Villains Being Awesome: Nyssa al Ghul

[starwolf_oakley]

Nyssa al Ghul, aka Nyssa Raatko, wasn't in the Bat-universe for very long, even though I think she had a lot of potential. As Talia's half-sister and Ra's al Ghul's daughter, she had all of Talia's charms without any "Oh, beloved!" stuff when it came to Batman. And she had a real plan to deal with the Secret Society during INFINITE CRISIS.











"I want to end apathy by killing superheroes." Um...

Comments

[sadoeuphemist]

That doesn't really sound like character potential, you're making her sound more like a handy plot device to blame evil things on. I mean, she wouldn't have worked as a character in Leviathan. She's not Damian's mom and she's not Batman's ex, so what would the story have even been about?

[jaybee3]

In keeping with Death and the Maidens, to destroy Talia's mind further by destroying her "Beloved" and her son and making her rely on Nyssa alone. To be honest, once she got beyond Rucka, other writers basically made her character "totally evil" anyway - I think that's one of the reasons Ra's was brought back. They had no idea what to do with her and they ended up making her worse than Ra's. I could have see Morrison as someone who would roll with that kind of characterization.

[sadoeuphemist]

But that's totally detracting from the main character dynamics in Morrison's run. Damian struggling to impress his father and deal with his mother's acrimony, Batman's shitty parenting skills coming back to bite him, Talia's desperate attempt to self-actualize. Instead you're suggesting another villain come in who's only really focused on Talia, and then Batman and Talia team up I guess?

This is what I mean by character. Conflict in fiction does not exist solely on the level of 'villain does something evil, hero tries to stop it.' The conflicts they face and how they face them reveal who they are as characters.