Trapped inside the giant maze, he spends over a week with no food slowly going insane to the point of hallucination.

He wakes up in a giant labyrinth and is welcomed by the Court of Owls. Returning to the sewer where Alan Wayne's body was found, the Talon takes him by surprise and abducts him. Allowing his emotional need for a conspiracy to get in the way of the case almost destroyed him, and all subsequent attempts have turned up no evidence. Following the death of his parents at the hands of Joe Chill, he spent months investigating a possible connection to the Court. Nightwing asks why he refuses to believe that the Court might be real, and Bruce recants a story from his childhood. Bruce performs an autopsy on Alan Wayne, and determines that he was tortured to death in a similar manner to the earlier murder victim. Įscaping the burning building, he returns to the Batcave. When he arrives at the most recent, Talon watches on as the building explodes. Investigating every building built in the last century by the Alan Wayne Trust, Batman discovers a series of the Talon's hidden bases containing pictures of the Court. March is hospitalized, but insists that he will continue his mayoral bid despite warnings from the owls. Īlfred Pennyworth recalls the story of Alan Wayne, Bruce's great-great-grandfather who went mad and died raving that owls were out to get him.

Pronounced dead, he later reawakens in the ambulance and walks free after murdering the emergency medical team. They grapple out of a window at the top of Wayne Tower, which Bruce survives while the killer plummets into a car. Bruce Wayne is attacked by a deadly assassin known as the Talon during a meeting with politician Lincoln March. Nightwing explains that the man grabbed him and tried to warn him at an earlier public appearance. His autopsy alongside Commissioner Gordon reveals a possible connection to the Court of Owls, an urban legend taken from a nursery rhyme. They find a hidden message on the wall saying that 'Bruce Wayne will die tomorrow,' and Batman finds Dick Grayson's DNA under the victim's fingernails. Harvey Bullock discovers a tortured murder victim pinned to the wall of his apartment with numerous knives bearing an owl insignia. Returning to his public life, Bruce Wayne unveils his massive new development plans to bring Gotham City into the future. Batman puts down an insurrection at Arkham Asylum when one of the guards is paid to release the inmates.

Batman new 52 omnibus vol 2