Batman #9 Review

Batman #9

Written by: Scott Snyder; Back-Up Story Written by: Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV

Art by: Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion; Back-Up Story Art by: Rafael Alburquerque

Issue title: “Night of the Owls”

Summary

The issue opens with Bruce, in his “Iron Giant” Batman suit fighting off like 10 Talons in the Cave. The Cave’s temperature is steadily dropping so that the Talons will slow down and be unable to fight back eventually. He is throwing out the freezing batarangs and taking down Talon after Talon. But then the Talons fight back and knock him down(!). They’re about to kill him, when the giant T-Rex comes to life(!!!) and begins stomping on them. Ha! Sure, those Owls might be able to fight Bats, but can they fight T-Rex’s??? The Talons stab the armor and are about to kill him, when a horde of bats fly out and somehow that scares the Talons and confuses them enough that he can kick their asses enough so that Alfred can come out and put a serum in their blood stream to keep them “on ice.” One Talon begins to escape, but Bruce hops in the Batmobile and knocks him out. We find out that all around the city, the majority of the Talon’s targets have been killed, but Robin, Nightwing, and the rest of the Bat-family are fighting to protect the city. Apparently there are two targets that are unprotected but still alive: One is Jeremiah Arkham & the other? Lincoln March, Bruce’s new friend and Gotham mayoral candidate. Apparently if you read Detective Comics #9, you can see Bruce defending Arkham from the Talons, but they skip ahead to when Bruce goes to help Lincoln. He walks into the room, Lincoln shoots a gun, and we realize he shot a Talon in the head that was about to kill Batty-Boy. Lincoln has a message for Bruce Wayne, which is that he found several names of the Court members, but he dies soon after since he was stabbed with a knife by the Talon. Bruce declares that he is going to take the fight to them now. The back-up story was all about Jarvis Pennyworth (Alfred’s dad) and how he came across the Talon and how it was hunting him down. The story ends with the Talon of his time standing above him, knives at the ready.

ThoughtsThis issue was really good. The first half was almost entirely fighting, and then Bruce went and found Lincoln about to die and this time, Lincoln saved Bruce’s life from a Talon. The art was amazing as always. I was sad to see Lincoln go, but I suppose that it’s just even more motivation for Bruce to fight. I cannot wait for next month’s issue, as always. This issue gets a 9.5/10.

Alfred: “Master Bruce. The Talons have been contained. I have news on the other assassination attempts, as well.”

Batman: “I know where they live, Alfred.”

Alfred: “But, sir—”

Batman: “They came to my house…now I’m going to burn theirs to the ground.”

Batman is such a fuckin badass!

Check out my review of Green Lantern #9 and my many other Opinions, Reviews, and Previews here on OPR. Next week, I will have reviews for Justice League #9 and in two weeks I will have reviews for The Flash & Teen Titans #9.