorge Lucas and James Tynion IV make the most this story illustrating some of the dangerous inner turmoil plaguing the current state of the Court Of Owls.