It's finally here, the start of Batman's major story arc that will crossover to different members of the bat families comics and what a start it is. Much like the end of he Nightfall series, this kicks off with a weakened Bruce/Batman who is back in Wayne manor trying to rest. The talons attack fast as Bruce and Alfred quickly try to escape, Alfred heads to the bat cave where Bruce tries to fight off each owl member as he can but makes an escape for the roof. Again like Knightfall, Bruce is not wearing the bat suit but a dressing gown and doing his best to fight. Ultimately outnumbered he makes an escape for the chimney and leads to a secret entrance to the bat cave to meet up with Alfred. Unfortunately he is followed and the court of owls find out that it is Bruce Wayne who is the batman. Bruce at this point in time could care less about the court knowing that he is batman, he is just trying to survive.
Locking them self's in a room in the bat cave Bruce opens the door to reveal a new bat suit that that looks a lot like the Ironmonger from he Iron man series from marvel comics. Batman does not fight the court at this time but rather shows them that he cant be hurt. This gives Alfred time to send out a message to the other hero's of Gotham city, and members of the bat family, that He and Bruce have discovered that every major player that shapes Gotham city will be killed and must try to stop it, thus the tie-in begins and we will see this being played over the next few months in different issues of the batman series.
This issue is another near perfect issue from Scott Snyder. It plays out in good pace and you never lose track of the action. Again I would compare it to Knightfall as it has a similar story with some events that take place. It sets up the crossover story arc perfectly and gives the reader a sense of scare that the Court of owls have infiltrated (even the justice league have had a few run-ins with them.) A highly recommend this issue to any comic book fan!
