On the "Night of the Owls"

I like to think of the "Night of the Owls" as the part of a good date that doesn't go so well.  You meet, you have a great time grabbing a drink, you have a fun conversation over dinner, and you decide to keep the date going.  But, it's a bad idea.  You don't really have anything in mind, so you spend some time wandering the streets looking for a place to go.  The conversation dies down a bit as you search, because the first bar was too loud, and the second bar was too quiet, and you start to worry that maybe you don't have as much in common as you thought you did when you were exhanging hilarious anecdotes from your childhood.  One of you mentions that s/he has an early meeting, and you realize that you really need to find a great place to save the date, to have one last drink and one last laugh to make sure that everyone leaves the night feeling OK about it and guaranteeing that you'll make it to the second date.

At this point, I have a morning meeting and Scott Snyder is trying to find that great place.

I loved "Batman" #1-#7.  I thought that Snyder told a gripping story that kept the reader guessing by revealing little information about the central plot itself.  He hinted at dark conspiracies, of centuries' old shadowy organizations, of diabolical intrigue that strikes at the heart of the Wayne family.  He managed to do it without engaging in cheap theatrics to keep the story going in an artificial manner.  It was some of the tightest writing I've ever read in a comic book.

But, "Night of Owls" might have been a narrative step too far.  It has extended the story to the point where the questions about the motivations of the Court and its ties to Gotham need to be answered for anything to make sense.  I've read through my previous reviews, including those for "Batman" #1-#7, and I feel like Snyder, in fairly short order, has to answer these three questions:

1) How did the Court manage to stay in the shadows?  Snyder spent a good part of "Batman" #1-#7 proving that the Court had actually been working in the shadows for generations, but we've never gotten any sort of explanation of how it managed to remain so.  How did it escape Bruce's notice?  Moreover, how did it escape anyone's notice?  We learn that at least two Talons had been seen by other people, as seen in "All Star Western" and "Catwoman" #9, and at least two had to kill a lot of people to cover their tracks, as seen in "Batman:  The Dark Knight" and "Batwing" #9.  Did it really manage to escape detection if so many Talons screwed up their assignments?  I mean, those four Talons probably represent a decent chunk of the last few Talon generations.  It seems like someone would stumble onto something leading to the Court at some point.  Moreover, it raises the additional question of how it intends to stay in the shadows after the "Night of the Owls?"  You have to assume at this point it no longer cares about staying in the shadows, since, even if it killed everyone on its hit list, someone with authority in Gotham would survive to investigate why 40 of its elite citizens were killed in one night.  So, Snyder not only has to answer the question of how it managed to stay in the shadows, but what it plans on doing now that it clearly can no longer stay there.

2) We need to address whether or not the Court did, or did not, know Bruce's identity.  Let's take the "It didn't know" category first.  First, we have the Talons' clear shock in "Batman" #8 that Bruce was Batman.  However, it makes sense that the Court wouldn't necessarily tell the Talons everything, so I don't think that piece of information confirms or challenges any suppositions.  Second, as seen in issue #5, Bruce believes the Court didn't de-mask him while he was trapped in its labyrinth as a way to prove how irrelevant he (and his secret identity) was.  It's implied there that the Court didn't already know his identity.  However, that argument could pretty easily be dismissed as Bruce trying to ignore the obvious, not believing that the Court knew his identity.  Now, let's review the "It did know" category.  First, it seems pretty clear to me that the Court knew Dick's identity as Nightwing all along, since he was supposed to be a Talon.  In fact, issue #7 contains hints that part of the Court's anger at Bruce is the fact that he denied it its Talon.  I mean, if the Court paid any attention at all to Dick after he came under Bruce's wing, it would know that he's Nightwing and Bruce is Batman.  (If Tim Drake do the math, the Court could.)  Second, as I mentioned in my review of issue #8, I find it hard to believe that the Court would've sent the sheer volume of Talons after Bruce if it didn't know that he was Batman.  Looking at the evidence, I feel that the "It did know" category has WAY too many points in its column for it not to be true, but I also feel that Snyder has cast enough doubt over the answer that he's going to need to definitively address the issue, one way or another, for me to feel satisfied.

3) The identity question may seem like continuity-nerd obsessiveness, but it's not, because at the center of this entire saga is the question of the Waynes' connection to the Court of Owls.  Were they part of it?  Were they enemies of it?  Did the Court kill Bruce's parents?  Was Bruce supposed to be a Talon?  Snyder has in part built the story on the connection that Bruce's family has to the Court, so the issue of the Court knowing his identity (or not) is no small question.

For this saga to be a success, to my mind, Snyder has to answer these three questions.  The "Night of the Owls" proved to be more or less a distraction from getting these answers.  Instead, it was clearly a way for DC to capitalize on the success Snyder had on this title by getting people like me to buy more issues.  Fine.  I accept that.  Let's say that DC is the old college friend who actually just happened to be at the noisy bar where Snyder and I went after dinner.  It talked and talked about the old days, while Snyder got uncomfortable that the friend was going to reveal too much and I got bored listening about their fraternity antics.  We finally left, but then we went to that quiet bar, and now we're pounding the pavement trying to find a place to go where we can try to recover our mojo.  My feet hurt and I really just want to go home so I can get a decent night's sleep before my morning meeting.  But, until the old college roommate appeared, I was having a good time, so I'm willing to give Snyder a chance.  I'm willing to look past 'Night of the Owls" and let Snyder shine again.  But, to do so, he has to answer those three questions.  Then I'll let him take me on a second date.