Batman: Death and the Maidens

Batman: Death and the Maidens 

By Greg Rucka and Klaus Janson (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-951-4

One of the biggest problems with the truly iconic characters is that once their periodical adventures are over there’s the inevitable rush to collect the tale as a book. Sadly, a lot of these tales just aren’t that good.

Death and the Maidens deals with the destruction of possibly the last great Bat villain – Ra’s Al Ghul – due to the machinations of his daughters Nyssa and Talia. The latter has been yet another villainess/love interest for Batman since the 1970’s but Nyssa is new and as the tale progresses through a series of flashbacks the reader discovers the hell that the immortal mastermind has subjected her to over the centuries, and how she has responded.

The conveniently dying villain appears to Batman and offers to put him in touch with his dead parents through an (al)chemical solution in return for a cessation of the hero’s campaign of destruction on the sources of Al Ghul’s immortality. How logical is that?

I don’t care how screwed up he is by their death. No one as calculating as Batman stops a ten year all-out war with a monster who intends to destroy the human race – particularly one with a history of using chemical and bacteriological weapons – on the promise of a pharmaceutical séance, especially when he’s on the verge of winning.

More importantly it serves no purpose in advancing the narrative, but seems there solely as a way injecting some heroic angst into the mix. Long story short, after loads of trauma and action the girls succeed and Nyssa replaces her father as head of his organization, and therefore as Batman’s implacable foe. Any bets on how long he stays dead? Creators Rucka and Janson can do so much better.

© 2003, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.