Spoiler warning: this article discusses events from Absolute Batman #17, #18, #23 and #24, including developments involving Martha Wayne.
The Court of Owls from Batman (2011), introduced by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo during the New 52, is a secret society associated with wealthy families that manipulate Gotham from behind the scenes. In Absolute Batman, the series launched in 2024, the Court returns in 2026 with roots in a popular resistance movement, a personal connection to Martha Wayne and a history shaped by Scarecrow’s manipulation. This is more than turning villains into heroes: the group’s social position, public reputation and role in Bruce’s past have changed.
Which Batman continuity is being compared?
The original storyline began with Batman #1, released in the United States in September 2011, and continued through the Court of Owls arc and City of Owls in 2012. In this New 52 continuity, Bruce Wayne has wealth, influence and what appears to be an exceptional understanding of Gotham. Snyder used the Court to expose the limits of that knowledge: the detective had not identified the hidden forces behind his own city’s history.
Absolute Batman #1 was published in October 2024, again written by Snyder, with Nick Dragotta as the principal artist. This is a separate continuity: Bruce lacks the family fortune, mansion and conventional relationship with Alfred. Snyder writing both versions does not make the events of 2011 part of Absolute Batman’s canonical past.
What actually changed about the Court of Owls?
| Aspect | Batman (2011-2012) | Absolute Batman (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Social position | Conspiracy rooted in Gotham’s established wealthy families. | Presented through former idealists and a resistance network rather than the same New 52 oligarchy. |
| Role in Gotham | A hidden power seeking to preserve its control, employing assassins called Talons. | Its history involves resisting violent forces before Scarecrow’s manipulation fractured the group. |
| Connection to Bruce | The Court challenges Batman’s belief that he knows Gotham and threatens his family circle. | Martha Wayne’s personal ties to members bring the mystery into Bruce’s immediate family. |
| Moral framing | An established collective antagonist in the original story. | Its resistance origins do not erase the violence, suspicions and internal conflict shown in #18. |
| Issues to read | Batman #1-11 and the related collected editions. | Absolute Batman #17-18, clarified further in #23-24. |
The change in social class needs qualification. Early coverage of #18 described the Absolute Court as resistance against Ark M’s apparatus and the Joker’s interests. In #24, Martha adds that Scarecrow helped create the image of an all-powerful wealthy cabal, using fear and misinformation to turn Gotham against the organization and divide its members. That is the character’s account, not proof that every Court member is morally beyond reproach.
Martha Wayne: from family history to a Court secret
In DC’s account of the traditional continuity, Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered during Bruce’s childhood. The original Court has ties to Wayne family history and Gotham’s secrets, but the 2011 arc does not establish Martha as a former leader of the society. This reveal cannot simply be imported into the older continuity.
At the end of Absolute Batman #17, released February 18, 2026, Martha attempts to reconnect with the Court. Issue #18, released March 11, explores her past with its members and ends in violence against her, seemingly suggesting an execution. That explains why March reports considered her death possible, but the scene did not justify declaring her fate final or assuming that the original continuity’s resurrection mechanisms apply to this version.
What do issues #23 and #24 establish?
The story kept moving. In Absolute Batman #23, published in August 2026, Martha is shown alive as she confronts Bruce amid his spiral into paranoia. In #24, released September 23, she speaks to her son again, links the breakdown of her former Court to Scarecrow’s schemes and supplies information to track him down, along with the offer of a new identity for Bruce. As of October 2026, saying Martha definitively died in #18 contradicts the later events described in coverage of those issues.
Snyder had already signaled in July, in comments reported by Popverse from an AIPT podcast appearance, that Martha would return to explain the Court’s history and its conflict with Scarecrow. The remark helps explain his storytelling plans, but coverage of #23 and #24 is what separates March’s cliffhanger from developments published later.
What remains unclear, and which similarly named book is different?
The Absolute Court should not automatically be assigned the earlier society’s Talons, resources or survival rules. Nor does the resistance origin Martha describes prove that every present-day member shares the same motives or that the entire mystery is solved. DC lists issue #25 for October 28, 2026, which was still in the future as of this article’s October 26 research cutoff; its contents are not treated as already published.
There is also a naming trap. Absolute Batman: The Court of Owls, the deluxe volume released by DC in 2015, is an Absolute Edition reprinting Snyder and Capullo’s Batman #1-11 storyline. It is not part of the Absolute Batman narrative universe established in 2024. The 2026 changes happen in that new series, not in the older collected edition.
Sources and references
- DC: Batman Noir, The Court of Owls
- DC: Batman Vol. 2, City of Owls
- DC: Absolute Batman #1
- DC: Absolute Batman #17
- DC: Absolute Batman #18
- DC: Absolute Batman #23
- Synnistry: resumo narrativo de Absolute Batman #23
- DC: Absolute Batman #24
- DC: Absolute Batman #25, ficha de lançamento
- DC: Absolute Batman: The Court of Owls, edição de 2015
- Omelete: Corte das Corujas em Absolute Batman #18
- Popverse: Scott Snyder sobre Martha Wayne e a Corte
- The Batman Universe: análise de Absolute Batman #24
- SYFY Wire: Scott Snyder sobre a origem da Corte
- DC: conversa com Snyder e Dragotta sobre Absolute Batman
