I was reading the stories as they were coming out in 2011-2012 and I understood the interest in the Court of Owls aesthetic, and Capullo's art in the Labyrinth, but the whole notion of another secret society in Gotham had me sort of uneasy because of how many stories like that we had already. As the story progressed I just got really bored and couldn't see the purpose of this whole thing. The Thomas Wayne Jr reveal really felt uninteresting, and even after learning that this story was supposed to be written while Dick Grayson was Batman (and that Dick would be the one with a secret brother) it became clear that it was done out of laziness and the lack of vision from Scott Snyder. This week I decided to go back and reread it and felt the exact same thing. This phase of Scott Snyder in particular reminds me a lot of how JJ Abrams tells stories, setting up big mysteries and tension around the resourcefulness of the protagonist while being out of his depth, but in the end no meaningfull place to go from there.

I remember feeling the same thing with Death in the Family afterwards, and suddenly being surprised by how much I enjoyed Zero Year. After all this time I would like to hear from fans of the Court of Owls/ Night of Owls story arc. Could you explain why you appreciate the story after 10 years?