Batman, Catwoman, Robin, Talia. A Marv Wolfman story, part 3.

[mystery]

Previous parts:
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1463912.html
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1477845.html

So, Batman's captured! Catwoman and Robin got shanghaied!

Batman is being held on Infinity Island, a mysterious volcanic island in the Indian Ocean. His captor is unknown.



Oh noes! They break the window and viciously injure Batman! "He's the best there is! But not even the caped crusader can withstand the pummeling fists of so many mind-controlled zombies!" There are too many of them! By the time the "jagged rocks cut deep scars in his back as they unceremoniously drag him to a strange gold-domed building", he is "blessedly unconscious".

Meanwhile, Robin and Catwoman escape their captors by rescuing themselves.



Selina gets the bad guys to talk--



And she, Robin and Faraday hop a boat, then get captured by those ball thingys from 'The Prisoner'.





Cut to Batman. He's strapped to a chair and taunted. His taunter, a disembodied voice, offers him a choice: blah blah serve me=good life, don't=you'll be very, very sorry.

Predictably, Batman does not choose the easy answer.



Meowrrr!



Uh... good idea, CW. Now let's all fight side by side! (Confession: I LOVE side-by-side fighting.)





Talia's Big Secret:





Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Oh wait. It's Ra's.


Next? Duel atop a Raging Volcano!

tags: creator: marv wolfman, creator: irv novick, creator: frank mclaughlin, creator: adrienne roy, creator: jim aparo, creator: ben oda, title: batman, char: batman/bruce wayne, char: nightwing/robin/dick grayson, char: talia al ghul, char: catwoman/selina kyle

Comments

[iskander]

This really needs a trade.

[mystery]

I know. It totally does! I had to leave so much out and it's all very, very fun, with fantastic art.

[chipsnopotatoes]

absolutely!

[retro_nouveau]

Heh, Selina's first time at the wrong end of a whip.

Weird that some random guy Faraday would be along for the ride.

Seems like there should be a James Bond movie soundtrack playing while reading this arc. :)

[mystery]

I know about the extra guy!

Seems like there should be a James Bond movie soundtrack playing while reading this arc. :)

Right, it totally does! Talia's all Bond Girl, and the setting is perfect. But Batman's still himself--he doesn't get written as all James Bond at all, which I really, especially like about it.

[mystery]

Also, I obviously need to stop saying 'totally does'.

[chipsnopotatoes]

Yay! The ending.

Actually, I'm thinking more Lost Horizon than James Bond now, especially with that panel where Talia suddenly grows old. Seems like Ra's hand is her fountain of youth. In modern canon, is she really 150 yrs old?

BTW, MysteryFan, who's this Faraday dude? He seems like an interesting (not to mention good looking) guy. I hope he was Catwoman's ex or something

[chipsnopotatoes]

oops, i spoke too soon. was too excited. not the ending yet. loving this story

[icon_uk]

That's King Faraday

[yaseen101]

So he's essentially the Nick Fury of the DCU only he predates Fury by 13 years and Sarge Steel and Amanda Waller fills the same profile as Nick Fury does in the MU.

[mystery]

Icon's right. Guy's King Faraday.

He seems like an interesting (not to mention good looking) guy. I hope he was Catwoman's ex or something

Well, she tells Dick she knew Faraday in Geneva. Make of that what we will...

Then there's this:



And hee! This.



Batman has to label everything!

[mystery]

Oh, and I should mention Faraday's been all through this story doing spy stuff. Just not appearing in these scans. I'm getting a sort of more refined Nick Fury kind of guy vibe from him here. Which seems like it'd go well with her.

[chipsnopotatoes]

Well i' m just about to borrow some checkmate to read Amanda Waller. I think she's awesome. I wish they'd put Selina on a book like this instead of that awful Sirens.

And i' now really intrigued to know what happened between her and Faraday in Gemeva :)

[retro_nouveau]

Now I see. I would have recognized King from New Frontier if they'd mentioned his first name. Before New Frontier, I would not have known King Faraday from Black Adam.

He definitely seems to be Bruce Wayne in James Bond's world. I went back to part two of your series of posts, and the feeling was strongest as he was skiing away from guys on skis with rifles. Then it looked like he was drinking martinis with Talia *spit*. Let's see -- nefarious mastermind, incredible stunts, exotic locations, sultry women, ingenious gadgets. Check, check, check. :) Except Bruce Wayne only drinks herbal tea (in retro fanon, anyway), and doesn't care about shaken or stirred.

[yaseen101]

He also appeared in JLU as the government liaison for the team in the shows last season. Remember that white haired dude in the ep 'I Am Legion' and the episode that took place in the arctic with WW, Green Arrow and MM where in the end MM quits the League to get to know humans better? Same dude.

[retro_nouveau]

Uh-oh, I don't remember him from JLU at all. For some reason I do remember Diana needing to be saved ... again, sigh. Time to pull Season Two from the DVD shelf.

[yaseen101]

Google tells me it's Ep#4 'To Another Shore'. I missed a small chunk from that episode but I though WW was kind of kick ass in the scenes that I saw.

[mystery]

Ha! I'm sure those martinis were all just part of his plan to fool Talia.

He's definitely wandered into a James Bond set of circumstances. (I just don't care for GM saying Batman is James Bond. Because, well, Batman was first. Then there's the Robins and the no killing. Plus, the whole reason he does it all. Plus a few other things. So I mean he's still Batman here. Plus, he's not even using any gadgets. No bat-gadgets at all!)

Thought this was a fun story, though, and my first reading encounter with King Faraday. What a funny dad he had! Who wouldn't like a pun for a name?

[retro_nouveau]

I just don't care for GM saying Batman is James Bond. Because, well, Batman was first.

Oh, I'm with you on everything you said, especially the first about Bruce being first -- years before Bond. If Bruce is anything but completely original, he's 50% Don Diego "Zorro" de la Vega and 50% Sherlock Holmes. Maybe a little Simon "The Gray Ghost" Trent. :)

[mystery]

Some Mary Roberts Rhinehart book and movie, some other pulp heroes, too... He really got a great story, in my mind--his origin story--because of all those influences, including the ones you mention :) plus some other things. I found these the other day:

..

[thepinkperil]

That would be a great twist to Talia's post-Crisis origins, being 150 years old.

Re: ..

[mystery]

I think it would too. I wonder if it's officially now not part, or just never has been addressed again after this story. I think I might love it if it were spookily, not quite yes or no referenced in some current story.

Re: ..

[icon_uk]

IIRC it's not, since Nyssa was established as the older sister, and she was the one who was around during WWII when Talia was not.

Re: ..

[kirayoshi]

This does get countered in a GN from the '90s, "Batman: Birth of the Demon" by Denny O'Neill and Norm Breyfogle. Much of the story is Talia relating Ra's Al Ghul's origins to Batman. At one point she reveals that Ra's met her mother at Woodstock.

Somehow I don't see Ra's as the type of guy who'd be groovin' to Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane, but who knows?

[jlroberson]

I love it when he puts it as "I OFFER YOU INSTANT DEATH!" He may be mad and murderous, but he does have manners.

[mystery]

Exactly! He's kind of fantastic. Very suave. Fun villain. He also keeps announcing to Batman, "You could have had everything! But now you've lost Talia!" And Bruce is just like, "Hmm. Which ways the way out for the rest of us again?"

[jlroberson]

Ra's Al-Ghul is basically Batman's Bond villain. Except that he would have eaten Bond alive.

In the relation to Talia, I always thought that whole thing is like the worst meeting-your-girlfriend's-father experience imaginable. It becomes awfully funny when you view it that way...

[sistermagpie]

There are just no words. They're all so awesome! I especially like little things like the way Batman has to tell us that of course he knew the guy was behind him but thanks for telling him, Robin. Hee!

I love the touch of Ra's' hand being the fountain of youth! And Talia growing old! Though it's funny that after 150 years she's still got the personality she does.

[mystery]

Heh. I know! That IS funny to think of, about her personality being *this*. After 150 years.

I loved that 'Yes. I already knew. But thank you for telling me, Robin,' too. It's the little moments!

[chipsnopotatoes]

Actually, being 150 yrs old explains a lot about her personality here. I've always viewed Talia as a throwback to another era. Her formative years must have been back in those days when women didn't have as much choices as today and where they were defined by their relationships to men. I don't think she's completely shaken it off despite the rucka makeover.

I remember her speech in the last issue of RIP, when introducing herself to Gordon was along the lines of i am the daughter of blah blah blah and the mother of batman's son. I thought it odd that she wouldn't say 'i'm the head of the League of Assasins.

[mystery]

That is a really interesting omission.

[icon_uk]

Since Ra's is alive, is she the leader of the League any more?

[icon_uk]

Love that cover at the top, it's like a slivery from Boys'R'Us

"Okay, we need one hairy chested love god, one lithe-limbed teenager with an exceptional ass, one suave spy type with a fondness for martinis and... who ordered the female dominatrix? Oh they're on special this week. Order UP"

Actually, I'm seeing a vibe here which might have come through to one of my commissions, purely co-incidental I'm sure, but.... one has to wonder! :)