Talon #1 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

So I picked up Talon #1 today. I’ll tell ya, my expectations were high as a kite before Talon started. Then Talon #0 hit, and they went into low orbit. Now Talon #1 is out, and I gotta be a little honest with ya folks, it’s not as awesome as I though it’d be. It’s BETTER. 😀

Escape from the Court of Owls!

First off, I just gotta get this outta the way: I REALLY like Calvin Rose. The guy’s so awesome. He’s had such a tragic past, and yet he can still get in some nice one liners. I think probably my favourite scene of his thus far is when he climbs out of the car he was tied up in during Talon #0, takes out the Talon that attacked him, and says “Now I’ll only ask this once. WHERE THE HELL ARE MY PANTS?” And he looks like he’s supposed to be intimidating, but there’s just something about his choice of words there that make me double over in laughter every time.

Anyway, getting back to this comic, Calvin Rose is returning to Gotham shortly after the events of the Night of Owls crossover event. Apparently he’s checking to see if the Court is really gone or not. Not so much, it seems, when he trips a security system in a haunt of theirs and a Talon attacks him. He manages to disable the Talon, using some tricky techniques expected of an escape artist turned assassin, but collapses and is taken in by a man named Sebastian Clark. Sebastian says that he’s been monitoring Calvin as well as the other members of the Court, both current and former, and knows that the Court is in serious retreat mode, but that they are healing and will be back stronger than ever unless they are taken out before they can regroup. Thus Calvin is recruited as the one Talon against the Court of Owls, as they have been sentenced to die. ‘Course, the other Talons are already the walking dead, so I don’t really see a problem with that.

“Where do we start?”

Final thoughts: THIS. WAS. AWESOME. Is it the greatest comic I’ve ever read in my life? No. Does it have to be? Also no. Was it an enjoyable experience that I can’t wait until next month’s issue? Hell yeah. The only question this leaves me is when we’re gonna see THE crossover, because with Scott Snyder writing Talon AND Batman, it’s only a matter of time. Mind you, it’s best that he doesn’t pull the trigger on it right away, better to build up Talon a bit more before they cross paths, but when they do, it’ll be awesome, guaran-damn-teed. Ja né!

Batman Incorporated #4, WARNING – SPOILERS

…Holy CRAP! Okay, I’m not gonna give a complete synopsis of the comic, just so you can read for the nitty-gritty details, and so I can talk about the bombshells dropped here.

Wingman & Red Bird – The New Dynamic Duo

So Batman Inc. #4 features a MASSIVE battle between Leviathan’s forces and a ton of Batman Inc.’s top members, including Nightwing, Red Robin, Batwing, Hood, El Gaucho, Wingman, and Damian under the alias of Red Bird. Meanwhile, Batman in the guise of Matches Malone, manages to free himself and is NOT happy to see Damian present and fighting alongside Wingman. However, they all pull together and stop Talia‘s group, ending with Batman demanding to speak with Talia and try to negotiate a stop to this.

Meanwhile, Damian has figured out who Wingman really is. I won’t say who it is, but let’s just say that at least a few people guessed it. Damian is pissed that Batman didn’t tell him and would actually enlist this man, but quickly pieces together that there’s something more he’s not telling him, something terrible. Batman finally relents, spilling the beans. He’s been trying to deny himself this truth, but the fact is that they’ve been put in an inescapable position where Damian MUST return to Talia, or something horrific will happen, not just to them, not just to Gotham, but to the entire world. Again, won’t say what, just gonna give this hint: 666.

But yeah, Batman Incorporated continues to be awesome, and we’re starting to get more hints as to what apparently happens to cause the events we see from one month in the future from #1. I can’t frigging wait to see where it goes from here, and it saddens me that I gotta wait a month for the next issue. Oh well, life of the comic book fan. Ja né!

Related articles

• ‘Batman, Inc.’ No. 4 first look: Morrison, Burnham deliver action (herocomplex.latimes.com)

Where are the old reviews?

Well, it happened. YouTube sent a second strike my way, meaning that my channel is now one strike away from being taken down. As a result, in order to protect my channel from being taken away, I have now removed every last one of my videos that had any kind of copyrighted content whatsoever, including all of my reviews that were on the site.

Luckily though, I still have them saved to my external hard-drive and was planning to eventually release them all onto Blip anyway. Until then though, any and all links to the old reviews and several of my other more well known videos like the Goseiger Zords To The MMPR Theme and Ghiraham is F***ing Creepy  are officially GONE. Thank you so-called believers in fair use.

Going to grab this comic today. Will give my thoughts on it after work.