Random Happenstance

I hadn't read it before, but I got almost an entire run of Batman: Death and the Maidens from...where did I get that? Comic show? I had been sitting on it for a bit, and finally got around to reading it...and was a bit disappointed. Klaus Janson does a helluva job: it took me a long time to get him. He did a Star Wars Annual in 1983 I don't think I appreciated at the time. But, I've heard it said, everything you remember liking about Frank Miller's Daredevil? Yeah, that was Klaus Janson. Anyway, story-wise, Death and the Maidens I think introduces Nyssa al Ghul, who seems reasonable for maybe 30 seconds before becoming a complete psycho. Batman spends a good chunk of the series talking to, or hallucinating talking to, his dead parents; who are genuinely nonplussed by his career choices. Sure, they probably wanted him to be a doctor, or happy, or not basically living in a cave; but they are resolutely not impressed. And it pretty much breaks Ra's al Ghul for me, as he worked with Hitler during World War II. He didn't have anything against the Jews, or gypsies, or anyone else the Nazis put in camps; but he wanted to wipe out huge chunks of humanity and hadda start somewhere. And here we cross the line into "not fun at all," and I don't want to read another comic with Ra's, unless it involves him getting punched in the dick and set on fire.

Which doesn't happen in today's book: from 2014, Batman and Ra's al Ghul #32, "The Hunt for Robin: Dark of the Son" Written by Peter J. Tomasi, pencils by Patrick Gleason, inks by Mick Gray.

This wasn't the 32nd issue in Bats and Ra's's wacky adventures: Damian Wayne had been killed in 2013's Batman Incorporated #8, which I wouldn't have known if not for a spoiler-filled editorial at the end of the issue. With Robin gone since issue #18, it had been "Batman and" whoever since, but that was almost over. Batman and Frankenstein face off against R'as al Ghul in Nanda Parbat, where R'as intends to use a special pit and a Macguffin crystal to bring Damian (and maybe Talia?) back to life. Or turn them into soulless monsters. Eh, either or.

Batman actually has Damian's little coffin--and it has little bat-ears, for some reason--but can't clear out in time. Ra's tells him, stand in the way of bringing back his grandson, and he'll go after Alfred, "your bat disciples," Gotham, everyone. Batman counters: touch my son's body again, I'll kill you for good. Frankenstein offers to just cut Ra's in half for him, but this is long past personal now. It doesn't go the distance, though: Batman is seemingly on the verge of gouging Ra's's eyes out of his skull, when they're interrupted by the sudden appearance of a boom tube! Well, yeah, I guess those would always be sudden, wouldn't they. It's a delegation from Apokolips, led by...Glorious Godfrey? He looks more like Vermin Vunderbar here, with a military fetish uniform.

This was ramping up to a Robin-returns event, but not terrible. Could've done with more Ra's-getting-punched action, though.