10 Secrets Of Gotham City You Didn’t Know About

9. The Court Of Owls Controlled Gotham In Secret For Centuries

Gotham City
DC Comics/Russell Dauterman

The Court of Owls is a secret cabal that controls Gotham City behind the scenes through manipulation, intimidation, and violence. The leaders wore white owl masks to hide their identities, and to carry out their plans, the Court employed an army of highly trained assassins called Talons.

Some members of the Court were mutated Owl-like creatures with distorted faces, claws, and owl-like mannerisms. For centuries, this group operated so secretly that it fell into legend and became the subject of a children’s nursery rhyme.

In recent history, the Court of Owls targeted Bruce Wayne when he announced plans to rebuild and reshape Gotham City. As Batman began to investigate, he found that the Court had secret headquarters in every building established by his ancestor Alan Wayne. As such, the Talons made several attempts on Wayne’s life and failed, although Bruce under his Caped Crusader guise was later abducted and trapped in a labyrinth for a week without food.

The Court of Owls also got into conflict with the teenage vigilante collective We Are Robin. Nightwing, the foretold Grey Son, joined the Court as a double agent, where he discovered that the Gotham group is just a local branch of a global international cabal known as the Parliament of Owls. The entire Court of Owls was eventually wiped out by the Batman Who Laughs and his Robins.

Contributor
Contributor

John Wilson has been a comic book and pop culture fan his entire life. He has written for a number of websites on the subject over the years and is especially pleased to be at WhatCulture. John has written two comic books for Last Ember Press Studio and has recently self-published a children's book called "Blue." When not spending far too much time on the internet, John spends time with his lovely wife, Kim, their goofy dog, Tesla, and two very spoiled cats.