Talon 8
James Tynion IV, Miguel Sepulveda
Spoiler alert! You have been warned!
So here it is. The very first issue of Talon with writer James Tynion IV on his own. He has been rocking backup stories for quite some time now across the Batman titles, but his recent foray into solo writing has been quite a bumpy road over in Red Hood and the Outlaws. And I’ll admit, not seeing Scott Snyder’s name on this issue made me a little hesitant. Especially when I saw that regular series artist Guillem March had nothing to do with this one as well. So, taking those fears of mine into consideration, here are my thoughts on the issue.
We start, right off the bat, with damsel in distress situation. Then we get a two-page spread of a dead Calvin Rose. You know, the main character of the book? This is followed by a two page meeting of the Court of Owls, discussing the events of the last few issues. And then we are magically transported to a torture scene with the previously-mentioned damsel in distress, some more dead Calvin, and his inevitable and predictable resurrection and swearing to serve the Court willingly so they won’t kill his lady friend. But now the Court knows that Sebastian Clark is working with Bane and they are training an army in Santa Prisca, which we get a brief glimpse of, and they’re going to send Calvin to fight them… Eventually. But first, he’s got to take out another rogue Talon. The one named Mary Turner. The one who works for good. And the one who works alongside the Birds of Prey.
So we don’t get the Bane fight we want. We don’t even really get a lead-in to the Birds of Prey and Talon fight (which will eventually become a team-up because, hey, it’s a comic!). He’s just getting his armor on one minute and watching Batgirl and her all-female team of Gotham City protectors. So yeah, this issue wasn’t exactly the greatest. It just seemed like a get from point A to point B type of issue. Which is fine, for a filler issue, but makes me a little skeptical about the future of the title if this is going to be the format of every single issue. I have faith, though. After all, Tynion has proven himself as a good writer in the past. And the second issue of his solo run on Red Hood and the Outlaws was significantly better than his first. So here’s hoping that issue nine of Talon is much, much better than this one.
