Batman has no shortage of bad guys, but few of them are as well-known as Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s has spent many years as a Batman villain and has earned the title of being Batman’s true foe. Ra’s is also immortal. This intricate and fascinating character was developed in 1971 by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams, and ever since, he has been an integral element of the Gotham criminal underworld.
Although we already know Ra’s al Ghul to be a dangerous antagonist, this film will delve further into his backstory to give you a perspective on his early years, the events that shaped him into the accomplished and feared foe that he is today. The most intriguing aspect of Ra’s is how different he is from previous DC villains we have seen over the years. He is unique and different, and the events that led to him becoming an assassin are part of a much bigger narrative. Wish to learn more? Keep an eye out!
The first comic book appearance and origins explored
This antagonist made her debut in the ‘Daughter of the Demon’ comic book from 1971. The first time we meet a villain who later becomes a central figure in the Batman mythos occurs in this book.
After a night of exploration, Robin is shown returning home as the comic opens. He is, however, attacked by two gunmen who are armed with tranquilizer darts. The Boy Wonder is shot, then taken away before being captured. A few hours after the kidnapping, Bruce Wayne gets a picture of his missing friend and a mission to find him.
In order to continue his investigation, he goes back to the Batcave, where he is met by Ra’s al Ghul and his aide Ubu. Ra decided to hire what he considered to be the “world’s greatest detective” to help him find his daughter Talia, who had also been abducted after his contacts determined that Bruce Wayne and Batman were the same person. Batman offers to aid Ra’s because he believes there is a connection between Robin’s abduction and Talia’s.
They travel all the way to Calcutta, where they find proof connecting the kidnappers to the group known as the Brotherhood of the Demon. Batman is sent to a building in the Alley of Widows after asking a local thug where the Brotherhood is hiding. As Batman enters the building, a standing leopard charges out and attacks him. Batman catches the animal’s jaw with his elbow and snaps its neck. Batman finds a map that points to the Himalayan Mountains once the crisis has gone. The three embark on a mountain climbing adventure, which Ra’s al Ghul finances.
During this, a sniper opens fire on them, and one of the rounds appears to hit Ra’s head. While Batman skilfully evades consecutive gunshots, Ubu pulls him inside a crevice. As he climbs the hill, he discovers a Brotherhood temple. He enters the temple and discovers Robin imprisoned by rope and guarded by armed guards. As soon as Batman frees Robin, the shooters close in on him. When Batman turns around, he reveals that he is not deceived by this clever trick. When the Brotherhood’s masked “leader” approaches him, Batman takes his mask off, exposing the face of Ra’s servant Ubu. Thus, Ra’s was the actual culprit of the crime, and Batman had known all along.
Ubu and Batman battle it out, but Batman’s speed and ability prove too much for Ubu. Ra’s and his daughter Talia finally enter the room. He admits that he staged the entire affair to determine if Batman would be a worthy successor to Ra’s as the Brotherhood’s leader. He also admits that Talia is in love with Batman, and Ra’s is looking for guarantees that the Dark Knight would make a good son-in-law.
So, while this comic is his first appearance and shows us the brilliant yet devious mind of Ra’s, his actual origins are told in the comic titled ‘Birth of the Demon’. The comic uses a flashback to the Middle Ages to tell the story of Ra’s al Ghul. Between the Black Pest and the Crusades, somewhere in the desert, we encounter a young Ra’s al Ghul who is known only as “the physician” there.
Ra’s was born into a nomadic tribe, but his passion for science and healing drove him to settle down in a city, where he married a beautiful young girl named Sora. Ra’s was close to the Sultan Salimb, which was sometimes a bad thing because the prince Runcie could lay his hands on Sora at any time. Ra’s witnessed one of these occurrences when the prince won a horse race by stamping on an elderly woman.
Ra’s pays a visit to the elderly woman’s son; risking being killed by him in retribution for his mother’s terrible condition. Huwe, her son, believes they were all complicit in what transpired during the race. When Ra’s realises the woman is going to die, he provides Huwe with some powders to make a soup that will make her death as painless as possible. They are disturbed by guards who summon the physician to the palace because the prince has contracted the Black Pest. If Ra’s succeeds in saving his life, the Sultan promises him anything. Ra’s then returns to the desert, where he was born, and falls asleep in a dream, believing that the soil under him possesses enormous power.
Ra’s gets a vision of himself fighting death, portrayed by a bat, and tumbling into a pit that will bring him back to life in this dream. He tells the Sultan that he has a plan to save the prince’s life after waking up from his epiphanous dream. He then orders them to construct the trench and pour the chemicals required. The prince is placed in the pit after making sure everything is in place, but things go tragically wrong. In a fit of rage, the prince resurrects and assaults Sora, strangling her. The sultan forces Runcie to enter his own thoughts, but Sora is no longer alive.
The sultan orders the guards to arrest the physician for the murder of his own wife seeing that if he did not work quickly, his son would become implicated in the crime. When Ra’s is ultimately brought before the charges in the palace, the Sultan somewhat admits between the lines that he knows he didn’t kill her, but publicizing the alternative would be awful. In a cruel twist of fate, Prince Runcie, who was the perpetrator of the crime, cruelly sentences Ra’s to be imprisoned with his wife’s dead body. They also detained an entire clan of nomads. All of them were trapped in a sand hole, victim to hunger, thirst, and rats.
After a few days, Huwe arrives to save Ra’s, who has managed to stay alive this long. They then call Ra’s uncle, the nomad tribe’s chief, and devise a plan to exact vengeance on the Sultan. Ra’s brings the prince a beautiful but deadly silk that he found in a mass grave of merchants who were victims of the Black Pest. Of course, the prince becomes ill, prompting a new quest for a physician. He then instructs them to dig a fresh pit in a new site. He is aware, however, that there is no “power line” behind this pit. When the prince emerges from the pit, he appears to be dying.
After that, the nomad tribe assaults, killing everyone but the Sultan. Ra’s straps him to a horse and abandons him in the desert, but a flash of mercy strikes him at the last moment, and he kills him. Following that, the tribe invades the city and massacres it. Ra’s, on the other hand, is unsatisfied with his vengeance. Instead, he feels manipulated by his ruthless adversary. And now he’s infected with the Black Pest as well. They return Ra’s body to the original pit, where he resurrects in a fit of rage but manages to calm down. As a final act of revenge, he orders the tribe to destroy any history, records or other evidence that could lead to the discovery of such a society.
While the story’s plot is rather obvious, O’Neil does an excellent job of establishing Ra’s as a great Batman antagonist. We learn that Ra’s was a scientist and healer in a prior life, similar to Bruce’s father, Thomas. Despite his opposition to the present Ra’s attempts to co-opt him as an heir to his huge criminal enterprise, it’s easy to envision Bruce joyfully taking on the younger Ra’s like a father figure.
“He didn’t want anything from his people to survive,” Talia opines as she nears the end of her story, “not even a single word from their language.” He’d claim it was part of his vengeance. There was another motive, she believes. “Because of his grief, he didn’t want any reminders of his deceased wife.” Ra’s regards the emotional connection as a flaw. Ra’s rationalises his decision to try to hide his own memories as a means of avoiding diluting his fury and rage — remembering the happiness and joy, he believes, would weaken his determination and betray his wife.
Ra’s genocidal rage, according to O’Neil, is founded in that most devastating of losses. Because they reminded him of something, he eliminated an entire civilisation from the face of the planet.
Ra’s then proclaimed himself the “Demon’s Head” after defacing Bisu’s altar. He spent the following few millennia travelling over the globe. Ra’s, his uncle, and Huwe all used the Lazarus Pits to extend their lives until an occurrence in London. Huwe had been caught writing his own memoir in their native tongue, which Ra’s had outlawed all record of. Ra’s murdered the boy during a skirmish and fled to a Lazarus Pit. His uncle had disappeared with the fragments of their history document by the time he returned to their London house.
He became a master of several types of warfare, including fencing, over time. In addition, he amassed immense money and founded The Demon, a big multinational organisation named after his personal pseudonym, “The Demon’s Head.” Various factions existed inside this organisation, the most infamous of which being The League of Assassins, also known as “The Demon’s Fang” or “Demonfang.”
Ra’s arrived upon the Infinity Island in the Indian Ocean during his travels throughout the world and uncovered a unique Lazarus Pit at the island’s centre. Ra’s stormed the island with his army of warriors and enslaved the locals, converting them to slaves and acquiring resources to extend his empire. Ra’s kept the island a secret for ages, keeping the world in the dark about it and continuing to extend his lifespan.
Years later, during World Conflict II, Ra’s employed his organisation to battle the Axis powers in order to bring the world war to an end. A close soldier died as a result of these efforts, causing Ra’s to raise the man’s son as his own. Following his parents’ deaths, Quinlan, a teenager, had a bad attitude, which irritated Ra’s wife, Melisande. Quinlan eventually found Ra’s Lazarus Pit, but Melisande grabbed him before he could go any further. The young man ran away, but not before pushing Melisande into the pit and killing her. Tragedy struck one again as he lost his wife one more time along with his surrogate son. This son took on the name of Qayin and became an international terrorist.
Ra’s learnt that Infinity Island had been purchased by some Bruce Wayne in recent years, and he went out to kill him and take over his corporate empire. Ra’s discovered the best hidden secret in Gotham City at that time – who really was Batman? And thus, the saga of Ra’s al Ghul as a Batman villain began.
A fascinating version of Ra’s Al Ghul in Nolanverse
Being a character that is complicated, timeless and deeply intertwined with Batman, it is obvious that Ra’s al Ghul would make it to the live action realm of DC movies. Ra’s al Ghul, posing as Henri Ducard, was Bruce Wayne’s tutor and trainer, and he recruited him into the League of Shadows to obliterate Gotham City over the course of his various appearances in the Nolanverse.
Bruce rejected the organization, dismantled his Gotham Underworld associates, and stopped Ra’s in his tracks. Talia, Bruce’s later potential love interest and antagonist, is his daughter of Ra’s. In Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises, he was played by Liam Neeson as an elderly man, and in The Dark Knight Rises, he was played by Josh Pence in Ra’s depictions as a young man.
His origin story in the Nolanverse is quite different from what it is in the comics. Ra’s al Ghul was a competent mercenary who worked for a strong warlord in his youth. He was smitten by the Warlord’s Daughter. They married in secret after she had a child with him. The warlord had the mercenary sentenced to The Pit, but instead banished him out of a sense of dishonour. To save face, the warlord had his daughter take her husband’s place in the prison.
The mercenary then decided to join the League of Shadows, where he quickly advanced through the ranks. Ra’s wife gave birth to a daughter called Talia in the Pit, and she spent her early years imprisoned with her mother. The jail doctor neglected to lock the door to their cell one day, and the other inmates were able to escape and they attacked and murdered Ra’s wife.
Talia eventually fled the prison with the help of a prisoner known as Bane, despite the fact that Bane was beaten to death while defending her. Talia tracked out her father and returned him to the Pit to exact vengeance. He saved Bane, who had become mutilated, there. Talia and Bane were taught by the League of Shadows, but Ra’s exiled Bane due to the continual reminder of his wife’s death. It was for this reason that Talia harboured grudges against her father till his death.
Even the way he first met Wayne differs significantly from the comics. Ra’s al Ghul tracked down Bruce Wayne in a Bhutanese prison, where he introduced himself as Henri Ducard, a Ra’s al Ghul colleague, and offered him a “road.” After being set free, Bruce climbed to the League of Shadows’ monastery, where Ducard, Ra’s, and a band of mercenaries awaited him. Soon, Ducard became Wayne’s mentor and taught him various combat skills and martial arts along with nursing him back to health and testing him at every step. This portrayal was embraced by fans as a wonderful depiction by Liam Neeson.
His constant presence in DC animated series
It is no surprise that Ra’s as Ghul has been in various DC animated series due to the sheer popularity and malleability of the character. He has been seen in multiple roles over the years with various different character arcs. Ra’s al Ghul was voiced by David Warner in Batman: The Animated Series. Talia al Ghul, Ra’s daughter, informs him about Batman at the end of the episode “Off Balance.”
This sets the tone for his subsequent appearances as the episode’s antagonist. Ra’s efforts in the comic book to make Batman his successor and purge the world of humans are adapted in the two-part episode “The Demon’s Quest.” After refusing to follow Ra’s example, Batman devises a scheme to explode bombs in Lazarus Pits all around the planet. When Ra’s falls into one of the pits, he is presumed dead, but the ending reveals that he is alive.
Ra’s struggles to achieve genuine immortality are depicted in the episode “Avatar.” Despite the fact that Batman eventually apprehends Ra’s, Talia frees her father and sends Batman on his way.
After Ra’s minions kidnap an elderly man from a retirement villa in the episode “Showdown,” Ra’s leaves an audio tape for Batman and Robin. In 1883, Ra’s and his son Arkady Duvall met and fought the character Jonah Hex, according to the recording. Ra’s was compelled to abandon his son when Hex defeated Arkady. The old man, Ra’s confesses, is his son, who had gone after serving a 50-year prison sentence. Because Arkady’s mind and body were beyond the Lazarus Pits’ ability to heal after 50 years, Batman lets Ra’s abduct Arkady so that father and son can be reunited for a short time before Arkady’s death.
Ra’s first debuted in the animated series Superman: The Animated Series. Robin mentions him as a suspect Batgirl and Nightwing believe is responsible for Batman’s abduction in the episode “Knight Time.” Ra’s death is revealed in the episode “The Demon Reborn.” As Ra’s age has progressed, the Lazarus Pit’s ability to extend his life has waned, leaving him shrivelled and confined to a wheelchair. In order to revitalise himself, he intends to suck Superman’s “life energy” through a Native American relic. Talia begins the process of bringing Ra’s back to life and making him more powerful than ever before, even though he has died. Ra’s decides to save Talia over getting even more strength from Superman when Batman forces him to choose, but they both plunge into an underground river before their lair collapses.
Ra’s makes an appearance in Batman Beyond as well. Talia aided the original Batman in defeating Ra’s during one final fight in the “Near-Apocalypse of ’09” before he retired. Ra’s injuries were too severe for even the Lazarus Pit’s healing abilities to cure after this combat. Ra’s mind was transferred into Talia’s body using a gadget that could clone his memories and experiences onto a close genetic relative.
Ra’s pretends, as his daughter in the episode “Out of the Past” to dupe Bruce Wayne into using the Lazarus Pit to resurrect himself before imprisoning him in his mansion hideout. To get control of Wayne Enterprises, he plans to take over his nemesis’s flesh and pretend to be Bruce and Talia’s kid. However, the new Batman apprehends him and once again, Ra’s is beaten.
Ra’s al Ghul is voiced by Peter Woodward in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Instead of Batman or his own daughter, this version of Ra’s wants to make Dick Grayson his heir. He makes appearances in episodes such as ‘Sidekicks Assemble’ and ‘The Siege of Starro’ as he plots his evil schemes.
In the episode “Crisis 22,300 Miles Above Earth,” Ra’s makes his final appearance, attempting to flood and “purify” the Earth by melting the polar ice caps. Batman, the Justice League International, and the Justice Society of America, with the help of Talia, foil his scheme and his army. After a struggle with Batman, Ra’s is last seen falling into an abyss in the Himalayas.
Ra’s al Ghul is voiced by Oded Fehr in the Young Justice animated series. He is shown partnering with other DC villains like Brain and Monsieur Mallah in various nefarious schemes and shenanigans in this series.
Ra’s al Ghul is portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito in the film Son of Batman. Though it was not his intention, Slade Wilson’s attack on Ra’s sets his grandson Damian Wayne on the path to reuniting with his father Batman and assuming the identity of Robin.
Lastly, Ra’s al Ghul, played by Lance Reddick, makes an appearance in Beware the Batman. In this series, Lady Shiva brings Ra’s back to life. He develops a gadget that will knock out Gotham City’s electrical infrastructure, leaving the city in the dark. He succeeds in building the gadget and plunging Gotham into darkness, but only for a short while. By releasing the souls of Ra’s adversaries from a magical weapon Ra’s wields, Batman defeats Ra’s. Ra’s is dragged into a bottomless pit by enraged spirits, likely to his death.
What makes him so powerful?
Ra’s has had centuries to gain and amass power, making him one of the most powerful Batman villains to ever exist.
Ra’s has amassed enormous knowledge and talents that surpass those of Batman due to his long lifespan and superhuman longevity. Detective skills, chemistry, physics, military tactics, economics, and martial arts are among them, and he masters all of them, thanks to his photographic memory. Over the ages, he has amassed a vast network of worldwide relationships as well as a vast fortune. He prefers more antique weapons in combat since he has had more time to learn them than more recent weapons. Scimitars, katanas, spears, staffs, bolas, shurikens, smoke pellets, and miniature explosives are among these weapons.
He can communicate in Arabic, French, Greek, Latin, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, Urdu, and possibly more Indian languages. Ra’s has amassed a great fortune and many worldwide contacts over the years. He is the undeniable leader of the League of Assassins, one of the world’s most powerful and dangerous organizations, whose agents are eager to die for their master. He’s also a skilled tactician, plotting his moves months, if not years, ahead of time.
However, Ra’s most powerful weapons are his green Lazarus Pits, which cure any injury, including recent death, and restore the user to full health, but also inflict temporary insanity, or sanity for those who are already insane, such as the Joker. His regular exposure to the pits has given him improved endurance, strength, and healing, but at the cost of a creeping onset of insanity if utilised excessively.
Ra’s al Ghul has been shown to have some knowledge of mysticism in addition to his physical powers and resources. In order to ensure his survival, he has exhibited the capacity to transfer his soul into the bodies of others on multiple occasions, providing him with a means of surviving if his physical body is destroyed and he is unable to be put into a Lazarus Pit. The specific mechanics of this technique have remained ambiguous; at times, it appears that a sophisticated ceremony is required to achieve this effect, while at other times, he can do this feat on the spur of the moment, simply by making physical contact with his chosen host.
Ra’s developed immense magical powers after soaking in the Well of Sins, the first Lazarus Pit, in the New 52. He claimed true immortality and demonstrated abilities such as levitation, energy projection, construct construction, and matter manipulation. Following his confrontation with Jason Todd, he lost these skills. Nevertheless, he is an immensely powerful villain – a deadly assassin with access to immortality. That is bound to make him a terrifying adversary.
Ra’s al Ghul has become a Batman mainstay ever since he debuted in 1971 and since then he has had so many story arcs that we could make a whole series out of it. His adventures are vast but, in this video, we have tried to explore the ones that speak about his origins to give you, the viewer, a peek into what makes Ra’s Al Ghul who he is. Whether you see his comic book origin story or the one enacted in the Nolanverse, Ra’s has had to face the ultimate tragedy of losing one’s wife. His origins humanise him and once again, lay the foundations for a complex DC villain. What do you think about Ra’s Al Ghul? Let us know in the comments section below!