Geeking Out About Cinema #6: The Unofficial Batman Sequel Court of Owls Storyline

The movie opens up with Edward Nashton (the Riddler) getting assassinated in his cell by an unseen figure who he grins at in an almost unsurprised manner before getting killed. This death makes the news headlines which of course catches Batman's attention resulting in him immediately investigating. Batman's trip to Arkham ends up being a dead end considering that all of the security footage have been wiped with no trace of the killer found. He then starts to focus the investigation on the Riddler being a target and uncovers that Edward was apparently getting too close to uncovering something “game changing” about Gotham’s dark and corrupt secrets before his apprehension. Whatever this big revelation was, it gathered the attention of the mysterious party in question leading to his controversial assassination. As Batman embarks on this big detective story to try to find out who killed Edward, he learns that all of the Riddler’s journals and data was recently burnt and erased alongside every piece of evidence surrounding him. This raises even more suspicion. The only evidence left is whatever Batman manages to record and archive from his camera eye lens footage from before.

One night as Batman is out on the prowl trying to find more clues in Edward's apartment, he gets completely ambushed by a masked mercenary who almost kills him in a tactical and visceral assault. Batman, who barely survives the extensive surprise attack, manages to fight back eventually pinning the masked man up against a wall. And with a now severely damaged suit and bloodied face, demands for the masked mercenary to confess his connection to Edward’s death. The stranger coldly laughs and tells him “The puzzle guy in the looney bin? No one's paying enough to kill some locked up terrorist with a fetish for riddles. Looks like you got the wrong guy. I didn’t come to Gotham for him. They paid me for you.” Batman with a look of confusion then gets head butted back by the stranger who then proceeds to continuously slash through Bruce's armor with rapid sword strikes damaging it further. Bruce is barely holding his own this time as the battle extends becoming increasingly intense.

Despite all of the exceptional fighting prowess that Batman shows during the fight, the stranger manages to counter the majority of his moves eventually pinning him down to the ground. As the stranger holds up his sword ready to strike the killing blow, Batman throws a flash bang grenade followed by a smoke bomb allowing him to escape. The stranger calmly walks out of the smoke watching as the batmobile speeds off into the distance. The stranger pulls out a phone dialing a number and says “Tell the Penguin he’s gonna have to double the price. This might take a little longer than I thought”. Eventually, we get to the bat cave with Bruce walking out of the bat mobile staggering to his knees only being driven by sheer willpower at this point before eventually succumbing to his multiple injuries falling to the ground. Alfred is heard faintly in the background calling out to Bruce rushing to his need as everything blurs out transitioning to the next scene.

As Bruce wakes up in a hospital with bandages and stitches all over him, Alfred sits besides him in tears like an emotionally broken father watching a corpse of his son. Bruce looks to him and says “Alfred, I thought I had him. I thought I found our killer. But I was wrong. This guy Alfred. Whoever he is. I have to get back out there and find out who he’s working for.” Alfred then immediately responds with a sense of frustration “Get back out there? Are you mad?! Whoever he is almost killed you. Look at you! You barely made it home, and if I wasn't around, you'd be lying dead on the floor! The only thing keeping you together right now is a bunch of staples and bandages. Alfred pauses for a brief moment and tones down his voice as if realizing that he's talking to a young boy and not a grown adult. He then says "This isn’t some common thug on the street for you to interrogate Bruce, this is something else entirely." He then pulls out a computer tablet and shows Bruce an image from a dark web network of contract killers for hire. On the screen you can see that a massive bounty was put out for the Batman by none other than Oswald Cobblepot.

The contract is shown to have been accepted by only one candidate. A candidate with the alias “Deathstroke”. Bruce, shrugging at his injuries, laughs and tells Alfred “I guess I’m becoming more popular than I thought, huh Alfred.” Alfred then tells him “This is serious, Bruce. You can’t be running around out there trying to find some killer when the whole bloody world is simultaneously trying to kill you.” Bruce’s expression changes back to being serious then says “I have to Alfred. Because if I can’t, then who will? The police?" Alfred, seeing the determination in Bruce's eyes, then sighs and says “Well...while you were out meeting new friends, I took the liberty of doing a little more digging through your lens footage of Edward’s journals. I found something that I thought might be of interest. Something that Edward repeats a few times usually with a sense of agitation. He called it ‘The Riddle of Hoo Controls Gotham’ with this image beside it.” Alfred then holds up an image from Edward’s journal entry of what appears to be a rough sketch of a distorted owl face.

Bruce looks at the eerie image and, as if recollecting something from his past, says "Wait, I recognize that image from somewhere. I think…”. Bruce eyes then widens and looks at Alfred as if unearthing something that he thought was impossible. Alfred looks at him as if already ahead of him thinking the same thing and says “I know. As much as I’d like to think it’s a coincidence. I triple checked and it matches almost exactly”. Alfred then pulls out a ring with the same symbol and tells Bruce “I never thought I'd ever see your father’s old ring again which is why we need to thread carefully here. Bruce then stares at the ring with a combined look of disbelief and paranoia as if struggling with whether or not he wants to proceed at the risk of discovering something terrible about his father. 

Alfred then gently and cautiously asks “It’s your choice, Master Bruce. What do you want to do? Say the word and we can forget the whole thing. I’ll lock this ring up and we’ll never speak of it ever again”. Bruce glances away from the ring then looks back at the static image of Edward’s owl sketching. He then grips his side where Alfred’s stitches are as if being reminded of the brutal fight that he just underwent. This leads to him picking up the tablet with Deathstroke’s image staring at it. Camera cuts to his fists clenching. He puts the tablet down, turning to Alfred and says with the utmost confidence and determination “Let’s get to work”. 

Bonus Thoughts

So, You've Made It This Far...

I was so delighted to have seen such positive feedback from my alternate take on the Halloween movie franchise. I've decided to continue in that creative spirit now taking on the Matt Reeves directed Batman franchise. Here I wanted to explore what could, in my opinion, not only be a great Batman story to see done in live action, but also a natural step forward following the first film's corrupted city theme. I think the Court of Owls is one of the greatest Batman villains never put to film (with the Gotham TV series from the Fox network being the only attempt that we've gotten so far). Imagining the Court of Owls with the stylistic horror-noir visualization of Gotham City that Matt Reeves has portrayed would be a perfect combination of tone and theme. As for the Deathstroke scene...honestly...I've just been dying to see a Hollywood movie budget version of a Deathstroke action scene for over a decade now, so this was just an excuse to incorporate that wish.

Aside from that, I do think introducing Slade Wilson in this franchise would be a great way to physically challenge Batman showing him that there is more challenging obstacles beyond just mobsters with guns. I like the idea of this Batman barely surviving a fight realizing that needs to be even better than he thought he was pushing him forward to train. It brings new motivation to the iconic idea of Bruce pushing himself beyond what a human should probably put himself through in order to be "the best". With this version of Batman already struggling to find that dual identity balance that Alfred was talking about in the first movie, I think having a Deathstroke confrontation can bring in both some amazing action spectacle and also some new dramatic layers to Bruce's complexed life of vigilantism. 

Hope you guys enjoyed my rough idea for a Batman sequel that I literally typed up from ideas floating at the top of my head in the moment. If you enjoyed it, please do share the word around so that other Batman fans (and maybe even Matt Reeves himself?...wishful thinking) can weigh in on it. This was just a nice fun creative exercise for me as an amateur writer who never get to fully exercise his storytelling exploits in between doing movie and TV reviews. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day.