The Owl has a noir style with modern sensibilities and the mix makes this title from Dynamite a read worthy of your time and your hard earned dollars.

In the first issue of The Owl we learned he was trapped in limbo fifty years ago and dropped into modern time. He has changed with the times but now must discover the identity of the new Owl Girl. It can’t be his former love and partner against crime and the answers brings the past rushing back. The Owl knows that his former partner has long since past when he visits her grave and speculates on how her life went on after he was trapped into the prison of limbo. He comes face to face with the one who took up his former love’s mantle of Owl Girl and the harsh reality that she is the protector of the city he fights for so valiantly.

Once the origin of the current Owl Girl and the past of the original is deciphered Nick must face another hurdle as he tries to regain his hero mantle and deal with the reality of what he missed comes to pass. What begins as a new partnership between the past and the present is just as quickly destroyed when the modern way of fighting criminals clashes with the past. Nick is struggling to reclaim his identity as he deals with a future of which he was never a part. We also get a glimpse of the villains and evil that the Owl must face going forward and it’s not a pretty sight.

I love this type of story. J.T. Krul writes and flows between the style of the golden age and modern age with equal deft and determination. This isn’t a solely original idea but it’s done in such a way that it feels unique as it is timeless. Hubert Khan Michael handles the two styles with equal skill. Past and present never need to be spelled out in explicit detail as the writing and art make it blatantly obvious. Michael has a sensibility about how grand a golden age hero can feel and the toughness and brutality that comes with the modern age hero.

Dynamite handles the glory of the superhero as well as anyone and The Owl is a great new title any fan of the classic and current styles. This is good old fashioned story telling with a twist at it’s best.