YMMV / Night of the Owls

• Paranoia Fuel: The nursery rhyme about the Court of Owls explains that the organization keeps watch of the Gothamites at all times and sends assassins to murder those whom they perceive as a threat to their interests. And the idea that a group knows more about Gotham than even Batman is quite a chilling idea. Even Batman is shaken by the thought.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Where he's normally a tragic character who genuinely wants to save his wife, this series depicted Mr. Freeze as a delusional psychopath who'd never even met the woman he was obsessed with (Nora having gone into cryostaisis before he was even born). DC Rebirth would undo this and return him to his prior characterisation.
• The Woobie: A surprising number of Talons are revealed to be this, when they're not zealously fanatical zombie assassins.
  • Mary Turner lost her face and her entire family in a bomb attack while they were on a picnic. Even the Owl who recruited her felt bad for the girl, and when fighting Batgirl she ultimately spares the vigilante because she too has a mask to hide behind.
  • Xiao Loong, a Chinese acrobat who's so tired of being a Living Weapon he asks Red Hood for a Mercy Kill, and the Hood ultimately complies in spite of his offer to help the Talon to rebuild his life.
  • Ephraim Newhouse was retired in disgrace, deprived of his armor and weapons to let everyone know of his shame. When Catwoman tells him she can help him to find his knifes, he's so desperate for redemption he's about to accept her offer...Then Penguin shoots him in the head.
  • Alton Carver was almost burned alive because his ringmaster felt he was too much of a coward. When he finds himself fighting Batman, fear consumes the poor guy again.
  • William Cobb started as one: he thought he could become one of Gotham's children, escaping poverty and marrying his sweetheart...only for the girl's father to reject him as a suitor because no matter how far he went, Cobb would never escape being born in the gutter. His decision to join the Court and help them to "change" Gotham firmly plunges him into Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds territory.