Let’s be clear; the Court of Owls is a half-baked idea poorly conceived idea Snyder came up with at the start of New 52. The organization is vague (not in a enticing mystery way), unfocused, and mostly held together by the gimmick of undead assassins.
That said, assuming you like the concept well enough, how would you fix them to be an interesting reoccurring threat for Batman? I feel like actual named members would be a start, be it a leader or several
I liked the Court of Owls.
You liked the gimmick, that’s it
The Black Glove was already the fixed version of Snyder's owlshit. That's pretty much where he ripped off the idea from to make the stupid owl plot in the first place.
What if The Court of Owls was instead made up of lawyers and judges, intentionally messing up the legal process so Arkham crazies keep rotating in and out of incarceration?
It's too detailed for a "secret" group if anything. Snyder is too obsessed with his ninja shit. They should've kept it vague instead of showing their history and assassins.
I feel like without some sort of leader or named members with motivations you just have boring nobodies. There’s mystery, and then there’s just being lazy. But yes the assassin focus was dumb
i think the problem was like
>for hundreds of years the court of owls has been in the shadows!
>oh and bruce waynes secret brother was their leader the whole time!
>oh and theyre taking over gotham
>mfw
i dont like how bad guys constantly take over gotham in batman. we had the riddler take over gotham, court of owls take over gotham, bane taking over gotham and now its joker taking over gotham in the past 10 years or whatever, just give me a goddamn detective
story where the stakes arent that high with batman.
My god, you again? Get fucked sperg.
Their power and influence is too far-reaching to be believable as a secret organization.
Like you're telling me this order has existed since Gotham was founded and have inserted their imagery and symbols all over the city and apparently secretly control everything, but Batman has never once heard about them? It just isn't believable in this universe even if it's a decent idea on its own.
They need way more thought put into them is all. Maybe have them as an organization that Batman is aware had a long history of control over Gotham but that they lost it all once the mobs and gangs arose in the 20th century, but as Batman has drastically lowered the influence and power criminals have over the infrastructure of Gotham, a vacuum appeared and so the Court suddenly had space to resurrect. Batman is very much aware of their return but it seems like every time he cuts off one head, two more take its place.
They are rich families using their resources to increase their influence, they are already cool.
I think the idea of a hidden society of powerful people hidden from the world and uses an assassin to kill people inside an underground laberint was cool, and Batman getting obsessed with it as a child was cooler. Secret society trope done right, I enjoyed the reading, especially the part where Batman is about to be killed and recall his father being trapped inside the laberint, something that I can't point if it's part of his hallucinations or actually happened (Probably the first but still the ambiguity of the scene made it better)
Use them to redpill comic book readers and eventually movie goers on the crimes committed by the ((((elite))))
What?
I don't like it. It's played out. And it's just Snyder powerwank to see how far reaching and omnipresent they are.
>Yo, there's bad secret society
>They are actually very, very ancient
>Surprise! They are involved in everything related to Gotham
>More surprise! They're global!
>Supet surprise! They are related to Multiverse-level threat!
Jeez, they should've been just nothing more than rich Gothamites only secret society. Instead, they are now Owl-Illuminati
Gotham's wealthiest criminals are part of an exclusive club. When you accept the invitation, you are given a mask. The club is anonymous, so each club member only knows the people they invited. Within the club, Gotham's white collar crime is organized in the way the various gangs organize the blue collar crime. However, the organization has another purpose. It stands to reason that Batman must be a particularly driven wealthy person. As such, the members of the Court of Owls train themselves in unarmed combat, weaponry, and stealth. Whoever is the best at combat is given the rank of Talon.
Court of Owls can only really work if it takes place early on during Bruce Wayne tenure as Batman, the biggest plothole with Snyder's Court of Owls is that Wayne didn't catch a whiff of there being a long-running secret society operating in Gotham despite supposedly being the world's greatest detective and wearing the cowl for seven years at that point.
>Bruce is an uber genius
>richest guy in the city
>one of the richest in the world
>head of a global conglomerate
>is aware of a bunch of rich mofos doing shit in his city
>instead of engaging in an economic war and takeovers he prefers to punch people in alleys
>instead of exposing each one of them
>instead of buying their companies and source of wealth, reducing them to nothing he kepts going to punch goons in alleys
Right... the guy can but a giant kill sat in the sky with his money but can't buy a bunch of companies and assets of rich mofos in town?
>can buy a giant kill sat
Fix'd.
I don't think the Court is fundamentally broken, out of all Snyder ideas it's probably the one I dislike the least. Their mystique is completely gone past their first story, and as is they're a respectable gimmick that’s been stretched well past breaking point, little more than just another bunch of punks for Batman to beat up.
But you know what I would do with a cult group consisting of rich businessmen in bird motifs who claim ownership over the city and attack Batman through distorted versions of his trademarks? A group that's ultimately little more than another of Gotham's weird gangsters in it for money and power, just far bigger and more ascendant in scale?
I would give them to The Penguin, THE "Weird Gangster" of Gotham to end or outlive all other weird gangsters in Gotham.
Not overtly at first, but make it so that Penguin, who has his fingers in every pie of Gotham, is ultimately pulling strings behind the Court. Maybe he's got his own Talons, maybe he swapped members of it with his own men. They may think he's under their control, they may think he's just another colorful loony that they can snuff out at a moment's notice, just as Batman thinks that having spies and listening devices on the Lounge means he's got Penguin under wraps, but pretending to be harmless or ineffective while pulling the rug under his enemies is what Penguin's always done since his debut.
I'm sure some people would be incredibly angry at these big badass Snyder villains being used and chumped by a character most largely dismiss as a joke.
As I'm sure the Court in-universe would be outraged at being outplayed and manipulated by an ugly little man in a dumb costume.
All the more reason why I would like to make it happen, if I could.
If I make it I will use your idea user, it’s pretty good
Thanks man. Good luck to you.
so remember Batman year one when Bat crashed some rich guy party and had his speach "you had feasted on Gotham"?
Well, now imagine how it look like five minutes after he left. The broken window, lights swich off and bunch of most powerfull and richest people in the city who silently pulls out their Owl mask.
Pople complaining why is Gotham still the same shit? Why Arkham should just install revolting door or why the freaks are tolarated on the streat. It is because of these guys. They are rich, they know Bruce is batman and they wont him to suffer. And as long as he is chasing a clown on the streat he is not looking into their white colar crime.
How about instead of being wealthy Illuminati assholes they’re basically like Gotham’s original night watchmen since the settlement was founded? They’re the old ways, assassins that hibernate and awake once a century to cull the corruption of Gotham because they believe it cursed ground
The plot hole of Gotham City law is why the federal government never gets involved.
Almost none of Batman’s villains would remain in Gotham and no amount of Wayne influence would change it. Fuck, its unlikely the current incarnations would even if you go back to the 1930’s style society and infrastructure when shit like the Batmobile made more sense.
>just give me a goddamn detective
>story where the stakes arent that high with batman.
Detective stories are hard to write, consist at least in part of WORDSWORDSWORDS, and have little potential for splash pages.
Modern audiences would hate it.
Plus it makes him less of an oddity if all the rich assholes are doing the animal-themed Gotham manipulator thing.
He’s just the best at it, and has different motives.
>because they believe it cursed ground
They’re right too. But that would mean dealing with the Lovecraftian type shit, like the swamp that spat out Grundy.
It would work very well, if they kept the atmosphere.
Make them Jewish so Batman is afraid to do anything without being accused of antisemitism by the Justice League lol
Doesn’t stop him from fighting Superman.
>is vague
>unfocused
>mostly held together by the gimmick of undead assassins
No, its well explained in several comics.
>Court of Owls is a half-baked idea poorly conceived idea
No it's not