Batman: The Court of Owls Saga Review
New 52 Introduces us to an all-new Batman in a freshly rebooted universe. But what's new isn't always shiny and cool. Let's talk about the first arc of New 52's Batman run per the Compact Comics editions which contains the first 11 issues.
I would like to say that I didn't hate the story, but there were a lot of problems I had that made it feel more of a jumbled mess than cohesive. A lot of elements of the characterizations, the concept of the Court of Owls, and the general vibe of the story were a lot of fun. I enjoyed many of those aspects and things surrounding them.
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Unfortunately I felt this story a little underwhelming, but that could be an effect of hearing a lot of the hype about this story.
I don't mind the concept of the Court of Owls, but they weren't even the main villains of their own story. Maybe because it's hard to make a group of people a target for Bruce especially since they don't even fight. It's not necessarily like other villains where there's a "head honcho" with a gang of subordinates, instead it's vice versa. I think the mystery of the Court in the first half of the story does a lot of heavy lifting for my engagement, but it wanes heavily once the veil gets lifted. The become such non-players in this story it felt baffling.
Having their muscle, Talon, fight with no real substance rang hollow. I felt it unclear whether they were zombies on puppet strings or was just groomed/influenced to follow the Court's orders. It seemed almost like both was the case, but they rarely got enough attention for either of those scenarios to really be explored.
Not to mention some random weirdo (Lincoln March aka Thomas Wayne Jr aka Owlman??) be the surprise main villain was kind of annoying. New "allies" introduced with new villains is always an obvious red flag (as per Hush lol), but this reveal felt the most left field to me. His character feels so dumb, and I guess he's unpopular because I don't think he's ever really relevant even ~15 years later. I definitely much prefer the named "Lincoln March" over Thomas Wayne Jr. I think it would've felt more poetic for him to identify more with the streets he "died" on then a name that wasn't ever officially given to him (plus it sounds cooler). I definitely hate the whole "long lost sibling" trope used here. I think it can be good if used right, but it didn't feel like the case here.
A better reveal could have him be the real leader of the Court by either using the Talon technology to be effectively immortal or his family line was secretly the head throughout generations. Once he becomes head, he could've thought the Court's secretive nature was ridiculous which is what would make him decide to be more public now. He's whole "the enemy of my enemy is.... also my enemy" approach felt very random and chaotic too. At the end of the day he was just a kid throwing a fit, which even if that was the point it didn't felt satisfying.
Side things:
Don't feel like this arc was interesting enough to start a rebooted universe run. Like this story didn't have a big shiny "wow" factor and felt more like a generic Batman story with some minor changes to adjust for New 52.
Felt weird to have 3 Robin boys show up, but only really as gratuitous cameos instead of actual supporting characters.
I liked Dick's moments in the story, but he felt like he was there just to give Bruce some pep talks every so often
