Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls (The New 52)

by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo (Illustrator), Rafael Albuquerque (Illustrator)

Overview

For over a century, the Court of Owls has ruled Gotham City in secret—their reach inescapable, their power unstoppable.

Until they battled the Batman.

Gotham's vigilante protector managed to escape the talons of the Court with his mind and body barely intact. The Dark Knight managed to win the battle with his deadly new aggressors, but certainly not the war. Batman was just the first part of their conquest. Now they have their sights set on something much bigger: Gotham City. 

A critical and commercial smash, Batman: The City Of Owls (collecting Batman #8-12 and Batman Annual #1) continues the instant-classic saga of the Dark Knight's battle with Gotham City's oldest and darkest forces from the #1 New York Times best-selling creative team of writer Scott Snyder (American Vampire) and artist Greg Capullo (Spawn), plus an array of talented guest contributors!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401237783
Publisher:	DC Comics
Publication date:	10/15/2013
Series:	Batman
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	35,994
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Scott Snyder is the bestselling and award-winning writer of Batman, American Vampire and Swamp Thing as well as the short story collection Voodoo Heart.  He teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College, NYU and Columbia University. He lives on Long Island with his wife, Jeanie, and his sons Jack and Emmett.  He is a dedicated and un-ironic fan of Elvis Presley.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Scott Snyder's Batman: Court of Owls Vol. 1:

“A+. The hero's got personality (and is unafraid to release a quip as sharp as a Batarang), a horde of supervillains, gumption to spare and a whole host of high-tech gadgetry to suitably impress longtime fans and those new to the Dark Knight.” —USA Today
 
“This is one of the best comics of the week.”  —The New York Times
 
“[Writer Scott Snyder] pulls from the oldest aspects of the Batman myth, combines it with sinister-comic elements from the series’ best period, and gives the whole thing terrific forward-spin by setting up an honest-to-gosh mystery for Batman to solve.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
“Scott Snyder, already the company's greatest asset over the last four weeks, spins a stack of plates immediately…. Too often Batman comics focus heavily on the hero persona … Snyder sets up equal amounts of conflict for both Wayne's public and private personas.” —Time Out Chicago
  

From the Publisher

This six-issue collection concludes the first arc of the recently relaunched Batman series, pitting both Bruce Wayne and his chiropteran alter ego against a murderous secret society known as the Court of Owls, whose sinister roots snake through Gotham City's history--and several generations of the Bat family. Still recovering from his encounter with the Owls' assassin, a Talon, Bruce Wayne suddenly finds his home and secret lair under siege by dozens of undead Talons--preserved and revived thanks to a serum developed by Mr. Freeze. The storyline springs out of DC Comics' New 52 initiative, which softly rebooted the entire DC Universe in 2011, so Snyder's (Swamp Thing, 2013) intertwining of new (though the owl-as-opposite-of-bat concept dates back to 1960s Justice League of America, the Council of Owls didn't exist prior to New 52, despite their centuries-spanning history) and old villains (though Freeze himself gets a minor modernization to creepazoid) is a smart move, immediately grafting the Owls onto established Bat-lore. The battle with the invading Talons reveals a larger Owl plot to slaughter 40 prominent citizens of Gotham as a show of the Court's dominance over the city. To thwart the pogrom, Wayne family stalwart Alfred Pennyworth sends out a call to arms to all members of the Bat family, and those threads are played out in the Night of the Owls crossover event (not collected here). In the aftermath, Batman tracks the Owls to their nest--only to face a new foe with an impossible link to the Wayne family. Unfortunately, this link is hammered (yammered?) home by page after page of running dialogue between Batman and this new Owlman (though he's not explicitly named within the text) as they bash and smash and wrestle into the heavens. This overabundance of exposition near the end stifles both Snyder's inspired plotting and Capullo's (Haunt, 2011) deft sequential art; despite their uncanny ability to resemble the work of Todd McFarlane, John Romita Jr. and J. Scott Campbell, all within a short span of panels, Capullo's illustrations have an irresistible dynamism, which is nearly overwhelmed by a froth of word bubbles. A worthy continuation of a cherished legacy, hampered by a bloated denouement.

Kirkus Reviews

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