Talon #3

Since he's in New York, there's an 85% chance Talon ends up fighting The Teen Titans.

I don't really think Talon will end up fighting the Teen Titans because there's no mention of the Teen Titans on the cover. And DC wouldn't pass up a chance to sell more comic books by announcing Red Robin or Kid Flash was going to guest star. And since Scott Snyder would probably have to make sure he keeps continuity, he'd have to have a meeting with Scott Lobdell. That's probably reason enough not to have them in the comic book.

I asked Lord Google if he had any information on Scott Lobdell and Scott Snyder interacting with each other and he had an article where Lobdell praises the hell out of Scott Snyder. But that wasn't the part I found fascinating. I found a few quotes from Lobdell himself that pretty much explain why his writing is so shitty.

Scott Lobdell: "Because I am one of those writers who writes plot first and then scripts only after the page arrives...."

And...

Huffpo: "So do you have long term plans for the book?"
Scott Lobdell: "I don't work that way. Just like I could not have imagined a year ago that I'd be writing the world's most famous super hero... I like the stories of the characters to mirror the same sense of spontaneity and unpredictability that define us in 'real life.'"
Scott Lobdell: "Just imagine how boring it would be if you sat down and told me exactly how your life was going to play out every month for the next 12 months -- who you were going to meet, what you were going to say, how they were going to act, what super powers you were going to use to defeat them? Then imagine the likelihood that your life would play out exactly the way you predicted it would over the course of the next twelve months."

This is why Scott Lobdell's stories suck. I speculated that he just starts over from month to month with each script and I was correct. He has no plans for the characters! But it's even worse than that! He doesn't script the comic until the art is done based off of his plots? No wonder his comics are filled with Narration Boxes to explain everything. Because Narration Boxes basically work to regurgitate his plot synopsis he handed to the writers.

I'm agog at his excuse for not planning out stories though. He's writing so that he can be surprised by the story every month! You can plan a fucking story out, you stupid asshole, and the readers will still be surprised twelve months later even if you had the whole thing planned from the beginning! His defense is so fucking illogical. He's not spontaneous; he's just fucking lazy.

Sorry, Talon. I didn't mean to get off track but once I start in on Scott Lobdell, it's kind of hard to pull myself away.

First off, are there really people out there who AREN'T tired of the Court of Owls? People desperate for just a little bit more history? I think Calvin Rose might be an interesting character once he's finished off the Court. But I don't see that ever happening in the life of this comic book.

Calvin Rose has come to New York to make sure Casey and Sarah are safe. So he's sent her a message to meet him on the Brooklyn Bridge. You know, to make sure she's safe. It's not as if meeting up with her after he's pissed off the Court of Owls is at all dangerous. Maybe he should just leave her alone? I don't know. It's a thought. Anway, Casey is smart enough not to meet him. Instead he meets up with Joey and his girlfriend.

I don't know who Joey is but since he's starting a fight with Talon, he's probably a friend.

While Calvin is strung up, the woman checks him out and discovers his Talon costume underneath. She mentions they were warned that a Talon might interfere. So they're friends! Casey must have hired some super powered bodyguards. I hope they're old enemies of the Preboot Teen Titans. They just seem to have that vibe. Plus they're in New York. Calvin ends up unconscious from a dart to the neck and wakes up in the hands of some thugs.

I guess if you go with a snake theme, you're automatically associated with Basilisk. Unless you're working for Medusa! Or maybe Kobra!

These are Casey's people and she eventually shows her face. The reason why the snake guy worked for Basilisk is because he used to work for Basilisk! I mean, he's here now because Casey runs an organization that houses people on the run from horrible organizations! I guess that makes them all safer, right? Safety in numbers? But doesn't that also mean that every evil organization in the DC Universe is constantly attacking them? I suppose they're super underground and nobody knows about them. Although when has "secret" or "covert" or "underground" ever meant anything to anybody in the DCnU? My guess is they'll be attacked by the Atlanteans later.

I hope they don't have anyone from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. because who needs Harvest sticking his vampire face in this comic book too.

Speaking of Harvest, it's been a few commentaries since I've mentioned how he's Future Vampire Tim Drake from the Future!

Rose and Clark are kind of forced into accepting Casey's help with their attack on more of the Court of Owl's finances. It's probably a good idea because Calvin Rose can only get lucky surviving against the undead Talons so many times before I declare this comic book unrealistic! My limits aren't infinite! A secret organization running Gotham for four hundred or more years? Believable! Resurrecting their assassins because they've fed them a life long mixture of Resurrection Juice through the fillings in their teeth? Sure, why not?! Once they're brought back to life they're practically immortal unless their brains are frozen, cracked into a million pieces, and then the pieces are scattered across the world? Totes believable. Some jack-ass escapapediest going around defeating these immortal killing machines with only the help of an old man nagging him in his earpiece? No way! That's fucking crossing the line. Reality check!

My dad and I were watching Aliens one night many, many years ago with my step-mother coming in and out of the room watching bits and pieces of it. When Forklift Mecha Ripley begins fighting the mother alien at the end, my step-mother just said, "If she survives, this movie is unrealistic." I guess suspension of disbelief is like a well that just eventually empties if the the fiction goes back to it too many times. "An alien parasite? Why not? One woman survives? Sure. A whole army squad fighting an army of aliens? Crazy but I'm in! The aliens are wiped out but the egg laying mother is left to fight the mother fucking bad ass Ripley? Sure but if Ripley lives, I'm done."

Although this whole Talon business is really straining my credulity!

The resurrection process is so effective that they can speak rationally and hold down jobs. I wonder if they can marry and have children? Is rekilling one of these guys murder?

The whole heist goes off without a hitch. Mostly. Mostly goes off without a hitch. Fake hold up and fake police distract the Talon downstairs. Calvin Rose gets in upstairs in disguise where Joey meets him (from a ceiling vent or something. Who cares how he got in!) with Rose's Talon costume. Talon hacks the computers and the Court of Owls' accounts are nearly drained when that thing takes place that makes it a "mostly works" kind of plan.

Calvin Rose meet The Gotham Butcher!

Talon #3 Rating: No change. A comic book with a shallow premise like this one has to be careful when introducing new characters and new ideas into the comic book. Casey's organization makes for a much more interesting comic book idea, I think. I'm pretty sure they'll become an integral part of this title though so that's definitely a positive side to this thing. Calvin Rose's Talon has the backing of an organization that lets him continue his work once the Court of Owls have been defeated. He can infiltrate N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and The League of Assassins and The Black Razors and Task Force X and Checkmate and A.R.G.U.S. and A.M.M.O. and S.H.A.D.E. and Stormwatch! Maybe he can go around discovering the secret identities of all of the super heroes and causing trouble that way. Maybe that's what Constantine's New 52 comic book is going to be about seeing as how he's collecting so much material on the Super Heroes over in his little House of Mystery office.