| Ra's al Ghul | |
Ra's al Ghul. Art by Chiff Chiang. |
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| Publication information | |
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| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Batman #232 (June, 1971) |
| Created by | Dennis O'Neil Neal Adams |
| In-story information | |
| Team affiliations | The Demon League of Assassins Underground Society |
| Notable aliases | The Demon's Head, Terry Gene Kase |
| Abilities | - Genius-level intelligence - Extended lifespan through the use of Lazarus Pits. - Adept at hand-to-hand combat, Fencing and Alchemy. - Holds several lifetimes worth of skills, resources and contacts. |
Ra's al Ghul, sometimes written Rā's al Ghūl (Arabic: رأس الغول), is a DC Comics supervillain and an enemy of Batman. His name is Arabic for "The Demon's Head", and references the name of the star Algol. Created by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams, he was introduced in Batman #232's "Daughter of the Demon" (June 1971). He has also come into conflict with Superman and other superheroes in the DC Universe.
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Ra's al Ghul is an international terrorist and assassin whose ultimate goal is a world in perfect environmental balance. He believes that the best way to achieve this balance is to eliminate most of humanity. Ra's usually tries to assault the world's human populace with a biological weapon, such as a genetically-engineered virus. He is aided in this quest by the Lazarus Pits, reservoirs of rejuvenating chemicals that restore the dying to life; these pits have granted him a lifespan of several hundred years.
He considers Batman his most worthy opponent, and has frequently sought to make the Dark Knight his successor. He is one of the few criminals in Batman's rogues gallery to have deduced his secret identity as Bruce Wayne. For his own part, Batman's opposition to Ra's is complicated by his love for the villain's daughter, Talia.
Ra's al Ghul's early life and exact age are somewhat difficult to recount by writers. The current, in continuity, origin story is told in the graphic novel Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992) by Dennis O'Neil and Norm Breyfogle.
As told in Birth of the Demon, Ra's al Ghul is born over six hundred years before his first appearance in Batman comics, to a tribe of nomads in a desert somewhere in Arabia, near a city whose inhabitants' ancestors have journeyed to the Arabian Peninsula from China. Ra's is interested in science from an early age, and abandons his tribe to live in the city, where he can conduct his scientific research. He becomes a physician and marries a woman named Sora, the love of his life.
Ra's discovers the secret of the Lazarus Pit, and he saves a dying prince by lowering him into it. The prince, who is sadistic to begin with, is driven completely insane by the Lazarus Pit. He proceeds to strangle Sora, on whom he has already had his eye for some time. The ruler of the city, unwilling to admit to himself his son's culpability, declares Ra's guilty of the crime and sentences him to a slow, tortured death in a cage with Sora's corpse.
Ra's is set free by the son of a dying elderly woman, whom Ra's had earlier examined. The son feels that he owes Ra's a debt for easing his mother's suffering during her last few hours. Ra's and the son head into the desert to seek the tribe of Ra's birth. Ra's convinces the head of his tribe, his uncle, to follow Ra's in his quest for revenge by promising the downfall of the king of the city. By understanding the germ theory of disease hundreds of years before anyone else, Ra's is able to infect the prince with a deadly virus by sending him contaminated fabrics. When the ruler of the city comes to ask Ra's to cure the prince again, Ra's kills both him and his son. Ra's then leads his tribe to raze the city to the ground and kill all of its inhabitants. Subsequently, Ra's declares himself the "Demon's Head".
Note: Batman: Birth of the Demon provides a rough figure of 500 years for Ra's al Ghul's age. Due to living so long, he assumes to have lost track of how old he is. However, Azrael #6 (July 1995; written by Dennis O'Neil) places Ra's age closer to 450 years. "I appear to be a vigorous fifty. I am actually a very vigorous four hundred and forty-eight...or is it four hundred and fifty-three? I lost count during the Black Plague. No matter." - Ra's al Ghul to Jean Paul Valley (Interesting to note here, however: this statement would have to imply the bubonic plague in England as the original black death took place in the 14th century).
However, in Batman Annual #25 (published in 2006), Ra's Al Ghul is described as a "700-Year Old International Terrorist".
Ra's spends the next several centuries journeying the world. He fights in the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolution and becomes a formidable warrior. During this time, Ra's, his uncle, and the boy are all using the Lazarus Pits to prolong their lives until an incident in London. Ra's catches the boy writing his own memoirs in their original language, of which Ra's has forbidden all records. During a battle, Ra's kills the boy and flees to a Lazarus Pit, which he uses. When he returns to their home in London, his uncle has vanished with the remnants of their historical records.
Over time, he becomes a master of many forms of combat, notably fencing. He also builds up vast wealth and creates The Demon, a huge international organization. According to Justice League of America (1st series) #94: "It has been whispered in the darkest places for 500 years that a cartel of criminals has slowly sucked its way into the rich veins of the Earth. Many are its names spit from the mouths of men, but most often it is cursed only as ...The Demon. It has a leader ... a Head." The League of Assassins, one of the many smaller organizations making up The Demon, is thus sometimes called "The Demon's Fang" or "Demonfang".
Ra's returns to prominence and comes dangerously close to realizing his dream of worldwide genocide in the "Contagion" story arc of the Batman titles. His organization unleashes a deadly virus known as Ebola Gulf A (a.k.a "The Clench") in Gotham City, putting Batman in conflict with a force he seemingly cannot defeat. A cure is eventually located by Batman and his allies, though the mastermind behind the outbreak is not discovered until the follow up story "Legacy".
Learning that the Demon's Head still lives, Batman and his team circle the globe, preventing further outbreaks of the virus. Ra's allies himself with Bane, the man who once crippled and nearly killed Batman. Ra's considers Bane a potential heir to his empire, despite his daughter Talia's distaste for the criminal mastermind. Eventually, Batman deduces a way to eliminate the Clench virus from an ancient "Wheel of Plagues" artifact whose knowledge has aided Ra's in the creation of the disease. The immortal madman again eludes justice, however.
In the "JLA: Tower of Babel" storyline, in JLA #43-46, Ra's discovers Batman's contingency plans for stopping the other members of the Justice League of America, should they turn or be turned evil, and uses them to try to destroy the group. Meanwhile, Ra's steals the bodies of Batman's parents. This theft prevents Batman from realizing Ra's is using his traps until it is too late, as he is distracted by the search for the corpses of his parents.
Though defeated, Ra's does cause the exit of Batman from the JLA, who now distrust the Caped Crusader. Though some of the Leaguers resent Batman's plans, they agree that the plans were created for the right reasons.
Talia, disillusioned with her father, leaves the League to run LexCorp for former U.S. President Lex Luthor, before selling the company to Bruce Wayne for his Wayne Foundation to aid Batman and Superman's victory over Luthor. Ra's blames Batman for his failed relationship with Talia, and stages a plot where he tries to separate Batman from his heir, Dick Grayson shortly before Wayne officially adopted his former ward as his son. The plan fails, and Wayne and Grayson go ahead with the adoption.
Ra's is also featured in Birds of Prey #31-35, where he has a romantic fling with the Black Canary. Black Canary is injured and healed in the Lazarus Pit, which also restores the Canary Cry she lost years earlier.
In Batman: Death and the Maidens (2004), Nyssa Raatko, furious at her father for abandoning her in a concentration camp during World War II, begins plotting to destroy him. Nyssa befriends Talia and then kidnaps and brainwashes her. Nyssa plots to destroy all hope and optimism in the world by assassinating Superman with Kryptonite bullets she steals from the Batcave. While Batman stops Nyssa from killing Superman, he is unable to stop her from mortally injuring her father. A dying Ra's reveals that this is all part of his greater plan to ensure that his daughters will realize that he is correct in his perceptions about the world and what needs to be done to it, and that they would come to accept their destinies as his heirs. Ra's' plan works: both Nyssa and Talia become the heads of The Demon and the League of Assassins. Talia disavows her love for Bruce Wayne, and both sisters declare Batman their enemy. However, it is too late for Ra's, as Nyssa stabs her father through the heart, seemingly killing him for good. To ensure Ra's will not return, Batman oversees his nemesis' cremation.
In the Teen Titans storyline "Titans Tomorrow", the Titans are transported into the future, where a future Bette Kane mentions a deal with Ra's to use the Lazarus Pits.
In Batman Annual #26, Talia is prompted to read the history of Ra's al Ghul to her son Damian by a mysterious figure from Ra's past: the White Ghost. Unbeknownst to her, the White Ghost plans to use Damian as a vessel for Ra's return. However, mother and son escape before the plan is completed. After the escape, Batman confronts the White Ghost; he fights Batman, but accidentally falls into a Lazarus pit.
As of Batman #670 Ra's al Ghul has returned, having evaded death by transferring his consciousness into the body of another. Because his host body is decaying from radiation poisoning, he needs to transfer his mind into another host body. His first choice is that of his grandson Damian Wayne, but Damian escaped to alert his father.
Upon taking Ra's to a "Fountain of Essence," which contains the qualities of a Lazarus Pit, Batman is confronted with the sight of Sensei, who is revealed to be Ra's father. (Batman #671, January 2008) After defeating Ra's, Sensei fights and impales Batman with a cane. Determined to win, Batman drags the Sensei into the Fountain, where he is killed for not being a pure soul. Ra's, meanwhile, has taken over the body of a Nanda Parbat monk and departs. Healed by the Fountain, Batman emerges and yells for Ra's.
Ra's attempts to make amends with Batman after his resurrection, but Batman responds by crushing his decaying fingers. Ra's accepts this latest rebuke and, with the help of his men, overpower Batman and capture Damian, who has arrived to try to help his father. Ra's attempts to take over Damian, but Batman breaks free just as Robin, Talia, Alfred Pennyworth, and Nightwing arrive to save him. While the battle ensues at Nanda Parbat, the White Ghost takes Ra's to a secluded place, where the terrorist appears to accept the fact that his death is inevitable. However, the White Ghost, revealed to be Ra's estranged, albino son Dusan, offers up his own body instead. Ra's performs the transfer of souls, but the White Ghost dies soon afterward. Ra's resumes the battle and attempts to kill Batman, but is stopped by the monks at Nanda Parbat, who instead banish him from the temple.
Detective Comics #840 details the aftermath of The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul storyline. Ra's al Ghul, in his new body, moves his base of operations to Gotham City where it is revealed that a remnant of his son Dusan's consciousness still remains within him. This arrogance attributes to the brazen move to Gotham and a subsequent ninja attack on Batman, which indirectly leads to the discovery of a map of all the known Lazarus Pit locations across the globe. Batman then infiltrates Ra's al Ghul's new Gotham penthouse headquarters and easily defeats his horde of ninjas and Ra's himself. To ensure Ra's is not a constant threat within Gotham City, Batman comes up with the false identity of "Terry Gene Kase", and plants it along with credible photos, medical records, and police records for both Blackgate Penitentiary and Arkham Asylum. Batman takes an unconscious Ra's directly to Arkham where it is believed he really is the dissociative identity disorder prisoner "Terry Gene Kase" who has just been transferred to Arkham to finish out multiple life sentences. Along with attaching false information and a false identity to Ra's al Ghul's file, Batman attaches a false prescription of potent medication that ensures slurred speech and next to zero mobility.
In Nightwing #145 however, the orderlies miss Ra's dosage once, which allows him to become conscious enough to escape from Arkham.
Ra’s Al Ghul has no superhuman powers; however, he is extremely fit and trained in hand-to-hand combat. As he has lived for many hundreds of years, he has gained countless resources, acquaintances, and knowledge. He is an expert swordsman, a master strategist, and very intelligent, stated to be on par with Batman. Ra’s Al Ghul has vast resources and loyal servants at his command.
Ra's Al Ghul has access to various ‘Lazarus Pits’ in which he bathes to rejuvenate himself. By periodically bathing in these, he has lived for hundreds of years while keeping in physical prime.
As leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's Al Ghul has access to the ninja weapons used by his underlings. He also has near unlimited resources at his disposal.
The father of Ra's al Ghul, Sensei is considered a highly skilled martial artists having trained a great number of the League of Assassins. After being thought dead following a previous battle with Ra's, Sensei returned and revealed his true connection with Ra's. He views his son as a failure who continues to live like a cockroach.
In Batman: Death and the Maidens (2004) by Greg Rucka, it is revealed that while traveling in Russia in the 18th century, Ra's fathers a child named Nyssa Raatko. Enamored of her mother's romantic stories of Ra's, Nyssa sets out to find her father and eventually locates him at his headquarters in North Africa. Impressed by her beauty, her warrior skills, and the fact that "she was able to locate him," he promotes her to a high position within his organization. Ra's is so impressed with her abilities that he even allows Nyssa to use his Lazarus Pits; Nyssa finds a means of making the Lazarus Pits reusable (previously, each could only be used once).
Nyssa eventually becomes disillusioned with Ra's ideals and methods and disassociates herself from her father sometime in the 18th century. Ra's reluctantly approves this with the idea that she would return to him and that she and/or her children would become his future heirs. To his disappointment, Nyssa refuses to give herself or her family to Ra's; he retaliates by disowning her. During World War II, Nyssa and her family are sent to a concentration camp, where she is rendered infertile by gruesome Mengele-esque experiments, as the rest of her family is exterminated. Ra's, who is temporarily allied to the Nazis, abandons her and her family. Nyssa begins plotting her revenge, which comes to fruition years later.
In Robin: One Year Later, it is revealed that Cassandra Cain, the former Batgirl, has assassinated Nyssa and then taken over the League of Assassins.
Talia al Ghul is also Ra's' daughter and accompanies him for many years. With the recent loss of her sister, she has apparently taken control of The Demon. In Batman: Son of the Demon (1987), Talia's mother was said to have been murdered by Qayin, a terrorist, back in the late 1940s. As explained by Talia in Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992), Ra's had met a woman of mixed Chinese and Arab ancestry at Woodstock. Talia is the result of that union.
Ra's' only known son. He is born with the name Dusan al Ghul, but because he was an albino, Ra's called him "the failed one" and kept him alive only out of pity. Dusan sacrifices his body in order to ensure his father's life. After his son's death, Ra's wishes he had treated Dusan far better, as he was the only child who remained loyal to him.
After Talia encounters and falls in love with Batman in Detective Comics #411 (May 1971), Ra's begins to consider Batman as a possible heir. Ra's first deduces Batman's secret identity when he realizes that the Dark Knight has to be rich, and learns that only Bruce Wayne has bought the equipment that a crime fighter would have; he is then ready to put Batman to a final test.
Ra's surprises Batman in the Batcave, seemingly to enlist Batman's aid in rescuing both Talia and Dick Grayson, the first Robin, both of whom have apparently been kidnapped. Batman soon discovers that the whole affair is a charade orchestrated by Ra's to test Batman, which he passes. Ra's asks that Batman become his heir, which Batman refuses, appalled by his genocidal plan to "cleanse" the world.
From that point forward, Ra's al Ghul and Batman are mortal enemies, even though they respect each other as adversaries. Of all Batman's enemies, Ra's is probably unique in that he respects Batman's intellectual abilities more than his physical ones, as shown by his constant referral to Batman as "Detective".
In the story "Resurrection Night" in Batman #400, Ra's helps all of Batman's foes to escape from Arkham Asylum and the Gotham State Penitentiary, setting them on a plan to abduct certain individuals across Gotham City who are linked in one form or another to Batman. However, Ra's' true intent is to show Batman the folly of his efforts to protect a corrupt society that, to his mind, allows criminals to exist and flourish. Ra's eventually uses the Pit while still healthy, both increasing his strength and putting his life at risk, in an attempt to outmatch the Dark Knight. The plan backfires, as Ra's is left writhing in the pit, seemingly destroyed.
Ra's al Ghul has appeared in animation, movies, and games, each time as an antagonist to Batman.
In Batman: The Animated Series, Ra's al Ghul first appears at the very end of "Off Balance". This sets the stage for subsequent appearances — each as the episode's villain — in the two-part episode "The Demon's Quest", adapting his attempts from the comic to make Batman his heir and then to cleanse the world of humanity, "Avatar", where he makes an attempt at true immortality, and "Showdown", where he relates a long-ago battle with Jonah Hex, who also battles Ra's deranged son Arkady Duvall (voiced by Malcolm McDowell).
He later appears in Superman: The Animated Series episode "The Demon Reborn", in an attempt to steal Superman's power.
He also appears, after a fashion, in the Batman Beyond episode "Out of the Past", where he has possessed his daughter Talia. In all these appearances, he is voiced by David Warner.
In the DCAU, Ra's name is pronounced "Raysh" al-Ghoul, to avoid portarying him as being of any specific nationality.
In the film Batman Begins, Ra's al Ghul, played by Liam Neeson, is the primary antagonist. He is the head of the centuries-old League of Shadows, an organization that is dedicated to keeping order and justice in a world which it views as decadent and corrupt. For the first half of the film, he goes by the name Henri Ducard and acts as a mentor to a young Bruce Wayne, teaching him the martial arts that he will one day use as Batman. During this time, Ducard hides behind a decoy Ra's al Ghul. The decoy, played by Ken Watanabe, is killed while battling Bruce in the first half of the movie. After learning of the League's intention to destroy Gotham City, Bruce sets fire to the League's temple, rescues Ducard from the burning ruins and returns to Gotham.
Months later, Ducard unexpectedly reappears, and reveals that he is actually the real Ra's al Ghul, and that "Henri Ducard" was merely an alias. In the ensuing confrontation, Ra's boasts of the League's exploits throughout history (the Sack of Rome, the Black Death, and the Great Fire of London). He explains that the League plans to use a hallucinogenic fear toxin invented by their partner Dr. Jonathan Crane (the Scarecrow) to infect the city with mindless panic and watch it destroy itself. He claims that the League of Shadows once attempted to use economics as a mean of destroying Gotham, but had underestimated men like Bruce's father, who used their wealth to restore the city. Furthermore, he explains that the destruction of Gotham City is merely another mission by the League to correct humanity's recurring fits of decadence. Ra's then orders his henchmen to burn down Wayne Manor, saying, "Justice is balance. You burned my house and left me for dead. Consider us even."
With the aid of Alfred, Bruce survives the fire, and confronts Ra's al Ghul as Batman. Ra's scornfully comments that Batman has taken his advice of "using theatricality" too literally. He escapes and goes on with his plans. Batman follows him, however, and teacher and student have a final battle aboard a runaway train. Ra's al Ghul's arrogance ultimately leads to his downfall when he fails to notice that Sergeant Gordon has used the Batmobile to derail the train. Bruce tells Ra's, "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you.", and escapes the doomed train, leaving Ra's behind to fend for himself as the train plunges into a car garage and explodes. There is no mention as to whether he dies or survives the explotion.
Also, there is no direct mention of Ra's' supernatural nature in the film. However, when Ducard reveals himself to be the real Ra's al Ghul, he mentions a supernatural invincibility - "But is Ra's al Ghul immortal? Are his methods supernatural?" - that Bruce rebuffs as a "cheap parlor trick" of using decoys to conceal his true nature. His daughter, Talia al Ghul, is mentioned in the film's novelization, but not in the film. Ra's (still under his Ducard alias) briefly mentions his late wife as his inspiration for his crusade against criminality, though whether or not this is true or simply part of his fabricated identity is unclear.
Ra's al Ghul has a cameo appearance in the animated film Justice League: The New Frontier. He is seen during the famous speech by John F. Kennedy.
He has also appeared in two video games. He appears as a villain in the Batman Begins video game based on the movie. Both Ken Watanabe and Liam Neeson reprise their roles of decoy Ra's and Ducard/Ra's al Ghul. Ra's al Ghul is also the final boss and main villain in the 2003 video game Batman: Dark Tomorrow. He is also an unlockable character in LEGO Batman: The Video Game.[1] Ra's al Ghul is set to appear in the upcoming video game DC Universe Online.
His stories have been collected into a number of volumes:
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