Court of Owls

A clandestine organization older than Gotham City that decides to take it over. However, to succeed, they will have to face numerous obstacles. One of them is Bruce Wayne A.K.A Batman.

Origin
The Court of Owls is a secret organization centuries old with immense power and influence embedded into the very architecture and history of Gotham City. The court would select a trained and strong athletes taught by the Haly's Circus, and the few chosen ones would become their Talons (assassins). In fact, Dick Grayson was supposed to one of their Talons, as we find out later in the Night of Owls story arc, but, fortunately, Bruce adopted him, before the disaster could happen. The myth of their existence has been past down for generations in an old Gotham nursery rhyme, which reads: Beware the court of owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadow perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the talon for your head. ==Talon== Talon is a comic detailing the life of Calvin Rose, a former escape artist for Haley's Circus, and an escaped assassin for the Court of Owls. When he given the task of killing an innocent woman and her daughter, Rose decided to flee, and has been on the run ever since.

After hearing of Batman's encounter with them, Rose decided to return to Gotham City in order to see if the Court of Owls was defeated. When he is injured by one of the Talons, Calvin is rescued by a man named Sebastian Clark, who is also an enemy of the Court. Together, they decide to go after the Court of Owls, and stop them once and for all.

In their first mission together, Calvin goes the Orchard Hotel, where the Court's treasures are kept. His aim is to find the files on the two women he protects, but Sebastian wants to destroy the organization's financial status, as by doing so, the Court would be weakened. Rose expected to find the files in a safe, but instead he discovers a mask, belonging to the Orchard family. At that moment, Benjamin Orchard attacks Calvin claiming that the mask belongs to him. The Ex-Talon, finding himself at a weak spot against one of the Court's greatest warriors, blows up the treasure area, only before fleeing the location. Meanwhile, the Court of Owls notices the trouble Calvin is causing them, therefore they wake up Felix Harmon, the 'Gotham Butcher', in order to kill the only man ever to flee their clutches.