REVIEW: Talon, Volume One: Scourge of the Owls

PLOT: As a young performer with Haly's Circus, young Calvin Rose was secretly being raised to be a master assassin--a killing machine called a Talon. The Talons have always served the mysterious Court of Owls, a group of wealthy individuals who will stop at nothing to maintain their grip on power in Gotham City. When Rose defects from the Talon's ranks, he is marked for death and spends the next few years using all his training to hide from his former masters. After years on the run, Rose finally returns to Gotham City following the horrors of "The Night of Owls." He'll set off to investigate what remains of the Court of Owls, but will he be able to gain his freedom at long last?

REVIEW: Scott Snyder has proven at this point that not only is he a great writer for Batman, but he is also a great writer of comics in general with a title like Swamp Thing as evidence. I mostly picked up this volume of Talon because I know that Snyder is a quality talent, but also because it's Gotham oriented and I can't turn down anything Batman. This book plucks a character from Batman's Court of Owls storyline Calvin Rose, and follows him as he seeks revenge on his former group of Owls when he realizes that Gotham may have been emptied of his personal demons. The main reason I like this book so much is that it's dark, which is something that Scott Snyder has rarely shied away from in his writing. He is able to take such a comical world and turn it into something darker and deeper than it ever has before. It's one main reason that the New 52 Batman is so great and has become a new standard for the Batman comic books. Calvin Rose is a Talon of the Court of Owls, which if you aren't familiar with, may require some reading of Snyder's Batman to get an introduction to. The evils that the Court of Owls is capable of committing are atrocious and really personify a villain that can strike the fear into characters in a book, as well as the reader at home. Talon yet again proves that Snyder is a mainstay in current comic writing, and can do much more than just Batman, even though this predominately takes place in Gotham City. This is much recommended to fans of the New 52, Batman in general, and possibly Pink Floyd's The Wall because the Owl masks are just too reminiscent of it to ignore.

WRITING : ( 9 / 10 )

ARTWORK : ( 9 / 10 )

STORY : ( 9 / 10 )

COVERS : ( 9 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 10 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 9 / 10 )