Talon #16 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Jorge Lucas (artist), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Don’t listen to Lord Death Man; the cake is a lie.

The Review: Talon has always been a very special little series. Bolstered by Scott Snyder’s undeniable success, DC was willing to try something new, debatably the first original character to hold a title in the New 52, followed only by The Movement.

This trust paid off and, though Talon is ending, it had a tight fifteen issue run under James Tynion IV. As such, it feels strange to be spending an issue with Calvin Rose and his associates again after Tynion’s departure and Marguerite Bennett’s look at the history of the Talon name last month. In many ways this issue had all things against it.

It’s very interesting how different Tim Seeley’s writing is from Tynion’s. The first and clearest difference is Seeley’s surprising choice to use a third-person omniscient narrator. Omniscient narrators have really been on the way out for the past decade, and it’s definitely jarring to come back to Calvin’s story with a different narrative perspective, but while he won’t be hailed as the second coming of Chris Claremont – something even Chris Claremont can’t do – Seeley actually pulls it off quite admirably. It helps that he shows appropriate restraint but the ability to comfortably highlight important themes and provide clarification without introducing more panels is a godsend for this two-part finale.