How Old IS the Court?

The relaunched Batman series by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo has had many readers wondering how far back the history of the villainous Court of Owls might reach.

By hints left in the Gates of Gotham miniseries (co-written by Kyle Higgins with art by Trevor McCarthy), the Court has been kicking around since the turn of the 1900's. This is to be corroborated by the upcoming "Night of the Owls" crossover event by DC where an agent of the Court can be expected to show up in All-Star Western by Palmiotti, Gray, and Moritat. This is no surprise as there's been some owls not-so-subtly hiding in the backgrounds of the book thus far.

The reason why Carmen Sandiego never took up a motif.

Elsewhere in the DC New 52, designs that have been recently circling the internet indicate that the Talon assassin showing up in Judd Winick and Guillem March's Catwoman may have been creeping around since the mid 1600's (an armor we might have seen between the 13th floors in Batman #3).  Before the relaunch, keen-eyed readers might've noticed the hints leading up to the upcoming "Night of the Owls" in Scott Snyder's "The Black Mirror" with art by Jock and Francesco Francavilla.

Hiding in plain sight.

So how far back do the roots of the Court of Owls go? Here's where things get heady. In Batman #7 Capullo and Snyder rewrite the famous origins of Bruce Wayne deciding on his bat-symbol. No problem there, rejiggering canon is standard fare in comics. In this case we see the story languish a few more seconds from the bat's perspective during Miller & Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One series.

The hoots are coming... FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!

The moment is radical and terrifying. On a beastial level it sets up the Court as Batman's nemesis even before he had donned the cowl. Spooky stuff for Bruce, but we're not done. This is Snyder and Capullo playing with established Bat-lore, a new take on something old. What happens when we look at something that was done 25 years ago?

The joke's on us, gang.

In terms of print you could argue the Court's build-up goes as far back as Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke.

I'm not going to start screaming that Scott Snyder is the second coming of comicdom but when you compare these long-reaching visual clues to the revival of Swamp Thing (which he is also orchestrating) what we can see happening is a mind-altering implosion of comics-history folding in upon itself. Textually, you could argue the Court of Owls could have existed in comics since 1988. But lets be honest. No puzzle, no matter how complex, can weave in on itself this well. It has to be a fluke. Literature repeating itself. There is no possible way the Court could have existed for this long..

Wait, what was th--