To comment upon Batman: Son of the Demon, and Batman: Bride of the Demon, and say that they are bad stories would be incorrect. They are far from masterpieces, nor even stories with high-quality writing. Their biggest failings are their lack of memorability and forgettable plotting and writing. Precedence may not seem to bode too well for the final instalment in the trilogy – Batman: Birth of the Demon. Throughout this trilogy, Ra’s Al Ghul has naturally been the antagonist, but each story has focused on a different element of the villain’s character, obsessions, or goals. Son of the Demon explored Ra’s Al Ghul need for a male heir, while Bride of the Demon expressed his extreme belief that humanity must die for Earth to live. The plot to Birth of the Demon may seem clear just from the title, but it must be remembered that – at this stage – the origin of the Demon’s Head is cloudy and almost unknown. Here, we finally have the definitive backstory to Batman’s immortal foe. And who should be our guide, but the man who co-created the villain – Dennis O’Neil.
Batman: Birth of the Demon was published in January 1993. Written by Dennis O’Neil and drawn by Norm Breyfogle, a household name of the Dark Knight’s adventures in the 1990s, this one-off makes up the final third of the Birth of the Demon collected edition (a confusing name, given how it reprints all three tales).
It’s difficult to believe that it took writers almost twenty years before deciding that the origin of Ra’s Al Ghul must be told. Why such a tale remained a mystery for so long is impossible to say. Perhaps it is because writers, like Dennis O’Neil for instance, knew that much of the attractiveness of Ra’s Al Ghul was his immortality, and the mystery that went with it. For all the centuries that Ra’s Al Ghul has lived – kept alive by the bizarre chemicals of the Lazarus Pits – he has witnessed the rise of rulers, the disintegration of dynasties, and most powerfully of all, the tragedies of time. In the stories of the present, began by O’Neil and Adams in the 1970s, Ra’s Al Ghul is the leader of the League of Assassins – effectively mercenaries who work for the Demon’s Head, regardless of logic – and he has a daughter, Talia. Mike W. Barr uncovered scant details of Ra’s Al Ghul’s past life with a wife, but this detail was never expanded upon, and it didn’t take long for DC to proclaim that Son of the Demon never happened. It’s with this that we realise that Ra’s Al Ghul is a mysterious character whose life of immortality has naturally endured much suffering and loneliness. After all, how can one enjoy immortality when others – those you love – cannot be with you forever. It’s that tragedy which acts as a core theme for Batman: Birth of the Demon.
Dennis O’Neil’s chronicle takes the Dark Knight out of Gotham and to the deserts of North Africa. Such a relocation scheme would usually be puzzling were readers to forget the empire of Ra’s Al Ghul and his Lazarus Pits. These early pages do more than set the scene – they establish the Dark Knight of the bronze age with a tinge of Dark Age fear. This Dark Knight hides in the shadows and strikes utter fear into his villains – in this case, a group of excavators who are digging up the ruins of a church. Batman succeeds in defeating these miscreants, despite falling into nearby toxic waste which renders the Dark Knight ill for much of the story. Such a detail seems strange, but it is a constant feature throughout. There is a lot of mystery in these early pages, but unlike in Bride of the Demon when Barr prolonged the enigma to its detriment, O’Neil swiftly unveils the plot. Batman is on the hunt for the last remaining Lazarus spots in Africa. These are locations where the right mixture of usually dangerous chemicals can bring a working Lazarus Pit into existence. Batman’s intelligence suggests that Ra’s Al Ghul is in dire need of a Lazarus Pit due to ailing health. The villain has been hiring excavators to dig pits in potent areas where a pit can be created with success. Somehow, Ra’s Al Ghul didn’t realise that doing such an open operation, even at night, would attract the attention of the Dark Knight. You’d have thought that Ra’s would have unleashed the full might of his League of Assassins to prevent Batman from doing further damage, but instead he lets Talia handle it. Why Ra’s continues to place his faith in a daughter who has betrayed him countless times is impossible to say. However, that leads to a confrontation between Batman and Talia which leads into the core of the story. Standing upon the site of what could be the last Lazarus Pit, Batman reveals to Talia that researchers funded by Wayne Enterprises have discovered diary entries written in an ancient language. These are the pages which reveal the truth – the origin of Ra’s Al Ghul.
It’s with page-turner of an introduction that the fluidity continues in a long recollection of the story of how a mere physician became the Demon’s Head. This is a tale with no date – it is assumed to have taken place centuries ago. Ra’s Al Ghul was born in North Africa, with only his mother present to look after him once his father vanished upon his birth. His father predicts a long life for his son – and a life which will either bring harmony or destruction to humanity.
The story fast-forwards two decades to when Ra’s Al Ghul is a young physician and a friend of Sultan Salimb, a dictator of the deserts. Life seems ordinary for a young doctor whose loathing of death eternally fuels his work, but very suddenly, his world is changed forever. The Sultan’s son is dying from disease; he requests the physician to save the heir to his throne. At first, it seems that Ra’s can do nothing, but it all changes with a dream. Oddly, Ra’s decides not to sleep in his home, but deep in the desert. Unbeknownst to him, he sleeps upon blessed sands. He dreams of a pit that can bring the deceased back to life. He dreams also of death, a daring concept characterised by a shrieking bat. This is where Ra’s Al Ghul’s lust for immortality comes. In his dreams, he discovers the scientific formula which can create a Lazarus Pit. Such a pit can only be created in certain places – the sites which come to Ra’s in dreams. For such a seemingly scientific man, the fact that dreams bring Ra’s Al Ghul the source of his immortality rather than either accident of scientific discovery is admittedly disappointing, but it doesn’t detract from the drama of events. Ra’s Al Ghul uses his first Lazarus Pit to revive the Sultan’s son, but through tragedy, Ra’s discovers the pit’s liability to render those replenished by it go temporarily insane. This happens to the Sultan’s son; in his manic frenzy, the ruler’s son kills Ra’s Al Ghul’s young wife. Feeling no such forgiveness, the Sultan places responsibility of her death onto Ra’s himself. He is imprisoned in the desert with the corpse of his wife, seemingly left for dead. It was typical that tragedy was to strike in any origin story of a Batman foe, but O’Neil – and thanks massively to Breyfogle’s drama – delivers a powerful story where we experience a very different kind of Ra’s to the one, we usually see. The chronicling of Ra’s Al Ghul’s fall is deeply emotional and tragic, but his rise is all-the-more glorious.
Like all good writers, Dennis O’Neil places details or scenes into a story which – seemingly – don’t appear relevant or important until much later. This could include a certain line of dialogue, or perhaps even the appearance of a brand-new character whose future importance couldn’t be predicted until later events. This can be said about Huwe, a native whose mother is killed by the recklessness of the Sultan and his son in a horseracing contest which Ra’s took part in. At first, Huwe holds nothing but hatred for Ra’s; he wants him dead for what happened to his mother. However, earlier in the story, Ra’s came to help tend to Huwe’s mother’s wounds. Although in vain, Ra’s Al Ghul’s efforts put him in Huwe’s good books. With Ra’s imprisoned by the Sultan, Huwe comes to his aid. Together, united in their disdain for the Sultan, they unite with the nomads to begin a rebellion. Why the outlanders decide to unite with Ra’s so suddenly, especially as they are known for their bloodthirstiness, is odd, but it’s with this where we begin to see the cunning mastermind of the present emerge. With the Sultan’s son ill once again, Ra’s creates a deceptive plan to lure them both to the deserts and destroy the Sultan’s empire. The desire for revenge has transformed Ra’s from a person of fear into a character who strikes it within others. He digs another Lazarus Pit, but this time it is not upon one of the sacred grounds. It is a ruse, one which leads to the Sultan’s son to decay and die the second his skin makes contact with the false pit. Breyfogle depicts the Sultan’s son’s death with true horror, and Ra’s reaction of glee and revenge with true menace. This is the firing gun to the start of Ra’s rule – the Sultan is murdered, and within hours Ra’s leads a new empire in North Africa. O’Neil certainly writes a dramatic and effective tale for Ra’s Al Ghul’s rise to power. His transition from youth to ruler is a brutal one, especially because for much of the tale, we are on his side. We want him to overcome the evil of the Sultan, but within a matter of pages, his obsession with power and love of the Lazarus Pit – the first usage of which for Ra’s is conveyed excellently by Breyfogle – makes him into a daring villain. The backstory also explains how Ra’s came upon the name ‘Demon’s Head’ but falls short of filling in further blanks. The establishment of the League of Assassins, and the birth of Talia remains unknown, but perhaps keeping some mystery is good. It's easy to pick out a few plot holes – the largest one being the fact that surely Ra’s, who’s heartbroken state would approve of this, could use the Lazarus Pit to return his wife to the land of the living. Why he never even contemplates this is a mystery. Regardless, the backstory is entirely gripping.
O’Neil wrote the scenes of the past so vividly and with such captivation that returning to the present feels like a crash-landing. Nevertheless, Talia reveals that these diary entries conveying the past were written by Huwe, who himself enjoyed the longevity of the Lazarus Pit. Although Ra’s Al Ghul forbade him from chronicling their adventures, Huwe ignored him. Ra’s wasn’t happy when he discovered the truth, and such a fight to burn Huwe’s papers led to Ra’s killing his immortal friend in rage. That in itself is a tragic tale perhaps for another time – unlike the previous stories in the trilogy, this one is considered canon. Most of Huwe’s papers survived; part of me feels that with such potential and content here, O’Neil could have penned a decent four-issue miniseries, rather than be confined to the limitations of a one-off. Regardless, we finally know the origin of Ra’s Al Ghul. Thankfully some mystery remains, but from what we know, we are privy to a more tragic figure than previously known.
It's a shame that this story – like most it seems – must conclude with a fight. Ra’s Al Ghul appears and demands to use the final Lazarus Pit. We end up with potentially the messiest fight in comic book history, with the dirty fighting on show and blood and gore covering the pages. Even with Batman poisoned and Ra’s dying of old age, you get a fast-moving battle full of rage. In the end, Ra’s cannot overcome the Dark Knight, and the fight is taken over by the desert storm. Hours later, the sun rises. Batman is recovered, seemingly from the Lazarus Pit. Ra’s and Talia are nowhere to be seen, but the pit is gone. What happens next is a mystery, as are the locations of Ra’s and Talia. It’s safe to assume that they are alive and will return in the future. While the plot in the present of defeating Ra’s and rendering any Lazarus Pits useless makes for a good story, it’s really the origin story which naturally makes Birth of the Demon a very good read. With its drama and characterisation of Ra’s Al Ghul, this is something of a forgotten classic. It may have its inconsistencies, but Dennis O’Neil proves himself as a writer of flair and brilliance.
Throughout the entirety of the story, O’Neil is aided by the wonderful drama of Norm Breyfogle. His angular style is on show here, but with such emotion and drama in the story, the expressive style of Breyfogle works sensationally well. The darkened scenes in the desert have an eerie mood to them, and it’s a setting where a menacing and paranormal-like Dark Knight fits right at home. Meanwhile, those flashbacks in the past are perhaps brighter, but not lacking some strong and memorable storytelling. As for the fight scene at the end, Breyfogle creates a sense of sharp brutality, and each panel is hard-hitting. Norm Breyfogle also does wonders for his own artwork by colouring it all with paints. It gives the tale an archaic, but dramatic feel. Compared to the two previous stories in the trilogy with their admirable but highlight unoriginal visuals, Birth of the Demon contains some wonderful scenes with Breyfogle perhaps at his best.
VERDICT
Overall, Batman: Birth of the Demon easily towers above its two prequels. Dennis O’Neil finally unveils some of the mystery to Ra’s Al Ghul’s origin and it is far from disappointing or anti-climactic. This is an epic story full of drama and emotion, and while the story in the present may lack the same effect as the tales of the past, overall it makes for a wonderful one-off. Next to the original Tales of the Demon stories – the original Ra’s Al Ghul works of O’Neil with the likes of Adams, Brown, and Novick from the 1970s – this is a definitive story in the saga of the Demon’s Head. Thank goodness a trilogy which seemed so disappointing ended on a high!
Next Week: Doomsday Clock (Doomsday Clock 1-12). Written by Geoff Johns with art by Gary Frank.
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