Court of Owls
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Real Identity: Unknown
Appearances (BTAC): Court Fight Part I and Court Fight Part Two
Powers/Skills: Business and Organized Crime
The Court of Owls is a secret society founded in the early years of Gotham City when Gotham City Hall was constructed. Money men and industrialists were in its ranks, including Gotham's founding families the Marches, the Mayfields, and the Hills. They wore masks even among themselves to protect their identities. The Court parceled out Gotham among themselves and manipulated local politics. They sought power and enveloped the lives of everyone in the city, like air. To enforce their will, the Court used Talons, vicious assassins who operated in the dark and were as mysterious or more so. They controlled hundreds of Talons. In the 1950s, Stanton Vreeland tried to expose the existence of the Court but a Talon was sent to kill him. As time passed, only Stanton Vreeland's son believed in the Court's existence and he collected evidence ever since, amassing a collection dating back to the 19th century.
Hamilton Hill stole a manual from General Vreeland's collection and came to believe it was his destiny to reclaim his family's legacy and rule the city. He planned to rebuild the Court with his family fortune. He staged his own death and was revived in secret. The Talon under his control came into conflict with Batman at Vreeland Manor following an attack on General Vreeland, Stanton's son, meant to be just a theft of the collection to remove any evidence the Court ever existed. Talon taunted Batman that the Court watched him for a long time skulking in the shadows and waging war on misfits only slightly more damaged. He claimed the Court could have eliminated him at any time but he was never worth the bother to eliminate until now for crossing them. Deadman tried to possess Talon three times and failed. The Talon warned him there was more to the Court than life and death and obstructing their justice would always end in agony. Hill had his son, Hamilton Hill Junior, brought to him at City Hall and offered him a chance to be part of the Court if he returned the family fortune he embezzled and if he refused he would die. Batman and Deadman intervened. Rather than surrender, Hill detonated charges and seeminly perished in the collapse of City Hall.