Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls
Written by Scott Snyder
Pencils by Greg Capullo
Inks by Jonathan Glapion
Colors by FCO
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
DC Comics
Release Date: May 9, 2012
Cover Price: $24.99

Batman: The Court of Owls is a deconstruction of Batman and Bruce Wayne’s vision of Gotham City. The DC Relaunch provided a landscape in which writers and artists had a way to completely recreate characters and the DC Universe as a whole into their vision. Scott Snyder doesn’t exactly do this. The Court of Owls works as both a perfect starting place for new readers to comics as well as experienced readers who have kept up through the Grant Morrison saga and Snyder’s work on Detective Comics. Characters created and explored during that time period are even featured in the opening pages of this book, so it’s not a title that completely ignores its past, which, whether on purpose or not, parallels the concept of this book. And this book is quite simply a masterpiece.

In Court of Owls, Scott Snyder tells a story of how the past of Gotham City, a past unbeknownst to The Batman, has come to haunt The Dark Knight in a way that no one, other than Snyder, could have ever imagined.

Hello all and welcome back to Comics of Doom, your home for all the latest and greatest in comic book news and reviews! On this week’s episode, co-host Chris McDavid makes his triumphant return as the boys talk about their opinions on all the latest news in the world of comics. Joining them this week is friend of the show Chris Eaton, who gives his thoughts on the quality and effectiveness that the recent DC Relaunch has on the lapsed comic book reader.

But wait, there’s more! The guys also give their thoughts on Rachel Rising, Key of Z, Justice League Dark, and the Wolverine and The X-Men animated series. So, make sure to press play and experience the Comics of Doom podcast!

DC Comics announced on Thursday that they would be setting up the second wave of “New 52” releases while also canceling six ongoing comics that were released in the initial run of the DC Relaunch.

Resting in peace are six comics that were quite good and enjoyable or had a lot of potential to be great, so they will definitely be missed. Those comic books are Blackhawks – a war comic focusing on a group of militaristic mercenaries in the vein of G.I. Joe; Hawk and Dove – the only DC book written by the extremely talented Sterling Gates with art from Rob Liefeld (more on him in another article); Men of War – a war book that was one of my favorite comics of the relaunch that took a realistic approach to the military in a world full of superheroes; Mister Terrific – one of the very few DC comics with a person of color as the leading role. Also, the main character was highly intelligent and, interestingly enough in a comic, atheist. O.M.A.C. – this to me is a tragedy considering that it was a fan favorite even in the light of poor sales. Sure it’s bizarre and nutso, but it was a complete blast to read. And finally Static Shock – one of, if not the only book that could be considered “youthful” and “fun,” and also one of the few books starring a person of color. All of these titles will see their last issues in April.

DC Comics announced today that its recently relaunched title Detective Comics by writer/artist Tony Daniel is getting a fourth printing, which makes it the second “New 52” series to get this many reprintings.

So people really like this run of Detective Comics, huh? Well, I’ve gotta say that even though I wasn’t expecting much from the series, I’ve been really impressed thus far. And so if you’ve missed the Tony Daniel-conducted Detective Comics train, you’ll be getting another opportunity to catch it.

Since I’ve been reading comics I’ve always leaned toward Marvel’s more grounded real world approach to storytelling. That doesn’t take anything from DC’s more sci-fi approach; Marvel’s books were just my preference. Marvel’s characters seem of the era in which they are written and they live in real cities and deal with real issues, whereas DC’s characters live in fictional cities and even though they go through real drama, it always felt like it happened through a generally less gritty existence. Hardcore DC fans may disagree with me and that’s fine. After all, this discussion is from a Marvel fan’s perspective and as a Marvel fan this has always been my perception of DC books. I have read some DC. I’ve always been a fan of Green Lantern, Action Comics, the Justice League and the grittiest book in DC’s line up Batman.

I was one of the few people excited about DC’s New 52 because I felt this would be my opportunity to jump back into the DCU. I’ve tried off and on in the last few years, but DC’s books aren’t really that inviting to the “jump in”, even at the beginnings of story arcs. I know many readers are opposed to Marvel’s use of recap pages, but those would be really helpful for readers hoping to jump into a DC series. At any rate, these so called “soft reboots” seemed like the place to jump in. I read my favorites from my youth: Justice League, Action Comics, and Green Lantern. I also checked out Legion LOST.