After the events of Batman 655-658, Grant Morrison unleashed multiple ghouls, old and new, into the then-current mainstream Batman title, with overwhelming success. Morrison’s story not only introduced Damian Wayne as an unforgettable, if very unlikable, staple in the main cast of Batman characters, but he also reintroduced the ongoing Al Ghul story back into the fray. I don’t exactly know when, but Ra’s Al Ghul died in some previous story and this time he is gone for good. Yes, as if the title didn’t give it away, The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul features his return, but unlike the previous Morrison story, this one is a bit different. Comics from the 2000s, particularly ones that focus on characters like Batman, tend to overuse the crossover formula. By 2007, it’s a very tired way of conveying stories and it only really exists as an easy way to sell a story and beat more money out of it. As a story that boasts crossovers with four different titles twice and two annuals, is The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul, with its multiple writers and creative teams, really a comprehensive story, or just another marketing ploy?
Batman 670-671, Annual 26, Robin 168-169, Annual 7, Nightwing 138-139, Detective Comics 838-839 were all published between October 2007 and February 2008. The epic storyline was written by Paul Dini, Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Fabian Nicieza,
and Keith Champagne, with art by David Lopez, Jason Pearson, Tony S. Daniel, Freddie E. Williams II, Don Kramer, Carlos Rodriguez, Ryan Benjamin, David Baldeon, Alvaro Lopez, Jonathan Glapion, Wayne Faucher, Javier Bergatino, Saleem Crawford, and Steve Bird. Yes, this is the only time I’ll be mentioning most of those names. I’ve read the story in its trade paperback.
Instead of throwing us right into the action early on, The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul begins with two annuals which basically set up the story and explain some past events. Batman Annual 26 focuses on Damian Wayne’s education and no, it doesn’t involve learning basic maths and biting another kid’s arm because they wanted to play with the toy cars. Talia Al Ghul, basically because the Al Ghul line demands it, must teach for her son about the legend of her father and his death. While that lovable dark brooding hero known as Batman is searching for two missing ecologists in a nearby desert, Talia basically retells the events of the Batman: The Birth of the Demon. It was a story written by Dennis O’Neil with art by Norm Breyfogle from 1993. It’s definitely the most interesting and readable of the three Demon stories. Regardless, Talia tells the story of a young Ra’s Al Ghul as a physician in a barren wasteland somewhere in North Africa. He is forced into a marriage by his teacher with a woman named Sora. From her, he learns of the Lazarus Pit and its secret liquid of immortality. However, it all goes wrong when one day, a Prince is dying and Ra’s Al Ghul uses the Lazarus Pit to cure him, but its effects send the prince to temporary insanity. He kills Sora and Al Ghul is banished. As you’d expect, Damian doesn’t care about the story. Meanwhile, Batman hears stories from people about Al Ghul’s past, including his alliance with the Duke of Wellington against Napoleon during the Battle of Waterloo. The whole backstory of Ra’s Al Ghul I’ve always found to be pretty boring. It’s the fact that it’s very predictable in that he’ll meet famous historical figures. These scenes are basically included to convey his journey to immortality and refining the Lazarus Pit for his needs. Elsewhere, Batman’s hunt continues, and he finds the two dead ecologists in a cave, both murdered. The Dark Knight enters the cave which just so happens to lead to Talia Al Ghul’s lair. What are the chances of that? There, Damian is becoming increasingly bored, and he tries to break into a secret Lazarus Pit room, but the villainous White Ghost stops him and orders him to continue learning the secrets of Ra’s Al Ghul. Talia and Damian both retreat while Batman battles the White Ghost and sends him to his apparent death with a push into the Lazarus Pit. In the end, Batman works out the Lazarus Pit was a factor in new moths appearing or some nonsense and the story is proved to be incredibly pointless. Seriously, they might as well have just reprinted Birth of the Demon. That part of the story is the only somewhat important part. The rest is just pointless.
The second prelude from Robin Annual 7 is a bit better. It focuses on Damian, now on his own on Cheung Chau Island, being a complete terror and basically abusing a kind old man who wants to give him some tea. Because there must be an ounce of remorse in the ten-year-old’s body, he drinks the tea and instantly faints. From there on in, Damian awakens in a graveyard where he is attacked by ghosts of children and former Robins. Without hesitation, Damian kills the other Robins and once the ghosts vanish, he pledges to kill anyone in his path. A mysterious hooded evil figure watches on, pleased. Unlike the other prelude, this one is actually important as you’ll see.
With the prelude issues finally done and dusted, we can finally get into the main eight-issue long story. Anyone remember I-Ching? No? Well neither did I until I looked him up after first reading this story. I-Ching was a Dennis O’Neil creation not from a title like Richard Dragon or The Question, but from Wonder Woman. Yeah, O’Neil’s run on the title is far from the best comics you’d ever read, but I-Ching, as Diana’s
friend, became a character of his own and appeared in several other titles. His importance here is minor as he is attacked by two assassins from Talia’s League and Batman works out from the Book of Changes (from I-Ching’s shop) that Nanda Parbat is involved (from Neal Adams’s Deadman run). A battle is brewing between the League of Assassins and Sensei’s breakaway group, while Talia Al Ghul hires a group of forgotten villains such as Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth. All of these characters first appeared in Batman 181 and nothing else since. How very Morrisonian. Anyway, they prove to be entirely useless as their task to get Batman out of the way fails quickly. Elsewhere, Ra’s Al Ghul has returned, and he is revealed to be the hooded figure who watched Damian in the second prelude. This time, Ra’s looks like a mummy and his decaying body is covered in bandages. However, Ra’s is angered when Damian fights back as he was created to obey his orders. Realising that her son is in danger, Talia creates a distraction and Damian escapes from Ra’s assassins, pledging that he will be back with his father. Later in Wayne Manor, occupied by Alfred and Tim Drake, Damian arrives through the secret Batcave entrance and, to put it mildly, Tim is not happy to see him. Now recovered from their fight, Tim doesn’t listen to Damian’s questions about Batman’s whereabouts and the two naturally have a battle. Elsewhere, Talia has been taken prisoner by her father, but Batman quickly arrives and rescues her from Ra’s assassins. Where’s Ra’s? Gone. This is one of many moments in the story where the whole thing could just end now, but it doesn’t because we’ve still got more books to sell. As Batman learns that Damian has gone to Gotham, there Damian and Tim continue their fight and Alfred is unable to stop it. This, however, doesn’t mean anything as Wayne Manor is then stormed by assassins looking to kill everyone but Damian. Before we get to that, I have to say that the biggest problem with this story is that it is dreadfully boring. For starters, Ra’s Al Ghul stopped being a truly interesting character after the stories of Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams because 1), his motives are as consistent as your local bus timetable, and 2) he never stays dead. Earlier on, this was an interesting feature, but since Ra’s Al Ghul has died and come back about a dozen times, there really isn’t much drama. I also think the story is at a disadvantage because there are too many writers and, apart from Morrison, all of them have a boring sense of storytelling. I’ll get more on that in a bit, but this story just feels too slow to me. Anyway, suddenly we are with Nightwing as he takes out a few criminals before appearing at Wayne Manor to be confronted by Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth. Three panels later, they are defeated (a nice touch which reflects how useless they are). Suddenly, Nightwing is met by over a hundred assassins and the end result is obvious from the start: Robin and Damian are captured. I don’t know how one-hundred assassins fail to capture Nightwing, one hero, but oh well. Meanwhile, Sensei has hired a group of assassins to help his side win. One of those is Merlyn, a Green Arrow villain, along with a group known as the Seven Men of Death. Ignoring their awful name for a minute, one of their more notable members is… The Hook. Yes, the same man who killed Boston Brand. Nice to see him back, but there’s one slight problem. The Hook was killed. Either this is another character or Crisis on Infinite Earths/Infinite Crisis changed things pointlessly while nobody was looking. Anyway, Damian and Tim are taken to Ra’s, who’s clearly lost his intelligence due to being dead and all that since Damian quickly escapes. Tim, on the other hand, finds himself on the receiving end of Ra’s temptation of power and immortality. Usually, this ploy would fail, and it would be a cliché to even feature it, but you have to remember that Tim Drake is a very different character since the events of Identity Crisis. His father has been killed, his best friends Superboy and Spoiler are also dead and just as he is taken under Bruce Wayne’s wing, Damian shows up and virtually steals the identity of Robin from him. Ra’s offering Tim the power to bring back his three dead loved ones is very tempting. Although Tim at first declines it, the temptation remains. Meanwhile in Tibet, Batman and Talia (yeah, remember them?) wander around in the snow. With the help of I-Ching, the three of them find Ra’s underground hideout, but they are mobbed by the League of Assassins. Oh yeah, while this is going on, Nightwing saves Alfred from Ubu (a cloned servant loyal to Ra’s). This raises one of the more glaring issues with this story. Throughout, there are too many characters doing too little. The core of this story lasts for eight issues, which is far too long since most of the characters spend the majority of it standing about or freeing themselves from one predicament before swiftly falling into another. That’s how the third part ends, with Ra’s ordering Batman to kill either Damian (yes, captured again) or Tim to save his own life. Good cliff-hanger, but the build up just isn’t worth it. Besides, the resolution isn’t anything to write home about either. To save both Damian and Tim, Batman tells Ra’s the location of Narda Parbat and the Fountain of Life. Despite his decaying and incredibly broken body, Ra’s climbs mountains with Batman to reach his goal, but Sensei’s hired assassins fight back. It is then revealed that Sensei is actually Ra’s Al Ghul’s son, a revelation that not only comes out of nowhere, but leads nowhere and doesn’t really have much of a point. It’s there purely for shock value. And like any good son, Sensei kills his father with his super-speed karate skills. Predictably, a fight breaks out between Batman and Sensei which, despite Tony Daniel’s half-decent art, lacks any interest or entertainment value. It ends when Sensei is thrown into the Fountain of Life, burning him alive. That’s where the story really should end. The villain is taken care of, and Ra’s Al Ghul is dead. However, the title of the story is “The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul” and that bit hasn’t happened yet. Has it? Oh wait, it has. You’d expect the resurrection scene to be quite dramatic and a moment that, for storytelling purposes, deserves to feature in a splash page. A scene of that scale would be very effective there, not in a tiny a square panel in the bottom-left corner of Batman 671’s penultimate page. Instead, the splash page is reserved for an angry (continued)
Batman. This part is by Morrison and to me, its just proof that he and many of the other writers were lumbered with this crossover story and that nobody wanted to tell. The essence and plot of the story isn’t bad, but its prolonged execution that makes the result really dull and energy-sapping. Meanwhile, instead of being with Ra’s and Batman, Tim and Damian, with Talia’s help, fight against the League of Assassins. Most of this scene focuses on Tim’s inner thoughts about Ra’s offer and this is the most interesting aspect of the story from here to the end. Meanwhile, Ra’s, in his new body (said to be only temporary) basically tells Sensei’s hired killers to go away since they proved to be useless, before he tries to convince Batman to join him (again). Back to the more interesting stuff, Robin decides to join Al Ghul after a run-in with the White Ghost and he is taken to the Lazarus Pit. I-Ching and Nightwing arrive just in time as Robin prepares to use the Pit to save those taken from him. As a duel breaks out, the White Ghost escapes, clearly and cleverly predicting another boring fight, typical of those fights you see between heroes where one tries to drag the other away from the dark side. My interest in Tim Drake’s story comes to head at the end of the battle in Nightwing 139. Nightwing accepts Tim’s decision (thanks to I-Ching’s advice), and he watches sadly as his young friend takes three samples of the Lazarus Pit, one each for Spoiler, Superboy, and his father. Nightwing just stares with sorrow in his eyes, before Tim drops the three samples and collapses, realising that he will be cheating death if he continues down that path. It’s a very emotional moment because it ties up some of the loose ends established not just in Batman and Son, but also Face the Face, Infinite Crisis, and Identity Crisis. That’s the peak of the story as we then return to Ra’s and Batman. Basically, by using Damian as his blood-child, Ra’s uses his body to resurrect his old body and somehow, all of those assassins who worked for Sensei, you know, Ra’s enemy, are now working for him like nothings changed. Regardless, the final part begins with huge inconsistency as Ra’s now looks old and decaying again, despite two pages earlier looking youthful again. Either way, Batman kicks Ra’s and he gets angry, before Nightwing and the mob turn up at the last minute for another fight and another pointless resurrection, this time with Ra’s using the White Ghost’s body. This whole train-wreck comes to an end when the spirits of Narda Parbat arrive and accuse Ra’s of abusing his and Rama Kushna’s power. He is forever banished from Narda Parbat and that’s it. Yeah, it’s just like he was given a red card on the football pitch and that’s the end of that. Batman goes home and he, Alfred, Tim, and Dick all celebrate Christmas for a somewhat happy ending. I think I’ve explained why I don’t really like this story. I think one of the problems is that I must have read this story about five times, and I don’t know why or if I really did. I think that it was so draining a story that my own mind has tricked me into thinking I’ve read it more times than I actually have. It’s not like Year One or The Killing Joke, two stories I have read about four times and have enjoyed them both on re-reads. This story gets worse every time I read it. Yes, the Tim Drake story-arch is by far the most interesting aspect, but when you read this story from the perspective of Grant Morrison’s Batman run, this isn’t very crucial to it. It does certainly expand on why Damian Wayne was created and Ra’s purpose for him, but if you were going to write a story about that, then at least make it interesting.
In terms of the art, I have to confess that all of it is very plain to me. Some of it may be more visually appealing than other parts, but all of it falls under that generic modern-looking comic book art. It’s difficult to judge it critically because of that. It lacks any uniquity and while artists like Tony Daniel and Don Kramer may be more known than others, their art never really stands out. None of the pencillers or inkers produce anything truly dreadful (with the possible exception of Ryan Benjamin and Saleem Crawford), but they all deliver something very dry and boring. As I mentioned earlier, the inconsistency of it also doesn’t help as characters often look radically different when drawn by different artists. This is to be expected and even desired to some extent, but not to the degree in which one character has about three different visual appearances throughout one story.
VERDICT
Overall, Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul is a story that can easily be cut in half and probably in half again. It’s an example of how overused the concept of crossovers became in the 2000s and how not everything works as one. There just isn’t enough plot to sustain ten issues, including two annuals. Definitely, the most enjoyable aspect of the story is Tim Drake’s inner conflict which comes to a satisfying conclusion, but apart from that, is the concept of Ra’s Al Ghul resurrecting himself really a story? He does it all the time. Why does this story deserve to be ten issues long? The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul is a draining read and not one that leaves you satisfied or content with it. Overall, if you only care about the essentials of Morrison’s run, give it a miss.
Story: 4.5/10
Art: 6/10
Next Week: Deadman: Still Dead (Deadman (vol 5) 1-6). Written and drawn by Neal Adams.
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