Talon 1 ― Scourge of the Owls (The New 52)

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?

Scott Snyder is one of comics' best young writers. His current works include Batman, American Vampire and Swamp Thing. He has also been published in Zoetrope, Tin House, One-Story, Epoch, Small Spiral Notebook, and other journals, and has a short story collection, Voodoo Heart, which was published by Dial Press. He teaches at Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence University and lives in New York with his wife, Jeanie, and their children.