Villains Month is a feast for fans of evil icons like Joker, Zod and Darkseid. This week Batman and Robin #23.2 Court of Owls stars the malevolent secret society that could inspire fear in the rest of DC’s solo super villains.
James Tynion IV and Jorge Lucas craft a visually and tonally dark stand-alone issue that could be the most terrifying tale of this month of all-star evil.
Exquisite Dread is a chilling tale set in the past and present of Gotham City. 3 stories of poor souls who dare to defy the Court of Owls woven through the current day storyline as the Court reacts to a world in chaos after the death of the Justice League.
Scott Snyder (in Batman and now Tynion in Talon) have created an evil force that works on my mind on so many levels: The Court of Owls are the calm, eerie mysterious strangers in simple but creepy masks that you’ll never see but see and know all about you. The Court is the rich and powerful 1% who think their money really does give them power over the rest of us and they have the best enforcers money can buy to exert their will over you directly or in ways you don’t even know.
What’s truly sinister about this issue is how this works as a story of a father comforting his child amid a scary crisis. Erase the murder and masks and you might even consider this a sweet story of father/daughter bonding. But this family is part of the Court of Owls and that makes this all the more twisted.
In a month of over the top super villainy this is a tale of crime and horror that might even scare Poe. Tynion and Lucas leave you with a startling final image and I dare you not to pick up the next issue of Talon.
By Editor