The truth inside the lie; the owl inside the bat, Part 1

By Stone Washington

"Yes...I remember now. The bats had simply hidden deeper in the caves. In the darkest parts the owls couldn't tolerate. And when the bats came back... it was with a vengeance."

~Bruce Wayne, City of Owls

Prologue

Previously in my last year's article titled, Now go, go and take America! As a child, Bruce Wayne (Batman's alter ego) had believed the Court of Owls, a mysterious owl-obsessed cabal, to be nothing but a nursery rhyme. That was before years later the Talon, the Court's legendary assassin tried to kill Bruce in the middle of a meeting with mayoral candidate and potential ally, Lincoln March. It took all of the Dark Knight's abilities to survive his deadly plummet against the assassin from atop the Old Wayne Tower. Batman uncovered the Court's nests, hidden in secret floors of Wayne constructed buildings, dating as far back as the 19th century. Later the Talon captured the Caped Crusader and proceeded to hunt the Dark Knight through a labyrinth for the Court's sadistic amusement. While trapped in the maze Batman discovered evidence of the longstanding vendetta the Court had against his family; proof that they were responsible for the death of his great-great-grandfather, architect Alan Wayne. After a strenuous battle with the Talon, Batman made a harrowing escape from the labyrinth where he barely escaped with his life. Batman claims victory over the Court of Owls, having defeated their champion. But a much darker threat emerges when the Court suddenly unleashes their entire army of Talon assassins upon Gotham city, thus beginning the dark ominous era – The Night of the Owls.

Attack on Wayne Manor

The story of the City of Owls begins with Bruce Wayne starring at a miniature scale model of Gotham city inside his mansion of Wayne Manor late at night. Wayne laments over the sad tragic truth of how one can spend their whole life learning about Gotham city from within and still not know the first thing about it. He admits to his misguided arrogance based on his previous near-death encounter he had with the Court of Owls, knowing nothing of their dangerous presence in his beloved Gotham City. As his trusted butler, Alfred tries to comfort his friend the two hear a loud noise from the floor above; Bruce knows there is an uninvited intruder in the house.

Next, Bruce and Alfred split up after he tells Alfred to give him positions of the perpetrators from the Batcave. Bruce journeys upstairs, quietly surveying the house for anything or anyone unusual; while unaware Alfred is being followed by a dark figure who props a blade in between a secret pair of closing doors leading to the Batcave. As Bruce peeks out an open window, he uses new Wayne-tech computerized contact lenses to scan through the outdoor darkness finding an unusual amount of owls gazing at him from a far off tree. Alfred then speaks to Bruce via an earpiece on how he detects multiple intruder signals from around the manor. But before Bruce can react to this he is suddenly attacked by a Talon assassin from the Court of Owls who bursts through the window with a metallic razor-sharp claw, barely missing Bruce. As the Assassin declares Bruce Wayne's death sentence Bruce smacks him over the head with a broken banister beam. The Talon praises Bruce's moves as he dodges a shoe knife attack from the Assassin, but Bruce casts down the Talon's jests and declares that the Assassin's tactics are two-hundred years out of style as Bruce round-house kicks the assassin, sending him flying through a door. But as Bruce looks into the dark room he finds not just one set of glowing owl eyes gazing at him, but three additional sets all in the room. As Bruce demands for positions from the Assassin's in the house, Alfred frantically explains how they have penetrated the mansion from all sides, even finding the one who followed Alfred into the Bat cave.

Meanwhile, Bruce begins to run from his three dangerous pursuers, swinging out of an open window up onto a roof top, barely missing impalement by two Talon swords. Suddenly he is kicked in the face by a different Talon assassin who continues to charge at Bruce with a colonial sword, mocking him as he attacks. Bruce counter attacks by smashing his sword with a weathervane and follows up by impaling the Talon with the object. At the moment the assassin falls, Bruce realizes he is surrounded by several other Talons invading his roof telling Bruce, "There is nowhere left to run." But when all hope seems lost, Bruce pushes a secret button on his chimney opening a hidden hatch that allows Bruce to slide down a secret tunnel, losing his pursuers on the rooftop.

Now inside the Bat cave Bruce yells for his companion Alfred, but only finds a lurking Talon. While the Talon mockingly comments on Bruce's Bat cave secret, Alfred suddenly pushes a large, life-size penny upon the Talon, pinning him to the ground. After being glad to see his butler, Bruce twists the Talon's arm and takes a hidden USB drive from under his gauntlet. The two then run through the cave realizing they are being followed by a pack of Talons who enter the cave by means of gliding through the air (similar to how Owls fly upon their prey). They maniacally chant:

"Were coming for you. You can't stop the Court. There's nowhere to run anymore. We're in the heart of your house, Bruce! The house of Wayne! And of Batman!"

Bruce and Alfred barley make it inside the armory. As the Talons pummel on the large iron doors, Alfred accesses the USB data which reveals a hit list containing most of the public figures in Gotham (those who shape the city), by whom are targets of the Court of Owls. Bruce orders Alfred to lower the temperature of the cave to beyond sub-zero level in order to freeze the Talons into a comatose state (cold temperatures are the Talon's weakness). Suddenly the unthinkable occurs... the armory doors are willfully opened. But a man doesn't step out from the armory, a monster does.

Night of The Owls

Bruce Wayne recounts the story of how the first ancestors to buy Wayne Manor, Solomon and Joshua Wayne, got rid of the mansion's bat infestation. They unleashed all types of bat predators and found that the most affective killer of the bat were the tiger owls. His ancestors let owls loose in the cave, and within a year they found that all the bats were gone. Fast forward to current day, the surrounding Talons are all being thrashed by a powerful metallic entity which proves to be none other than Bruce Wayne in a large Batman-robot suit! The metal armor provides Bruce with heightened speed, strength, and durability (armor being stronger than Kevlar) as he chases down the numerous assassins and smashes them to the ground one by one, his superior suit shoots out a fatal electrical wire which decimates a Talon while he launches three frozen plasma Bat-a-rangs which incapacitates three other Talon targets. Here, Batman proves to be very formidable against the army of owl assassins.

Nevertheless as time passes his armor is gradually exposed from multiple piercings by means of knife, axe and sword attacks by his relentless enemies. On the ground Bruce activates a fail-safe guard command within his replica, actual-size T-Rex nearby. The mechanical beast violently crushes a group of Talons with one stomp. The remaining crowd of Talons are unmoved by this and continue their dog pile attacks, ripping through Bruce's armor more and more. All seems lost until a loud noise startles the assassins; Bruce continues his story of his ancestors explaining how despite how the owls his ancestors released seemingly removed all the bats from the cave, the truth was that the bats emerged from the deepest darkest fathoms of the caves that the owls couldn't tolerate.

Suddenly a horde of literally thousands of ferocious bats surround the cave cutting down the remaining Talons around Batman in the sub-zero temperature. The bats were apparently unleashed because of the cold temperature. It was as if the bats were in unison with Bruce's spirit as Bruce relinquishes his broken armor, changing into his original Batman suit, and ready for round two. With a vengeance Batman swiftly punches, kicks, and pile drives the remaining Talon assassins one by one. And as one of the Talon assassins attempts to escape the cave Batman activates the Bat-mobile and runs him down with the vehicle, leaving the unconscious assassins for Alfred to contain.

Batman tells Alfred he has more urgent matters dealing with the city-wide attack from the other dozens of Talon assassins across Gotham. Batman speeds across town as Alfred explains to Batman how the rest of Batman's allies: Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, Batgirl, Red Robin and Catwoman are already battling many of the Talons across the city. After saving an individual from an assassination attempt, Batman moves to save his friend, mayoral candidate Lincoln March who is inside a Gotham building. In March's office he finds his friend in the midst of shooting down one of the Talons with a gun. But he realizes that March has been fatally stabbed through the chest with a knife. Batman moves in to assist March, but he denies it and hands him a note for Bruce Wayne in his dying wish. It is a hit list containing three possible members of the Court of Owls who are Gotham City residents. Suddenly Lincoln March dies in Batman's arms. Batman tells Alfred through an earpiece that he knows where the Court of Owls live, and declares that because they attacked his home he shall burn theirs to the ground.

Epilogue for Modern Times

In this compelling Batman epic there lie many symbolic relations to actual history in modern times. As explained in my Court of Owls essay, "Now go, go and take America," published last year, the Talon assassins represent devout terrorists, specifically the Muslim terrorist organization: ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). These low life criminals operate in the shadows, using stolen and confiscated military weapons from both Syria and Iraq (the latter weapons America gave to Iraq) to carry out the goals of subjugating religious groups under a total Islamic state governed by the oppressive Islamic Sharia law. This is similar to the Court of Owls ambitions of uprooting Gotham City's civilized foundations and ruling over its chaos and lawless condition from the shadows. As the threat of terrorism remains evident through the centuries so does the Court of Owls, whose maniacal deeds stretch as far back as the early 17th century when this country was colonized. Recall that the U.S. Navy was created by Thomas Jefferson to fight abuse of U.S. ships by the Muslim Barbary Pirates of Algeria and Tunisia. That's where the opening lines of the Marine's Hymn reference:

From the Halls of Montezuma

To the shores of Tripoli;

We fight our country's battles

In the air, on land, and sea;

If the civilized world doesn't end the growing threat of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, many innocents within these nations will continue to be needlessly slaughtered and enslaved, specifically the many targeted Christians, whom remain the number one target on this ruthless Islamic terrorist organization's hit list. Just as in the night of owls, the answer is a resounding, NO! But Batman acted fast and tactically by utilizing his allies within Gotham to counterattack the Talon army and protect most of the public figures on the Court's hit list.

Finally, Batman as Bruce Wayne represents the vulnerability of America under the incompetent, duplicitous presidency of Barack Obama. As most Democrats (i.e., Loyalists, Tories, and Moderates) going back to the time of Thomas Jefferson sought to reduce military might, Obama has left America's forces in shambles; thanks to his blind arrogance and complete disregard for the well-being of the United States. As a progressive-socialist leader he seeks only to satisfy his myopic, twisted immediate needs to hold on to power, reward his friends and to punish his political enemies (the Republicans and America). Why didn't he send troops to protect these religious minorities including tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians who were suffering genocide under ISIS? Instead of just sending food packages, due to the fact that a couple of other religious groups apart from Christians were in trouble from ISIS, why doesn't he act as a real President would and utilize American troops to eradicate this terrorist group in a well planned, aggressive counterattack, which should have been initiated several years ago.

Likewise, Bruce Wayne's pride for his legacy over Gotham city led him astray to be ambushed by the Court of Owls in multiple instances, specifically within his own home. But as Batman he acted as a true champion of Gotham, eventually crushing the Talon army, and regaining control over not just his city as he puts it, but everyone's city, reflecting all the Gothamites strength in numbers. This is how America should act, electing a true president worthy of harnessing and welding America's military might against all enemies who seek us harm while upholding his sacred presidential oath – "To Protect and Defend the United States of America from all enemies; foreign and domestic."

© Stone Washington