Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24262152-20131207110243/@comment-1038387-20131207111900

Batman: Court of Owls was the first storyline in the second Batman ongoing series. It is collected as "Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls" and "Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls", and "Batman: Night of the Owls"... among others.

The confusion here, I think, is partly our "fault". It's that this site uses "Vol" for a comic series (and has been doing so for years). So Batman Vol 2 1 is the first issue of the second ongoing, the New 52 series. DC has also been using it for their trade paperbacks (usually with a period, so "Vol.", especially when it collects several issues of one series that may or may not form a storyline. On their site, they tend to use "Batman (2011 Series)" for monthly series.

So, "Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls" collects the first 7 issues of the New 52 Batman series. "Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls" collects 8-12 and the first annual. "Batman: Night of the Owls", which does not have a "Vol.", collects multiple issues from different series. The #9 issues (and in some cases #8) of the Batman titles (i.e. half the titles) tied in to the Court of Owls, which everyone facing a Talon for themselves. It's a nice extra, but not really necessary for the storyline - the #8 and #9 issues of Batman are also included in "Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls".

Hope that answers your question.