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.
2 comments:
Yeah, and as horrible as it sounds, and it does, Ra's thinking that Hitler was inadvertently helping his own personal agenda does make sense...6 million people was probably a good start according to Ra's, but I'm sure he always thought Hitler and the Nazis could've done better and been more quicker about the mass killings rather than the slow, methodical way they were do it. I don't suppose the books over a reasons why Ra's never stuck around to help the Nazis, other then I'm thinking, it was simply inevitable at that point that they'd be defeated by the Allies.
Only a brand-conscious person like Batman would put his own son in a coffin with bat ears. That's so fucking Batman it's not even funny, except it is.
Personally, I'd have LOVED for Ra's to call Batman's bluff and do just that, just for Batman to finally snap and kill him, burn the body and then go find all of his Lazarus pits and blow them all up and bury them.
Y'know, I know there's a Batman Annual where Ra's is literally incinerated--on panel if I'm not mistaken--and he still comes back, with a handwave that it took something more than the Lazarus Pit. Like industrial strength, maybe.
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