All set? Ok let's get right into the official begging of "Night of the Owls"!!
Batman #8 - "We're in the HEART of your house, Bruce! The House of Wayne! And of BATMAN!"
"Night of the Owls" officially kicks off with a bang! A heart-to-heart between an injured and subdued Bruce Wayne and the ever-faithful Alfred is interrupted when an ARMY of Talons invades the mansion!! Bruce has been nearly killed several times in the last bunch of issues by a SINGLE Talon. Now we have a multitude!! This is not good...
Luckily, while Bruce may not be at his best physically, his brain is still working. He leads the Talons on a chase through mansion and Bat-Cave, giving both himself and Alfred some space to move, and then he quickly suggests a tactical retreat into what may be the most useful room around...the Bat-Cave Armoury!
The thing about this book, and the Talons and the Court of Owls...the thing about it is, it's so creepy and urgent and threatening and familiar all at the same time...it's just unsettling. I don't remember when I've been this interested or this creeped out by a comic book story, EVER. Maybe Neil Gaiman's Sandman back in the day...Great Work DC!
We are also treated to a back-up story this issue that will continue and follow Alfred if the rumours are true. For this issue it continues directly off the main story. In part one here, Alfred manages to decode a list of targets from one of the Talons and call all of the Bat-Family in for back-up! I don't know if they'll be in time to save him though. Oh, this story is titled "The Call" but the overall story ark is called "Fall of the House of Wayne"! Like I said above...Unsettling!
Of course it doesn't stop there! More Owls after the JUMP!
Nightwing #8 - Right away there's something strange about this comic as instead of Nightwing narrating it, it follows a creepy black-outlined voice telling the story of a beggar boy from olden days (specifically, 1910 Gotham City!) who knows how to juggle. This goes on for a few pages until suddenly we switch to present day Nightwing. Continuing right where Batman #8 left off, he's just received "the Call" from Alfred and been told where the Talons are about to strike. He immediately races off to protect the Mayor, who's busy being all political with some other politicians, as mayors are wont to do...
Anyway, the narrative switches back and forth between Nightwing and the beggar boy, whom you quickly realize is a Talon himself, as his narrative bubbles match that of all of the Talons. This particular Talon gets to tell us his story! However, there could be even more to it than that. A circus is involved...
It's a cool narrative twist and it's interesting to think of the Talons having such history and memories, and yet also being little more than undead monsters! Not really dead, but hardly alive! Fascinating....
Catwoman #8 - Selina and her new boy toy Spark are sneaking into a mansion through a swimming pool vent, giving Catwoman a chance to show off her bikini. And that's just page 1. They're on a merry romp to steal an ancient set of 5 daggers which are worth a butt-load of money I guess except Oh no! There are only four! No worries, Selina knows where the fifth one might be kept. She seems to remember having spotted it in the lair of a short, flightless Arctic bird...
Speaking of birds, there's a interlude involving the Court of Owls. They're discussing some of the targets to be included for assassination in "Night of the Owls". One of their targets? The Penguin...
Oh while Catwoman and Spark are running around looking for daggers, they also Paws to investigate the disappearances/murders of some prostitutes that look pretty disturbing. Mrow. Seeds for the future, as nothing gets solved this issue...
Did I just channel 60's Catwoman there for a second? How odd...
Birds of Prey #8 - Did Dinah "Black Canary" Lance murder her husband?!?! Some secret government spy agency seems to think she did! Now said agency is fighting the Birds with modified soldier/cyborg freaks specifically designed to counter each of their styles! It's an interesting strategy but will it be effective? Black Canary, Batgirl and Katana sure seem to have their hands full! But where are Poison Ivy and Starling??
Well it seems that while all this is going on, Starling has decided to infiltrate this apparently not-so-secret agency to learn the truth about this heinous murder charge! Seems she has some ties or at least good Intel on this place. She gets her answers here, but they don't seem to make her too happy.
As for Poison Ivy? I didn't see her in this issue outside of the cover art....but everyone seemed to EXPECT her to be around! She must be SOMEWHERE, right? Perhaps we'll find out next month when the Birds of Prey run smack dab into (you guessed it) Night of the Owls!!
So that's it for this week! Stay tuned though, cause tomorrow's new comic day, and while I'm sure there'll be more about the Owls in Batman The Dark Knight we also get to continue "The Culling" in Teen Titans and there's a certain scarlet speedster and a certain aquatic adventurer as well! Oh and of course the Man of Steel....can't forget him! See ya next week! Peace!
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