Batman: Night of the Owls

[espanolbot]

So here's the big Bat Family crossover of the year, and it's being orchestrated by Scott Snyder, so it's bound to be awesome judging from his previous and current output. :)

The first backup, in issue eight will give a sense of the terrifying scope of the Court of Owls' attack on Gotham. This really will be the first shot in a war for the soul of Gotham City," said Snyder. "And then, starting in issue nine, we'll begin a three part story called 'The Fall of the House of Wayne' that will investigate the secret history of the Court of Owls and its relationship to the Wayne family – particularly to Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce's parents. The story will be told from the point of view of Jarvis Pennyworth, Alfred's father, and offer some big surprises and shocks about the forces that shaped the bat-mythology as we know it. Can't wait for you all to see these stories!

"I'm also excited to be co-writing with my friend, James Tynion IV, a young writer I'm extremely excited about. Especially in the spirit of the New 52, it's a real thrill to get to give someone new and talented a chance to get his foot in the door, and James is a writer to watch and expect great things from!"

"And of course, I'm over the moon about getting to work with my good friend and AMERICAN VAMPIRE co-creator Rafael Albuquerque on the some of the very first ones!"

Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/09/batman-night-owls-snyder-rafael-albuquerque-crossover/#ixzz1j07SfuhY

Covers for the story which are also very pretty,






It being a crossover that involves the Bat Family that involves Scott Snyder, I'm going to add my standard hope that Cass or Steph will make an appearance, though I'm getting a feeling that they've been put into a crowd of "Not to be used" characters at the moment, like the non-Darkseid New Gods. Still, here's me being hopeful. :)

Comments

[q99]

Question (since I haven't been following the story): Is there a stated reason why they and Batman are only starting to run afoul now? When you've had the world's greatest detective share turf with a conspiracy for years...

[mrstatham]

Snyder has had Bruce return to Gotham after a period away and start pouring money into making 'his' city a better place, from what I recall. Presumably, this has put him in the Court's sights. That, and thanks to an investigation he performed as a kid, Bruce doesn't believe the Court exists, seemingly.

[q99]

Well, I'm always kinda iffy when a hero finds an active ancient conspiracy on their turf, but at least he set it up well :)

[mrstatham]

To me, that's kind of the best part; Not only did they have to target Bruce Wayne first for him to start investigating them, I think - which kind of averts the problems I had with Morrison's BatGod knowing about Jezebel Jet being a part of the Black Glove for some time in their relationship - because he saw no traces of them as a kid, which kind of plays with overconfidence that I don't think we see too often in Batman. That's interesting in itself, because the 00's were filled with loner-Batman stories who preferred to work alone, but he never seemed overconfident.

But the most interesting part is that the Court's solely interested in dismantling Bruce Wayne, not Batman, which is an interesting inversion itself, especially after we had Doctor Hurt seemingly interested in destroying the Waynes, but then he turned out to just be the host for some dark cosmic mamajama unleashed by Darkseid. So.. Yeah.

[sistermagpie]

I like that it's not only overconfidence but there's a whole emotional thing to it, iirc. He was looking for them to provide an answer to his parents death not being random.

[mrstatham]

This too. I don't think Snyder plans to change the Joe Chill aspect of the murder of the Waynes, but I like the concept of the Court as kind of a boogeyman thing that Bruce would've heard of as a kid - maybe he and Tommy joked about it or something - searched for, and then disregarded entirely when he found nothing and finally accepted that the fact his parents' murder was random. And that the random aspect of the crime was important enough that he became Batman to stop it happening to others.

I think Snyder's bright enough to recognise that, really - the importance of Joe Chill as just some guy, rather than it being a big conspiracy.