Comic Info
Comic Name: Talon/Birds of Prey (Volume 3)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: James Tynion IV/Tim Seeley/Marguerite Bennett/Christy Marx
Artist: Miguel Sepulveda/Emanuel Simeoni/Jorge Lucas/Szymon Kudranski/Graham Nolan/Romano Molenaar/Scott McDaniel/Jonathan Glapion
# of Issues: 11
Release Date: 2014
Talon #10
Reprints Talon #8-17 and Birds of Prey (3) #21 (July 2013-May 2014). Calvin Rose is dead…again. Re-resurrected as a Talon again, Calvin finds himself a prisoner to his past. Calvin must find a way to escape his immortality if he hopes to ever live again and be free of the Court of Owls. In a race to save his friend Casey and her daughter Sarah, Calvin finds himself facing off against Bane and the Court and teaming with Batman to save Gotham City before it is too late.
With James Tynion IV and other writers, Talon Volume 2: Fall of the Owls is the second and final volume of the Batman spin-off series. Following Talon Volume 1: Scourge of the Owls, the collection features multiple writing teams and authors and a crossover with Birds of Prey (Volume 3) which was also collected in Birds of Prey Volume 4: The Cruelest Cut.
Talon started out as a promising title. I liked the exploration of essentially a cog in the Court of Owls and the decision to explore the Court of Owls through Calvin. Unfortunately, the source material grew a little thin after a few issues, and Talon became a rather routine comic…something that generally can’t survive in the world of expensive comics.
Talon #17
The stories in this volume border on average to bad. The series rounded out the main storyline in Talon #14 (February 2014) and then continued to do generic Talon stories for the next three issues. If I had been reading Talon regularly, I would have been pretty upset by the arc of the story. The final two issue “Deadman’s Party” wrapped up Calvin’s character arc, but it wasn’t very satisfying.
Not only were the stories so-so I found the composition quite difficult to follow. I don’t know if parts of the story were cut down, but it jumped all over the place and left threads in the dust. Bane’s storyline went nowhere (in this title). “The Deadman’s Party” made very little sense and the backwards issue “For Every Life, A Feather” which told the story of another Talon was also rather weak.
The art also wasn’t that great and it doesn’t help the story. With two strikes against it, Talon didn’t really have much of a chance, and the character ended up being a generic almost ’90s character. I hope the character doesn’t get left behind, but I can see Talon ending up like Azrael and other Batman spin-off titles. I suspect that Talon will pop-up on occasion but I’m guessing if you are a fan of the character you should savor these issues.
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