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Talon #1-2
Talon by James Tynion IV
Read some of the earliest Gotham City stories from current Batman mastermind James Tynion IV, as deadly assassin Calvin Rose seeks redemption—and his freedom from the Court of Owls!
As a young performer with Haly’s Circus, young Calvin Rose was secretly being raised to be a master assassin—a killing machine called a Talon. The Talons have always served the mysterious Court of Owls, a group of wealthy individuals who will stop at nothing to maintain their grip on power in Gotham City. When Rose defects from the Talon’s ranks, he is marked for death and spends the next few years using all his training to hide from his former masters.
After years on the run, Rose finally returns to Gotham City following the horrors of “The Night of Owls.” He’ll set off to investigate what remains of the Court of Owls, but will he be able to gain his freedom at long last?
This collection includes some of the earliest Gotham City tales from current Batman mastermind James Tynion IV, and his The Joker collaborator Guillem March—springing forward from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s instant-classic Batman story, “The Court of Owls!”
Collects Talon #0-17.
SEE LESS
As a young performer with Haly’s Circus, young Calvin Rose was secretly being raised to be a master assassin—a killing machine called a Talon. The Talons have always served the mysterious Court of Owls, a group of wealthy individuals who will stop at nothing to maintain their grip on power in Gotham City. When Rose defects from the Talon’s ranks, he is marked for death and spends the next few years using all his training to hide from his former masters.
After years on the run, Rose finally returns to Gotham City following the horrors of “The Night of Owls.” He’ll set off to investigate what remains of the Court of Owls, but will he be able to gain his freedom at long last?
This collection includes some of the earliest Gotham City tales from current Batman mastermind James Tynion IV, and his The Joker collaborator Guillem March—springing forward from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s instant-classic Batman story, “The Court of Owls!”
Collects Talon #0-17.
SEE LESS
440 pages, Paperback
Published April 26, 2022
About the author
James Tynion IV
1,689 books2,121 followersPrior to his first professional work, Tynion was a student of Scott Snyder's at Sarah Lawrence College. A few years later, he worked as for Vertigo as Fables editor Shelly Bond's intern. In late 2011, with DC deciding to give Batman (written by Snyder) a back up feature, Tynion was brought in by request of Snyder to script the back ups he had plotted. Tynion would later do the same with the Batman Annual #1, which was also co-plotted by Snyder. Beginning in September 2012, with DC's 0 issue month for the New 52, Tynion will be writing Talon, with art by Guillem March. In early 2013 it was announced that he'd take over writing duties for Red Hood and the Outlaws in April.
Tynion is also currently one of the writers in a rotating team in the weekly Batman Eternal series.
Tynion is also currently one of the writers in a rotating team in the weekly Batman Eternal series.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 29, 2025
Great Talon series!
April 8, 2025
This feature story covers the return of Calvin Rose to Gotham City after the events of the master piece 'Court of Owls' by Scott Snyder, Calvin is a failed Talon, who went rogue and escaped his destiny as an assassin, and years after, decides to go back to his city, where fate brings him back to the Owl's game, amid a raging internal feud between the old and new Grandmasters of the court, Calvin is seeking to avenge his past, and the Grandmasters are trying to use him for their own agendas, each side trying to pit him against the other, yet, amid all this, Calvin is doggedly determined to pursue his own path, redeeming himself, and protecting those he love, at all costs.
The story maintains the same level of violence and gore as the Court of Owls, inclusive as well of deep character dilemmas and conflicts. And since this story takes place in Gotham, and built on a Batman adventure, it was only natural to incorporate the world of Batman in the story, but with the right balance of presence that still leaves this as a standalone adventure, a Calvin Rose/ Talon narrative not a Bruce Wayne/ Batman one.
The art and coloring tones are rich, presenting the story in an engaging manner, well done James Tyrion and the team.
MiM
The story maintains the same level of violence and gore as the Court of Owls, inclusive as well of deep character dilemmas and conflicts. And since this story takes place in Gotham, and built on a Batman adventure, it was only natural to incorporate the world of Batman in the story, but with the right balance of presence that still leaves this as a standalone adventure, a Calvin Rose/ Talon narrative not a Bruce Wayne/ Batman one.
The art and coloring tones are rich, presenting the story in an engaging manner, well done James Tyrion and the team.
MiM
May 14, 2022
This was so much better than I ever expected to be. I picked up this complete collection while rereading a lot of New 52 era Batman comics and thought it might be interesting to see where Tynion got started as a writer. I never expected to actually be invested in any of this.
Calvin Rose enters the page as a pretty much fully formed character and I found myself really enjoying him. He’s not an instant classic by any means but he’s an enjoyable lead. A large strength of the book comes from Casey Washington. Calling Casey the love interest is doing her a disservice, she’s as much the star as Calvin. She isn’t killed off, or broken up, or turned evil or any other obvious route to give our hero tragedy. There are stakes but we’re allowed to care about these characters without being punished and see their stories develop and continue.
Apart from obviously the Court of Owls, the book largely stands on its own two feet. There’s a crossover issue with Birds of Prey, and Batman and Bane both pop in and out of the story for a handful of issues. But otherwise, Talon is its own complete story and it builds itself in the first few issues out of its own characters and mythology before going to play with anyone else’s toys - and that gives the book real strength.
There’s a predictability to the narrative a lot of the time but it’s that inevitable tumbling of dominoes that is so satisfying. Very little will shock but a lot kept me on the edge of my seat.
Tynion may be at the start of his career here but its actually some of his best work in my opinion and I rated the complete story here highly. It left me wanting more Talon.
There are three issues also collected at the end to finish the series not by Tynion. A fill in by Marguerite Bennett about the Court choosing a new Talon that was alright but added nothing. Then the series ends with a two parter by Tim Seeley which sees Talon and a friend from the League of Assassins face Lord Death Man and Dr Daark in a nice little epilogue that builds on Tynion’s work nicely.
Calvin Rose enters the page as a pretty much fully formed character and I found myself really enjoying him. He’s not an instant classic by any means but he’s an enjoyable lead. A large strength of the book comes from Casey Washington. Calling Casey the love interest is doing her a disservice, she’s as much the star as Calvin. She isn’t killed off, or broken up, or turned evil or any other obvious route to give our hero tragedy. There are stakes but we’re allowed to care about these characters without being punished and see their stories develop and continue.
Apart from obviously the Court of Owls, the book largely stands on its own two feet. There’s a crossover issue with Birds of Prey, and Batman and Bane both pop in and out of the story for a handful of issues. But otherwise, Talon is its own complete story and it builds itself in the first few issues out of its own characters and mythology before going to play with anyone else’s toys - and that gives the book real strength.
There’s a predictability to the narrative a lot of the time but it’s that inevitable tumbling of dominoes that is so satisfying. Very little will shock but a lot kept me on the edge of my seat.
Tynion may be at the start of his career here but its actually some of his best work in my opinion and I rated the complete story here highly. It left me wanting more Talon.
There are three issues also collected at the end to finish the series not by Tynion. A fill in by Marguerite Bennett about the Court choosing a new Talon that was alright but added nothing. Then the series ends with a two parter by Tim Seeley which sees Talon and a friend from the League of Assassins face Lord Death Man and Dr Daark in a nice little epilogue that builds on Tynion’s work nicely.
September 13, 2024
*4.43 Stars
Notes: This comic follows Calvin Rose, also known as Talon, as more of a grim-dark than typical character with a very tragic backstory, from how his life was written out to be like. This is not going to be a typical review at all, since this is a lesser-known DC Comics character. While I’ll try to explain who he is and what he actually does - as I’ve known of him from past research, I might not get everything typed up. In the beginning, his family was really not a good one to live in which saddened me - his dad was extremely mean to him, much more than on average (going to include trigger warnings for that in advance). Due to that, he eventually ran away and took up a job in Haly’s Circus to occupy himself, as well as to be around more better company. He frequently became good at working in several acts there (including a Houdini escape-type one he had to do) - then he further trained himself as an escape artist later on. Calvin unfortunately had to leave that place, sometime afterwards that occurred, he was taken in by the Court of Owls (who coerced him), where he eventually worked as a Talon - a known skilled assassin assigned to various tasks and missions he had to complete. That’s the best shorter summary I can provide as of right now - however, his character has actually been through many more things than that, so he is quite complex.
This isn’t a simple comic by any standards to read through anyways - that was why I paid as much attention as I could, for around almost two weeks when reading it. While I might try in around two to three paragraphs to describe as much as I can with minimal spoilers, I again might not unfortunately get through everything I had originally planned to. There are a lot of conflicts, so there are numerous side-plots, since there are many villains Talon has to fight against. There are cameos and appearances of other known DC Comic characters that frequent Gotham, such as Batman himself, otherwise I wouldn’t want to include many more potential spoilers for the moment. If someone can understand this well enough - since it’s more on the scarier side and contains extremely unfortunate graphic violence scenes, as well as depicted dark biographies/summaries of events that happened to various fictional characters - this might be a really good story to binge read.
I primarily read this mostly from a Batman hyperfixation at the moment (since it’s about Gotham-related things), so this didn’t disappoint me. However, even while I read this mostly to see what happened to Calvin Rose/Talon as a character and what his life was like (I really am not one to enjoy reading violent things at all), this was still readable enough, even during more descriptive pages. Anyways, I also appreciated the fact that the art style made it better for me to go through maybe 70 pages of this in an hour, rather than 50 pages, from a different reading speed. It did not disappoint me overall, and I would recommend this to those interested in learning more about Talon’s backstory, and later on what actually happens to his character, since that is rather complex in itself.
Notes: This comic follows Calvin Rose, also known as Talon, as more of a grim-dark than typical character with a very tragic backstory, from how his life was written out to be like. This is not going to be a typical review at all, since this is a lesser-known DC Comics character. While I’ll try to explain who he is and what he actually does - as I’ve known of him from past research, I might not get everything typed up. In the beginning, his family was really not a good one to live in which saddened me - his dad was extremely mean to him, much more than on average (going to include trigger warnings for that in advance). Due to that, he eventually ran away and took up a job in Haly’s Circus to occupy himself, as well as to be around more better company. He frequently became good at working in several acts there (including a Houdini escape-type one he had to do) - then he further trained himself as an escape artist later on. Calvin unfortunately had to leave that place, sometime afterwards that occurred, he was taken in by the Court of Owls (who coerced him), where he eventually worked as a Talon - a known skilled assassin assigned to various tasks and missions he had to complete. That’s the best shorter summary I can provide as of right now - however, his character has actually been through many more things than that, so he is quite complex.
This isn’t a simple comic by any standards to read through anyways - that was why I paid as much attention as I could, for around almost two weeks when reading it. While I might try in around two to three paragraphs to describe as much as I can with minimal spoilers, I again might not unfortunately get through everything I had originally planned to. There are a lot of conflicts, so there are numerous side-plots, since there are many villains Talon has to fight against. There are cameos and appearances of other known DC Comic characters that frequent Gotham, such as Batman himself, otherwise I wouldn’t want to include many more potential spoilers for the moment. If someone can understand this well enough - since it’s more on the scarier side and contains extremely unfortunate graphic violence scenes, as well as depicted dark biographies/summaries of events that happened to various fictional characters - this might be a really good story to binge read.
I primarily read this mostly from a Batman hyperfixation at the moment (since it’s about Gotham-related things), so this didn’t disappoint me. However, even while I read this mostly to see what happened to Calvin Rose/Talon as a character and what his life was like (I really am not one to enjoy reading violent things at all), this was still readable enough, even during more descriptive pages. Anyways, I also appreciated the fact that the art style made it better for me to go through maybe 70 pages of this in an hour, rather than 50 pages, from a different reading speed. It did not disappoint me overall, and I would recommend this to those interested in learning more about Talon’s backstory, and later on what actually happens to his character, since that is rather complex in itself.
September 2, 2022
James Tynion IV and Guillem March pool their talents to tell the story of a brand-new Gotham hero in the collected volume of Talon. The tome centers on escape artist Calvin Rose, who has spent his entire life finding ways out of deadly situations. The forgotten orphan recounts his acceptance by Haly's Circus, his subsequent training from the Court of Owls, and his eventual defection when tasked with murder. The 18 issues follow Calvin's return to Gotham, and his search to bring down the Court by any means necessary. During the opening arc, Rose teams with Sebastian Clark as a means of safeguarding his few friends. Attacked by a vicious Talon known as the Gotham Butcher, Rose soon finds that not everything he has been led to believe is true. The battle for the Washington family, Calvin's freedom, and even the heart of Gotham is on the line - all Rose must do is pull off his greatest escape trick ever. Tynion IV does provide a fun protagonist in Calvin Rose, but the majority of the story is stranded in the present dilemma rather than the past history that makes Rose stand out from his fellow assassins. The end result is a cat-and-mouse story that falls flat at times. The supporting cast is sadly unremarkable, and offers little to no gravitas as the chase for the Court unfolds. March's art is stylistic, often lending itself better to the exaggerated figures of the Talons than the more realistic faces and proportions of the human populace. Talon scratches the surface of a new DC hero, but is more of a lame duck than a bird of prey.
June 15, 2024
Talon by James Tynion IV collects Talon issues 0-17 and Birds of Prey 21 written by James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Time Seeley, Marguerite Bennett, and Christy Mark with art by Guillem March, Miguel Sepulveda, Emanuel Simeon’s, and more.
Spinning out Scott Snyder’s Court of Owls, Gotham has a new hero, Calvin Rose, a former Talon who left the Owls when he fought against killing. The Court has marked Rose for death and resurrected the Gotham Butcher, one of the most vicious and sadistic Talons ever, to complete the job.
You can see the early working of Tynion here balancing a cast of characters. He largely makes this series stand on its own. I would have liked to have seen more Court of Owls inner workings and more ties to Gotham and the Batfamily. There are occasional appearances by Batman and Bane, but if you read a lot of Batbooks, you know how Batman would have had his family everywhere in Gotham keeping a watchful eye over Calvin.
Besides Rose, the Gotham Butcher, and Sebastian Clark, a former Court of Owls leader who has also defected and is serving as Rose’s mentor and compass, the cast of characters are largely uninteresting and boring. After Tynion wraps up his story, the last few issues are completed by other writers until the series was eventually cancelled. The book features a ton of artists but we do get a fair amount of issues drawn by Guillem March who would go on to draw for Tynion on his Batman run.
Even as a Batman fan, this is a hard book to recommend to others. It’s all rather mediocre and does not add enough to the mythos to be a meaningful read.
Spinning out Scott Snyder’s Court of Owls, Gotham has a new hero, Calvin Rose, a former Talon who left the Owls when he fought against killing. The Court has marked Rose for death and resurrected the Gotham Butcher, one of the most vicious and sadistic Talons ever, to complete the job.
You can see the early working of Tynion here balancing a cast of characters. He largely makes this series stand on its own. I would have liked to have seen more Court of Owls inner workings and more ties to Gotham and the Batfamily. There are occasional appearances by Batman and Bane, but if you read a lot of Batbooks, you know how Batman would have had his family everywhere in Gotham keeping a watchful eye over Calvin.
Besides Rose, the Gotham Butcher, and Sebastian Clark, a former Court of Owls leader who has also defected and is serving as Rose’s mentor and compass, the cast of characters are largely uninteresting and boring. After Tynion wraps up his story, the last few issues are completed by other writers until the series was eventually cancelled. The book features a ton of artists but we do get a fair amount of issues drawn by Guillem March who would go on to draw for Tynion on his Batman run.
Even as a Batman fan, this is a hard book to recommend to others. It’s all rather mediocre and does not add enough to the mythos to be a meaningful read.
June 16, 2022
The "Court of Owls" saga from the New 52 Batman comics was brilliant. I thought the lore of the Court of Owls had enormous potential and wanted more of it. I had no idea that James Tynion IV had written a spinoff Talon series, and I'm so happy I discovered it! This is a riveting story from the 0 issues all the way through 17. My hat is off to Mr. Tynion ... again!
December 6, 2024
It was a really good action packed story. You get to really know how far The Court of Owls are willing to go & how dark its history is. It was expected for Batman’s appearance. It takes place in Gotham after all. I love Batman more than anything but I would’ve loved that Batman stepped aside for this one. Talon was Badass.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2025
This was such a great trade ... up until the last 3 or so parts. I rather enjoyed it for the most part and feel it's one of the better things to emerge during the New 52.
However the last three issues ... were bad. Like really bad. It definitely soured me on the overall story.
Overall - 4/5
However the last three issues ... were bad. Like really bad. It definitely soured me on the overall story.
Overall - 4/5
Currently Reading
May 22, 2025#0 Love this. Art. Story. Main Character. I'm a big fan if Tynion's current work so I have high hopes.
#1 - 4 Really enjoyed this. Art's good. I like Talon as a new hero.
#1 - 4 Really enjoyed this. Art's good. I like Talon as a new hero.
September 12, 2025
I decided to go back and read this after finishing Snyders Batman as it is a Court of Owls story and the main character made a slight appearance in that run.
It was okay but dragged on a bit. Some plot points felt pretty cliched. MC is an escape artist (felt like this has already been done with Mr Miracle) who is recruited by the court of owls as a child and breaks free of their grasp going on the run. He then teams up with a mysterious figure as they both want to put an end to the court. There’s some twists and turns but like I said all felt a little cliched.
The best part about reading this was probably how it gave a bit more depth to the court of owls and made them seem like an even bigger threat.
It was okay but dragged on a bit. Some plot points felt pretty cliched. MC is an escape artist (felt like this has already been done with Mr Miracle) who is recruited by the court of owls as a child and breaks free of their grasp going on the run. He then teams up with a mysterious figure as they both want to put an end to the court. There’s some twists and turns but like I said all felt a little cliched.
The best part about reading this was probably how it gave a bit more depth to the court of owls and made them seem like an even bigger threat.
May 28, 2026
4.75/5🌟
Talon was so close to being a five star read, I only wish I enjoyed the ending more, that’s about it. Talon follows the story and hardships of Calvin Rose, primarily focusing on his complicated history and present life with The Court of Owls. I really enjoyed Talon as a character, he really demonstrated his beliefs in actions, throughout everything, the court could never truly change who he is. From abandoned child to circus performer to talon and to rogue, he’s done it all; and it was a spectacular experience. The story is deep and unsettling, I both hated and loved all the brainwashing. I was kept on the edge of my seat for the entire experience, each twist was unexpected and unpredictable, I yearn for comics that achieve this level of grief and perseverance.
Talon was so close to being a five star read, I only wish I enjoyed the ending more, that’s about it. Talon follows the story and hardships of Calvin Rose, primarily focusing on his complicated history and present life with The Court of Owls. I really enjoyed Talon as a character, he really demonstrated his beliefs in actions, throughout everything, the court could never truly change who he is. From abandoned child to circus performer to talon and to rogue, he’s done it all; and it was a spectacular experience. The story is deep and unsettling, I both hated and loved all the brainwashing. I was kept on the edge of my seat for the entire experience, each twist was unexpected and unpredictable, I yearn for comics that achieve this level of grief and perseverance.
January 13, 2025
James Tynion and Scott Snyder take some of the cool ideas from The Court Of Owls storyline and deliver a really good story involving redemption and fighting evil. The last 20% of the book was filler material that doesn't matter but the main tale was very good. Calvin Rose was Talon who escaped the court because he couldn't kill and innocent woman and child. After the Court reappears so does he. There are new characters introduced here and quite a few twists. There were quite a few artists that all did really solid work, excluding Miguel Sepulvada. Overall, the first 80% of the book is a must read for Batman fans.
April 25, 2026
Not bad. I did not think that I would be invested in the story arc of Calvin Rose or the power struggle of the Court of Owls, but it was really good. It's weird seeing a reveal and realizing that the side character that you have been watching was may more influential than you thought. Court of Owl heads are so strange.
September 10, 2025
I really Hope JT4 got paid for the Securitas propaganda. Started good but fell off and never got back.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews