while taking certain characters out of their affixed timelines isn't always successful, I did like when Neil Gaiman moved the whole Marvel Universe to the early 17th century in Marvel 1609. Nick Fury worked for Queen Elizabeth, The X-Men and Magneto were on opposite sides of the Inquisition, the Fantastic Four ties into a story about coming to the New World and Dr. Doom being...well Dr. Doom.

it was entertaining enough.

oh wait, Thor was the Knights Templar's secret weapon!

Batman doesn't always work in different genres. DC's attempt at placing Batman in a vampire setting (Batman & Dracula: Red Rain), though an obvious choice, was a horrible, horrible catastrophe of a book that I wish I could forget.

I enjoyed Court of Owls until

***SPOILER ALERT***

The Talon stabs him right through the gut with that giant knife in the labyrinth, beats him up for ten more minutes, and magically Batman stops bleeding and is somehow healed and ok.

I know it is a comic book, and blah blah blah, but it just killed the realism in a way that was completely unnecessary. Granted, the surprise page turn was shocking and beautifully illustrated, so maybe I am just being too harsh.