As a young performer with Haly s Circus, young Calvin Rose was secretly being raised to be a master assassin a killing machine called a Talon. The Talons have always served the mysterious Court of Owls, a group of wealthy individuals who will stop at nothing to maintain their grip on power in Gotham City. When Rose defects from the Talon s ranks, he is marked for death and spends the next few years using all his training to hide from his former masters. After years on the run, Rose finally returns to Gotham City following the horrors of The Night of Owls. He ll set off to investigate what remains of the Court of Owls, but will he be able to gain his freedom at long last? This collection includes some of the earliest Gotham City tales from current Batman mastermind James Tynion IV, and his The Joker collaborator Guillem March springing forward from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo s instant-classic Batman story, The Court of Owls! Collects Talon #0-17.