Because you’re watching this video and I’m narrating it, it’s reasonable to assume that you and I are both aficionados of the superhero genre. As two fans of superheroes, we’ve encountered a slew of villains, some crafty like the Joker and others all-powerful like Darkseid. However, the DC world has lately introduced a new bunch of villains to its vast list, and they are the most intriguing villains I’ve seen in a long time.
These people are known as the Court of Owls, and they are made up of Gotham’s most well-connected, wealthy, and old families. From afar, it may appear like Gotham functions due to its politicians, cops, and Batman. Some could argue that the criminals have complete authority over Gotham.
All of these people, including Batman, are puppets in the Court of Owls’ grand game, which has been going on since before Gotham even existed. The members of the Court wear ghastly owl masks and gather in secret rooms to decide the fate of Gotham and their list of foes to be executed.
The Court of Owls creates super assassins known as Talons, who are sometimes reanimated humans, and every owl is required to have talons. The Court of Owls was created by Scott Snyder and first featured in the 2011 comic book series The New 52. It quickly became a favorite of everybody who had the opportunity to read it.
In fact, in a recent interview, Robert Pattinson stated that his Batman should confront the Court of Owls. So, before we go into the New 52 story arc featuring the Owls, we’ll introduce you to this smart, wicked, and sadistic cabal in this video. Let’s get this party started, shall we?
The Court of Owls’ Origins
Anyone who knows Batman is aware that the city of Gotham is plagued with all kinds of crime and the most unique criminals who can go to any extent to see their plans come to life. While some remain hidden behind masks, others show their faces to the world. But the Court of Owls, which later started calling itself the Parliament of Owls, was probably the most secretive and most powerful organization in the entire history of Gotham.
In fact, stories about The Court of Owls date back to a time when Gotham didn’t yet exist, making the organization older than Gotham itself. In reality, the Court was a faction that splintered from the Tribe of Judas, which in turn was a cult that worshipped a bat deity from the cosmos called Barbatos. Back in the day, they were of the opinion that their deity Barbatos could be summoned if a person was chemically altered using five cosmic metals. It wasn’t long before they started to harvest the metal Electrum from the depths of Gotham.
Interestingly, Electrum itself was formed from an element called Dionesiusm, which had several regenerative properties. With the help of Electrum, the Court of Owls then started to create superhuman mercenaries and assassins called Talons. These assassins would eliminate anyone whom The Court of Owls deemed dangerous for their plans and criminal activities. These Talons would be groomed from a ripe age at facilities such as Haley’s Circus, which was the same circus to which Dick Grayson belonged before Batman adopted him.
The Talons had various methods of eliminating their targets. However, in the initial days, they would take their victims to the underground labyrinth of the Court, and torture them with drugged and poisoned water or simply left them to wander amidst all the nothingness. In the end, a Talon would mercilessly kill the target in the act of mercy killing. That’s some twisted poetic injustice if you will.
Assassination on assassination and years after years, the members of the initial Court of Owls became wealthy and powerful, so much so that the oldest houses and families of Gotham were started by the first Owls. By the time they were done, the members of the Court of Owls had consisted of Gotham’s most well-connected and wealthiest families, who used their sphere of influence and power to turn the course of politics and control the city as per their own designs. As would have been expected, they were always in close rivalry with the Wayne family.
In fact, Bruce’s great-great-grandfather, Alan Wayne, was tortured to death by the Court of Owls. The Court members almost always dressed in white clothes and often possessed owl paraphernalia such as pictures and architecture. Oftentimes, they even carried live owls under their clothing. So, how is it that an organization from the early fifteenth century was still remembered by people in the 21st century? Well, the legend of the Court of Owls was carried forward by a nursery rhyme.
It read as, “Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadow perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they’ll send The Talon for your head.” And as Tyrion Lannister once said in the final episode of Game of Thrones, “There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it.”
Batman’s First Encounter With The Court of Owls Most Amazing Story Arc
Knife Trick
Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, and Dick Grayson are present at Wayne Manor, where Bruce is about to make some major announcements about the future of Gotham city and its development. Bruce announces several infrastructural plans such as the improvement of the public transit system, restoration of the derelict architecture, etc. At the gala, he meets Lincoln March, the city’s mayoral candidate. While Bruce attempts to convince March of the cause of Gotham’s development, he notices Commissioner Gordon acting tense over some work call. Bruce being Bruce uses his specialized contact lenses which help him lip-read Gordon.
He learns about a gruesome murder that had taken place downtown. He excuses himself from the gala, dons his cape, and heads to the murder site. The crime scene was being overseen by Detective Harvey Bullock, someone who’s known in the DC universe for having a questionable sense of morale and ethics. Nevertheless, Batman walked into the rundown apartment and found a John Doe, who had been pinned to one of the walls with a number of antique knives.
Each of the knives had an owl engraved on its handles, but on deeper inspection, Batman found some tissue underneath John Doe’s fingernails. Clearly, the victim must have put up a fight before succumbing, and Batman sent the samples for investigation. The room itself was filled with all kinds of paintings and reeked of painting supplies, but amidst these, he found a very distinctive odor.
He could smell linseed oil, which was commonly used by painters to thin the paint, but the peculiar thing about the smell was that it was too strong and way more than an experienced painter would use as a paint thinner. Batman ignited the wall, which burst into flames to reveal a shocking message which read, “Bruce Wayne will DIE tomorrow.”
Batman and Detective Bullock concluded that the man on the wall knew about an assassination attempt on Bruce Wayne, and wrote the message on the wall to warn him. But whoever was targeting Wayne, had to be an inside man, or else they wouldn’t be able to bypass Bruce’s high-end security. To make things worse, Batman got a call from Alfred informing him that the tissue sample found in the dead man’s fingernail belonged to Dick Grayson.
Trust Fall
The following day, while Batman pursued a few high-profile thieves, Gordon examined the John Doe’s body at the morgue. He contacted Batman, who created a holographic projection of the corpse in his Batcave. Batman noticed that the corpse had several defensive scars on the face and hands, and hearing this, Gordon was quick to conclude that the dead man was someone who trained fighters.
Furthermore, they found an Athenian Owl engraved on one of the teeth. Gordon was quick to assume that all of this had something to do with the legendary Court of Owls, but Batman refuted the claim. Right after Batman’s conversation with Gordon ended, Grayson recognized the body and told the caped about the man. The man was warning Dick Grayson about a group of people coming after the Wayne family.
Naturally, this explained how Dick’s tissue landed in the man’s fingernails, and Dick was ruled out as a suspect. Sometime later, Bruce met with the mayoral candidate Lincoln March. The eccentric billionaire offered March money for his campaign, but the latter refused, claiming that all he needed was Bruce’s support and vote.
Apparently, March felt that the two men had a lot in common, especially in the manner that Gotham saved them both by giving them a purpose in life. March then warned Bruce about the arrival of a powerful and evil ancient force, but before he could disclose any more information, the old Wayne Tower got attacked by a masked assailant.
The attacker threw a knife toward March, Bruce came between the owl-inscribed knife and March, only to catch the knife in his own arm. In the fight that ensued, Bruce got pushed out of the window, and the assailant soon followed, where he revealed how he loved to kill the Waynes. However, the assailant fell to his apparent death as Bruce held on to a gargoyle. While he was being transported by an emergency response team, the attacker rose from the dead and killed the team and the driver before driving away.
When The Clock Struck 13
Not wasting any time, Batman reached a Ukrainian mob boss named Luka Volk, who was the leader of a gang that thrived in the rail tunnels. Batman knew that the attacker must have used these tunnels to bypass security, and there was no way he’d be able to enter and exit without his knowledge of Luka. Unfortunately for Batman, Luka didn’t know anything about the attacker, and Batman had to let him go with a warning. Batman returned to the Batcave and examined the voice recording of the attacker, but couldn’t find any matches on his system.
Alfred told him that no Wayne had died a mysterious death in more than fifty years, but Batman was sure that the attacker was somehow connected to the Court of Owls, albeit he didn’t have proof or even an incident that he could investigate. Soon, Alfred revealed the story of Alan Wayne, Bruce’s great grandfather, who had become obsessed and paranoid about owls, and believed that owls were going to kill him.
However, he had died after falling down a drain pit and drowning. Later, when Bruce visits March at the hospital, his suspicions about the existence of the Court of Owls become stronger, and March reveals the owl-related threats that he had been receiving. He also tells Bruce that the Court had chosen to reveal itself to Bruce because of his plans to transform Gotham.
Bruce has an epiphany about how owls simply steal the nests of other birds instead of making their own, and goes to investigate the space between the twelfth and fourteenth floors of Old Wayne Tower because Alan Wayne had removed the thirteenth floor owing to a superstition.
He finds a room filled with high-end weapons, training equipment, and a suit like the one his attacker was wearing. He further investigates all the buildings built by Alan Wayne Trust for Assisting Young Architects and finds similar rooms in all the buildings. But these investigations proved to be seemingly fatal for Bruce because one of the buildings he was investigating exploded, with Bruce inside and a Talon watching the explosion from afar.
Batman’s Obsession
Batman barely manages to escape the explosion by firing his grapple into a thin wall before disappearing into the night’s darkness. Back at Batcave, he is found resting, and Dick Grayson is fascinated on seeing his mentor, not at work. Everyone was worried that Bruce had been overworking, and because of this, Alfred had drugged Bruce’s drinks to force him to rest. Nevertheless, Bruce soon woke up and told Dick all about his research on the Court Of Owls after the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne.
It turns out that a younger Bruce had asked his father about the Court, but Thomas had shrugged off their existence. But there had been signs, like an owl nest in Wayne Manor’s attic. After his parents’ death, Bruce destroyed the nest and killed the owls. He began his investigation and started looking into Gotham’s elite, only to find out that they all met at a private club that had an owl as the club’s crest.
He snuck into the club and found a secret room. Not only was it empty, but Bruce had tripped a booby trap that trapped Bruce inside for seven days. Had it not been for Alfred, Bruce’s obsession with disclosing the Court of Owls would have killed him. That day, he learned that emotion and working on a case didn’t go hand in hand.
Later, Batman heads to the place where Alan Wayne had drowned, but this proves to be one of Bruce’s most terrible mistakes, at least for the time being. A Talon appears behind Bruce and knocks him down. Later, he wakes up in the labyrinth and finds himself in the custody of three people wearing owl masks.
The Owl Tortures the Bat
Eight days pass by and Gordon can not find Batman; despite that, he keeps the Bat-Signal turned on to keep reminding criminals that Gotham’s protector is out there, but also to remind the poor and destitute that Batman protects them. Batman finds himself trapped in a maze with no food or water, the only source of water before him is a huge owl-shaped fountain, but he wouldn’t dare drink from the water, because he’s rightly afraid that it might be drugged.
He travels from one room to another, often finding the haggard images of the people who lost their lives to the maze and sometimes finding a thousand names of the members of the Court of Owls. Batman’s sanity begins to dwindle because of his solitary confinement in a room full of dark secrets. While he battles his mental state and hallucinations, he’s secretly being watched by a Talon.
He soon begins to think that his own legend is nothing compared to that of the Court, and how they have a much worthier claim over Gotham than his or his family’s. However, there’s still some life in his resolve. He’s not completely lost, at least not yet. Having said that, his hallucinations begin to worsen. For instance, he sees his parents as an elderly couple, and hugs them, only for them to turn into owls.
His state kept worsening by the minute, and tired of listening to the story that the Court of Owls wanted him to listen to, he begins shouting at the peak of his voice. What he didn’t see was a Talon approaching him from behind and sticking a knife in Bruce’s stomach. Once again, the Talon had shown mercy in the most merciless of ways. Back at the Gotham City Police Department Headquarters, the bulb of the Bat signal exploded because of overuse; all this seemed nothing less than an omen. Was Batman really dead?
What Lies Under the Ice?
Despite the weakened and unstable hero of Gotham being stabbed, his miseries hadn’t come to an end. The Talon brought Bruce before the Court and asked what should be done next to the Batman, their greatest and most honorable foe. The room filled with cries of torture, people were shouting various methods which could be used to torture the fallen knight. However, one little girl holding a doll shouted that he should be given more pain and killed slowly, and the Talon took it as his commandment.
As the Talon beat Batman with all his savage force, Batman’s eyes caught a glimpse of a picture of his ancestor, Alan Wayne. In the picture, old Alan was begging the Court of Owls to spare his life, and this sight was enough for Batman to overcome all his pain and internal injuries. He had to avenge his family members, who had been killed by the Court. It wasn’t before long that Batman was giving a tough fight to the Talon, while the members of the Court began to flee with their lives.
He warned the Court of the consequences, and how he knows his city down to its very soil and water. Batman learned that the labyrinth was somewhere close to Gotham river because he smelled specific minerals from the owl fountain. Furthermore, he noticed that the room was made of white marble and was rich in potassium chlorate, a combustible compound. Bruce used the Talon’s blade to create friction, which caused a spark, and a large explosion on the floor of the room. Bruce managed to escape the room through the hole and into the depths of the freezing Gotham river.
Later, he is found by a little girl named Harper Row, who revives Bruce with her makeshift defibrillator. Somehow, he reaches the gates of the Batcave, where Alfred helps him. Somewhere else, the Court of Owls reanimates a dead Talon using Electrum, the life-giving metal. As Batman prepares himself to face the Court of Owl once and for all, the Court is at work. The members are reanimating more Talons and preparing an army of Talons, with the intent of clutching the Bat and feeding on him. What will be the fate of Batman and Gotham?
Well, if you have gained enough interest, I am sure you’d be happy to learn more about what happens next. You can read the story in 2011 comic The New 52.
What Makes The Court Of Owls A Sinister Cabal?
Well, to begin with, the Court of Owls is a sadistic cult that takes pleasure in torturing their enemies; but what makes it worse is the fact that not just adult men and women, but children as little as ten years old with dolls in their hands, command that their enemies be tortured. Often, the Court of Owls delves into an infestation of buildings and water supply to spread fear and panic.
This is similar to what Ras Al Ghul wished to do in Batman Begins. However, he and his men never killed an innocent man, let alone torture them with sadistic intent. As I mentioned earlier, the Court of Owls drags people to their labyrinth to give them a slow death. While they’ve slaughtered thousands in this manner, many from the Wayne family had lost their lives to these beasts.
Alan Wayne’s photograph just before his death moved and motivated Bruce to pull himself together and fight the Talon that was about to kill Bruce. They had attacked Gotham several times and were almost always on the verge of annihilating it. No matter how many times Batman fought and destroyed the Court, they always seemed to strike back after reforming their organization.
Terrifying Version OF The Court Of Owls In Media
Being a fairly new set of villains, the Court of Owls hasn’t appeared in many TV shows or movies. However, we’ll introduce you to all the major appearances they’ve made on the screen. The Court appears in the Gotham TV series in seasons two and three. Among the notable members were Gordon’s uncle Frank Gordon and Kathryn Monroe. In fact, the show also portrayed Talons. In the show, the Court aims to destroy Gotham, and Gordon temporarily joins the group to learn their secrets and plans. In the third season, they conspire to weaponize the blood of Alice Tetch.
However, all the court members are killed by a Talon, who condoned the killing of Thomas and Martha Wayne at the hands of the Court. The Court also appeared in the animated film Batman vs Robin, in which the Talons were trying to persuade Robin to join the Court. In fact, according to the comics, the Court of Owls believed in the prophecied birth of the greatest ever Talon by the name of Gray Son, now this is interesting because Dick’s surname is Grayson.
So, what did we learn? Well, the Court of Owls may be a new group of villains that Batman has to face, but they are certainly a force to reckon with. They are an entity that truly knows how to live in the shadows. I mean, Batman can learn a trick or two from them. And even though they worship a bat-like entity, they seem to have no qualms about killing Batman. We truly hope that one day we’ll get to see Batman fighting the Court of Owls on the big screen.