Ra's al Ghul, Father of the Year

Now that Clara is getting old enough to watch movies not aimed at people with childish intellects (like, for example, children), I watched the Batman movies with her—the four from the 80s/90s and the 2 new ones (but, not the old 1960s one (movie or TV show)—I know what she would say about that era and it isn’t pretty).  There are some really good movies there—the two Nolan one are incredible, and I really like the Jack Nicholson as Joker movie.  (Clara, sadly was not fond of the new ones—too much plot—as Emma kept telling her, “Don’t worry, Clara, something is going to blow up soon.”  Perhaps Clara isn’t old enough for non-tweener movies yet—come to think of it the movie she is most looking forward to seeing this summer is Monte Carlo a “Selena Gomez looking for life after Wizards of Waverly Place” vehicle—how sad should I be that my daughter would rather see Selena Gomez as a “girl pretending to be a British heiress and then falling in love with someone who thinks she really is an heiress and I have seen this movie about 200 times before”—she would rather see that movie than Thor, Green Lantern or Captain America?  But, I digress.)

Batman Begins reminded me that I didn’t know a whole lot about Ra’s al Ghul; he is in that movie and he had an interesting role in Hush, but I never really knew the complete back story.  Then I discovered that DC Comics has prepared a book just for people like me (yes, there are obviously other people like me—else this book would not exist.  QED.). 

Batman: Tales of the Demon is a collection 11 Batman comics from 1971 through 1980 which introduce Ra’s al Ghul.  The stories were all written by Dennis O’Neil.  Typical 1970s comic books—so if you read it, don’t expect anything in the way of depth or artistic brilliance.  And reading these old Batman books is a stark reminder of how much Frank Miller reinvented the character.  You can see it in the difference between the Adam West/George Clooney Batman and the Christian Bale Batman.  (By the way, George Clooney, for all his cringe inducing portrayal of Batman was depressingly close to the way Batman was in the 1970s.)  (I liked Michael Keaton’s Batman; Adam West has charm; but I could do without Kilmer and Clooney.)  (Bale is obviously amazing.) (But, I digress again.)

Batman: Tales of the Demon,  to begin again, collects the comics which introduce Ra’s al Ghul (but you knew that if you read the previous paragraph).  On the whole, the stories are fun, but not deep.  Ra’s is a curious villain—super-smart, knows Batman’s secret identity, and manipulates Batman in overly intricate schemes intended to help Ra’s reach World Domination.  Ra’s daughter is a serious Love Interest for Batman.  Ra’s originally hopes to make Batman his son-in-law and heir to a vast worldwide criminal empire.  And all this potential for interesting stories simply fizzles—rather disappointing actually.  (And don’t say, “Well what did you expect? It is a comic book.”  I expect comic books to be great literature.)

Well, at least Batman Begins reinvents Ra’s in a rather intriguing way.