The whole mystery behind the court of owls is gone now, and I cannot stop to wonder how the potential is not really fulfilled, even if this action-filled event is an entertaining enough read that showcases the whole bat-family in excellent fashion. ( )

I was originally going to give this 2 stars, as I found the stories to be disjointed, and at the same time, annoyingly repetitive. However, it got a bit better for me as I continued through. I suspect that most of these would be better in their own context. ( )

Sometimes crossover events work well and sometimes they don't. This mostly did - Batman, Nightwing, Red Robin, Batgirl, Batwing, Catwoman, Birds of Prey; they all work well together, but what the hell is this Red hood and the Outlaws crap? I didn't know anything about this character, though I know who his two sidekicks are. Worse than not knowing who he was, I didn't know why he said or did anything that he did and the whole tone of the sotry didn't fit with the rest of the book. I would say read the book but skip this one section, except it sets up something major. Go figure. They should have just had a one-shot about Alfred. :) Other than that, this was a very good read and an interesting way to fill in a lot of history for Gotham City. ( )

That was a little confusing to follow. Mostly because it jumped from time to time both within the night of the Owls as well as all through the years too. It was just so jumpy and there just wasn't a thread to follow through the TPB.

But, as long as you mostly ignored the times (and sometimes the dates) the TPB turned into a very readable collection. Basically the Court of Owls' assassins, the Talons, are unleashed on Gotham City to kill a lot of the prominent citizens and Batman and his 'family, Batman International has to take them on.

All the stories were interesting. Especially the Batwing and Robin ones. I also really liked a different and interesting take on Mr. Freeze backstory too.

I even liked the art. Each of the Talons' costumes were similar and yet also different, which was cool.

A solid TPB for sure, four stars. ( )

I must admit that I am not the most-qualified person to review a Batman graphic novel from a fan perspective. I don’t think I’ve read one since Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns.’ But I did quite like that, and was interested in giving this a try. (Thus, I entered the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway – THANK YOU Goodreads!)

However – this volume just did not capture my interest. I don’t feel that it worked as a unified narrative. It’s a collection of a number of comic books which take place on a single night, when a cabal has planned a number of assassinations of Gotham’s prominent citizens. (Plus a few historical episodes thrown into the mix.) Unfortunately, it rather feels like each team of writers was assigned an episode, given only a tiny amount of back story, and then proceeded without communicating with anyone who’d worked on any of the other segments. Both on a stylistic and a practical level, there are jarring inconsistencies.

A great number of the episodes don’t actually feature Batman at all, and there isn’t much depth or development, on any level. I’d have to say this is one for the completists.
( )