Hey howdy! glad to have you join in! I would have liked to have seen more of the underground situation flesh out more as well. The more I think about it, I like the idea of the conclusion with the court being spread out more. It would have been cool to have him fail to bring them down around the first act, then have Bat’s get distracted with other villains with the court being behind it all, having not yet figured out Bat’s true identity. Then have the big showdown at Wayne Manor once his identity was revealed in a epic fashion. By the way, next week we will be reading the second half of the story!
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Ok thats a great point! Gosh, I was so into the story and loving Talon that I didn’t even think about how he could possibly be on his fourth Robin! 
That is a bit of a speed bump and now I can’t think about it!
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I agree with everything you said! Your arc suggestions sound amazing. Wish they’d gone with that. Definitely can’t wait for next week to see what happens next!
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Thanks. yeah I had never thought about it until y’all mentioned it. One of the great things about the book clubs is getting to dissect the comics. The folks here really know there stuff as well. I’ve learned a bunch from AlexanderKnox, BatJamags, & Jay_Kay. I actually love when folks rip into a story, even if its one I like. It’s always fun to rip on stuff you love. It’s like Batman has his own ScreenRant Pitch meeting channel. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the second half! 
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I like the story okay. The fact that this is where Bats is in his career and they still take him by surprise makes the Owls even more of a threat. I do think it would have been cool if their legend has ever been mentioned before, though.
I love the artwork. Capullo is just amazing and fun to look at. You can definitely see McFarlane’s influence on some pages, but that’s a good thing.
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Finished it up this morning and I have to say, I do think this story definitely holds up and I feel it definitely earns it’s modern classic status.
While I get some of the criticisms, like Bruce’s stubbornness, some of the sillier gadgets, and really the ham-fisted way they revealed that Dick was being groomed to be a Talon, none of it for me was bad enough to say that the story itself is bad, if that makes sense.
I really liked Bruce’s story here. I guess you can say I tend to like Bruce when he is a bit flawed, and can be blinded by his trauma and ego in ways that can make him screw up – but what makes those stories great isn’t just the fall, but as the second part of this will show, it’s seeing him wise up, pick himself up, and get back in the fight better than ever.
@ralphsix, to be clear, when I talk about the McFarlane influence, I don’t mean it as a bad thing. What I mean is that when I look at his artwork from even later on in this arc and especially now in books like Last Knight on Earth and the previews for Death Metal, he feels like he has his own style. It’s been pretty cool to see him evolve and grow as an artist.
Speaking of that, one of my favorite parts of this book artwise is how Capullo draws the maze and Batman’s fight and escape out of it. The way he draws the scale and the gnarliness of all the characters, bouncing back and forth between reality and Bruce’s addled headspace was so good.
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There are a lot of Batman stories, this one is very unique to me and will stand out in my memory. It comes across as more horror than detective story. I read All Star Western which directly ties into this so it was fun seeing how the old West Gotham ties to the modern. I absolutely want to read issue 8. The story had a lot momentum. I loved the art.
I always love seeing Bruce with all the Robins. Dick as the Joker was a cool and fun twist.
Glad to have finally read this!
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Glad you enjoyed it JL. It is one of my favorites. The horror aspect is what really made it work for me. Having never believed the court was real and then discovering their secret rooms to how suspenseful and disturbing things were while in the maze, it had me hooked. Have never read All Star Western, will have to check it out. This week we are finishing the second half of the story so if you get around to them swing back by!
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Yeah I really like Capullo’s art as well. I felt it was a perfect mix of realistic and a cartoonish look. Not good at describing art but it was suppose to be a compliment.
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Yeah I think this story holds up as well. I hadn’t read it since it came out and finished it a few days ago. Even knowing what what going to happen the issue where he discovers the cavity rooms on the 13th floor and the following issue in the maze was still a page turner for me. I love a flawed Batman as well it just makes for a better story. Seeing him competent and kicking butt is fun as well but these kind of stories are more suspenseful for me.
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Yeah, Bruce hallucinating his parents blind and decrepit, lost in the maze only to see them explode into violent owls was…oof, that was hard to read.
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Man, court of owls was my introduction to Capullo! His batman is still top on my list to this day. LOOOOVED this book. Also… he’s an awesome guitar player as well haha.
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So…very late to this thread but I made a post that I was reading it and it led me here so…here I go casting Raise Dead on it.
My initial thoughts on it were that I quite liked it. Snyder developed a fairly interesting plot (though overwritten- he overstuffed the speech bubbles at times.). Capullo is a great talent that fits Batman very well, especially the moody atmospheric compositions. I liked the mystery inherent in the court.
However- Issue 7 made me do a complete 180. The reveal made in the last pages falls prey to George Lucas-ish “everything is connected/related” syndrome. I mean, I’m already straining the suspension of disbelief enough to believe that, in any continuity where Batman has been operating for more than a few months, he doesn’t know about the massive city-wide conspiracy. But “Oh, Dick, your great-grandfather was a reanimated assassin for this conspiracy AND SO WERE YOU” just made me throw my hands up. That’s stupid. That’s…just so laughable to me. I’m pretty sure Dick isn’t even from Gotham, he just happened to be there when Tony Zucco killed his parents.
As an Elseworlds, I would be fine with this. As a mainline continuity I’m like…what? I don’t know what to feel.
I seriously feel like I’ve been trolled by these 7 issues. I can only think of a quote from game reviewer Ben “Yahtzee” Crosshaw right now:
“It’s like having a big tasty meal at a nice restaurant, but when you ask for the check, the chef comes over and farts in your face.”
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Oh, just wait. Just wait until you get into the second part of the arc:
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I’m currently deciding if I’m enough of a glutton for punishment to continue or if I should read/do something else for awhile. I feel like I need a palate cleanser, but at the same time I feel like I’m now prepared for things to slide deeper into the mire of silliness.
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Oh, you might as well tear off the Band-Aid now. Just be prepared for the most soap opera-y twist since that time that Bob Haney gave Bruce Wayne a long-lost brother in the 1970s (which all of the other writers of the era immediately and deliberately forgot).
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May as well jump in. One of my favorite Nightwing quotes is spurring me to just go for it.
“Up here, fear’s not an option. You can fall sixty stories or slip in the shower. Worrying about it’s a waste of time.”
So here I go.
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@KingOfTheWickerPeople Thanks for stopping by and sharing! I love a good ripping into a story done well! Have you by chance ever watched one of those Screen Rant Pitch Meeting videos on youtube? I’m sure he’s done one a movie you like or at the very least seen. They’re solid and hilarious!
@AlexanderKnox, a straight up savage, thank you good sir.
I feel like Snyder kinda did this with the whole Martha kept him at that hospital/orphanage and that’s where Bruce and him have a showdown. Was that Night of the Owls? Gosh it’s only been 9 months since I reread that story and can’t even remember I do remember being a little annoyed with the tie-ins and wishing they would just give us a good version of this story. Give us an actual anthology of the Court from it’s beginning to now, told from the perspective of the talon and/or head owl of that era.
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