I enjoy watching Arrow with my wife, even though it's slowly driving her insane the way every actor on the show seems to have decided to pronounce the "R'as" in R'as al Ghul differently. But that reminds me again, how much that show swipes from Batman and his mythology. That and the show's stars are largely responsible for its success. I actually have an episode of Gotham running while I type this, and I swear Arrow takes more inspiration from Batman than Gotham does.
Anyway, over the weekend, the Comic Book Shop had that in-store convention; and I had the chance to get a pile of cheap books. Like today's! From 1980, Brave and the Bold #159, "The Crystal Armageddon!" Written by Denny O'Neil, art by Jim Aparo. Although the League of Assassins is traditionally thought of as working for R'as, they were working for themselves this issue, and were leaning on a scientist and his brother. Professor Hatter had created a formula that turned anything it touched into crystal; seeing the potential use as a weapon, the League tried to use the professor's brother has a hostage, but he was killed trying to escape. Distraught, Hatter decides to use the formula to destroy the world, fortunately Batman and R'as have been working the case and figured that silicone halts the crystal's progression.
Since this is a one-and-done, it's not super-deep, and slightly slowed by R'as up and dying partway through and having to hit the Lazarus Pit. Still, R'as probably wasn't as well-established a villain then as he is now, so this issue may have been a nice little introduction for some.
I hear ya man. I don't watch Gotham because the premise is dumb as hell to me. Why do I need to watch a show about young bruce while waiting for god knows how long the show lasts, to see him eventuall get old enough to board a plan to learn his Batman skills?
ReplyDeleteSeriously? How much older do his rogue's gallery look compared to him?
Arrow's as close to a live-action TV Batman as we're gonna' get for awhile.
Minor nitpick though. The hell couldn't they have cast a more accurate-looking Ra's?
Crazy.
And I hear you about the constant mis-pronunciation of Al Guhl's name.
You can probably blame it on Batman Begins s to where they got started. I first heard and learned of him on B:TAS, and they used the correct pronunciation.