Today Newsarama got the opportunity to talk with Batman editor Mike Marts about next month’s events along with the overall structure and origin story of this epic run .
Newsarama: Mike, how did you guys come up with the idea of having a different Talon for each comic?
Mike Marts: The Talons were a part of Scott’s storyline from the very beginning, and we knew they were an instrumental part of the Court of Owls. They’re essentially their hired assassins. Scott had created this whole complex mythology about how there was one Talon per generation and they were specially trained to become who they were. And as one was cycled out, another one would be cycled in.
That was all fun to talk about in theory, but once we started talking about doing an actual event that would take place over the course of all the different Bat-titles, we got real excited when we realized, here would be a place for us to showcase all these different Talons from throughout the years.
We knew with only nine or 10 titles, we’d only be able to show nine or 10 of them, and not every single on that had ever lived, but we just got so excited about the idea of being able to show these Talons and their history.
Newsarama: The Court of the Owls has been so important to this storyline. Assuming the Talons and the battle in the “Night of the Owls” is not the end of this story, what role does the Court play?
Marts: The Court plays a big part. They’re the ones who gave the order to take back the city at the end of Batman #7, and their presence will be felt throughout the entire event. We’re primarily going to be focusing on the assassins — on the Talons — in these issues. But the presence of the Court will be there the entire time.
Newsarama: And everything takes place within Gotham?
Marts: Yes, it all takes place within Gotham. The one exception is the one issue which actually takes place in the past, which is All-Star Western. That chapter takes place in New Orleans.
Newsarama: Have Talons been around that long? Will we see a Talon in that issue too?
Marts: In the “Court of Owls,” we’ve hinted that their reach goes back into the history of Gotham City. So it’s conceivable that they could have been around 100 years ago, during the time of Jonah Hex.
Newsarama: Will we learn more about the involvement of Haly’s Circus in the history of the Court of Owls? All of these Talons came through Haly’s Circus, didn’t they?
Marts: That’s what we’ve been led to believe so far. And we’re learning that Haly’s Circus has a much bigger role in the history of Gotham and the history of the Batman mythology than we previously thought. I don’t know if we’ll get all the details on this in the month of May, but we’re certainly going to learn some new things about Haly’s Circus.
Newsarama: Once Batman gets past the “Night of the Owls” event, how long will the Court continue to be the focus of the book?
Marts: We’ll be dealing with that basic storyline for another few issues, throughout issue #10 and into issue #11.
Newsarama: Do you have a written timeline of who was a Talon when and how they all fit into the history of Batman and Gotham and the families who oversaw the city over the years?
Marts: Yeah, yeah, we do have a timeline. We’ve actually been building it for the last several months. It’s one of those secret documents. It’s kind of like the Ark of the Covenant that we keep hidden here in the DC offices. And we switch its location every week so that no one knows exactly where it is.
The story is quite long so if you want to learn more about the interview check out the source .
Source – Newsarama
– Adam
