When I looked at the cover of this issue, my reaction was ‘What the hell? Why does a Mister Freeze origin story have a Night Of The Owls banner slapped on it? It makes no sense!’. But thankfully, I was wrong, Scott Snyder and co-writer James Tynion IV managed to write a story that did both, and they did it in style. First off, the connection between Mister Freeze and the Owls is explained well, and makes sense, he is the one who gave them the means with which to resurrect the Talons. I really like that Snyder has given his new villains a connection with a more traditional Bat-baddy, it connects them a lot more to the world of Batman and makes the retconning less egregious. Speaking of retcons, this issue marks a pretty big change in the origin of Mister Freeze, but on that I think really works. Much of Freeze’s story is the same, but Snyder and Tynion make one important change, Nora is not Victor Fries’ wife, he’s just crazy and thinks she is. Yes, this does make him less sympathetic, but I’ve never been one for sympathizing with villains, and the crazier a Bat-villain is, the better. Jason Fabok’s art impressed me here, reminding me of a cross between David Finch and Shane Davis, good stuff, and he got to draw a lot of iconic Bat-characters, not just the main guy and Freeze, but also Nightwing, Robin and the Penguin, which was cool. Hah, get it, cool, I’m so funny.