Batman: Night of the Owls Reading Order

Overview

Batman: Night of the Owls is a DC Comics crossover event that has the members of the Bat-family fighting assassins from the enigmatic Court of Owls. Each of the event's issues has a different member of the family fighting a different assassin.

This event is centered around the Batman series, where the origin of the Night of the Owls is found. It then extends out into one (or two) issues from other comic series. Though most of these issues are pretty independent and, theoretically, could be read in any order, the order presented here tries to present the best possible way to approach this event.

*Technically, the events of Batman Annual #1 are part of the Night of the Owls. However, this issue has almost nothing to do with the Court at all. Instead, it almost exclusively focuses on Mr. Freeze. Fans exclusively interested in battles taking place between members of the Bat-family and the Court can skip this issue.

**These issues take place in the distant past and do not happen on the same night that everything else happens. However, they provide some neat background information about the Court and some of their past activities. In addition, only the backup stories from Batman #9-11 are necessary for this section of the reading order.

***ComicBookWire's reading order for this event is different from the reading order presented in this collection. The collection appears to be assembled in a way that puts the issues in chronological order based on the timestamp given at the start of the issue. However, this creates problems and spoils big moments (for example, readers will see "The Call" in other comics before seeing how or why this call is being made; also, a cliffhanger ending is ruined). We suggest the order we have presented here rather than the order presented in the collection.

Before Reading

Batman: Night of the Owls almost exclusively stems from events taking place across the first seven issues of the Batman series, all of which are collected in Batman: The Court of Owls (Review). This storyline sees the rise of the Court of Owls and shows how Batman's actions directly lead to the Night of the Owls taking place.

After Reading

Batman: Night of the Owls is directly continued through the Batman series. Batman #10-11, collected in Batman: The City of Owls (Review), addresses Batman's continued fight against the villains from this event.

Elements from this event are also continued in the Talon series, beginning with Talon Vol. 1: Scourge of the Owls (Review). This series features a rogue member of the Court of Owls continuing the fight against the villains.

In addition, the Court of Owls elements of the story from the Batgirl tie-in are somewhat continued in Batgirl Annual #1, collected in Birds of Prey Vol. 3: A Clash of Daggers (Review).

All DC Comics Event Reading Orders