How Batman: The Animated Series Debuted Ra's al Ghul

Welcome to Adventure(s) Time’s fifty-seventh installment, a look at animated heroes of the past. This week, we're examining a well-remembered Batman: The Animated Series episode, and a story from the Nixon era that inspired it.

Fans of the 1970s Batman had to recognize quickly that the cartoon's producers shared their love. '70s scribes like Gerry Conway, Len Wein, and Denny O'Neil have a decent number of writer credits on Batman, and every so often a direct adaptation of a '70s comic would appear. Not all of them are classics, but they were coming from a good place. Producer Bruce Timm has spoken of his intense love for 1970s Marvel, only showing infidelity when purchasing Batman comics as a kid. Batman is notable for taking almost the entirety of the canon and reassembling it into a new reality...but if there's any bias shown, it's towards the '70s.

Detective Comics #411 (May 1971) is known as the debut of Talia al Ghul, during the era of Denny O'Neil shaking off the camp of the '60s TV show. Its title, "Into the Den of the Death-Dealers!", is classic Bronze Age melodrama. Neal Adams is the most famous artist from this period, yet this issue is rendered by Bob Brown and Dick Giordano, a fine team in their own right. The story opens with Batman atop Gotham's "Statue of Freedom," meeting with an informant.

This doesn't work out so well for the stoolie, as the League of Assassins appears. Batman, still not the hyper-competent, infallible ninja of the modern day, can't prevent their escape. He does, however, manage to follow their trail to the Soom Express, searching for their associate, Doctor Darrk. Batman proves how not-super competent he is yet again, getting knocked unconscious by the assassins and taken captive. He awakens to find Darrk's mysterious female companion hovering over him, tending to his wounds.

She introduces herself as Talia, daughter of Ra's al Ghul. (We don't even know who Ra's al Ghul is yet, but presumably O'Neil has put some thought into the future.) Talia is revealed not as Darrk's arm candy, but as a prisoner he's taken. Her father, this mystery guy we don't know, had a falling out with the villain. Batman feels obligated to help Talia escape, and end the threat of the evil Doctor Darrk.

This leads to a bull fight...

...a gunfight (notice those amazing 1971 sideburns)...

...and a knife fight...with an oncoming train approaching, no less!

Talia's in a position to save Batman, although it likely means killing Darrk. He taunts that she's too delicate to do anything. She proves him wrong.

How much of Talia's character O'Neil already had in mind is unknown. It's possible he intended for her to be only what we see here, the damsel in distress forced to make a horrible choice at the story's end. Clearly, the audience has come to see a very different side of Talia.

And, with two decades of hindsight, the Batman producers were in a position to revisit Talia's debut from another perspective. Debuting on November 23, 1992, "Off Balance" is the first outside media appearance of both Talia and Ra's al Ghul.

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The script is from another star of '70s Batman, Len Wein. Direction comes from Kevin Altieri, whose episodes feature a taller, sturdier Batman. Japanese animation studio Sunrise provides a classic anime feel for the episode. Time prevented the production from retaking some scenes, but overall, there's a stylish, fluid quality to the work. Talia is none-the-worse for Sunrise's anime sensibilities, either. She does have the appeal of a late 1980s anime femme fatale.

So, where does the adaptation of such a significant issue begin? In the exact same spot. It's Batman meeting a nervous informant atop Gotham's Statue of Liberty knockoff. And before any information can be provided, shadowy villains appear to murder the stoolie. (Thanks to network censors, the death is left ambiguous, but the image of Twitch the Snitch falling from the statue is memorable.)

By the 1990s, Batman's already well on the path of super-competency, so the villains don't knock him out this time. They're also in a new design, owing more to G. I. Joe's Snake-Eyes than the "Hunchback" look of the original comic. And these guys also suffer a vague death scene! Three bodies in less than three minutes! Gas canisters in their masks prevent Batman from interrogating the ninjas. A later line of dialogue states they're now catatonic, but anyone half-paying attention is going to assume they're dead.

Ultimately, Batman discovers the members of this Society of Shadows are after a Wayne Enterprises device. It's an ultrasonic drill, being delivered tonight by train. Wein cleverly inserts these elements into the story, allowing appearances from Commissioner Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and Lucius Fox. He's adapting a story that's only fifteen pages long, requiring a decent amount of new material. These added scenes help to make the episode feel a part of the series, not exposing itself as an adaptation of material created decades earlier.

The largest change from the original story is the introduction of Count Vertigo as the villain. (Or, just "Vertigo" here.) Not known as a Batman villain, Vertigo does provide some animation-friendly distortion effects, but not too much else. He's here to provide a challenge to Batman, and a motivation for Batman and Talia to team up. Visually, he is more impressive than Doctor Darrk, even without the sideburns.

Another alteration comes in the characterization of Talia. In the comics, she's the sweet, ethnically ambiguous mystery woman Batman's obligated to protect. Here, she's a skilled adventurer in a skintight catsuit. Batman initially suspects she's working with Vertigo, but after she's attacked by his henchmen, changes his mind. She handles herself well for much of the episode, until her vertigo-immune contacts fall out. Batman plays more of the traditional hero then.

One scene lifted from the comic has Talia caring for an unmasked Batman's wounds. His reaction in O'Neil's story is rather casual. In the cartoon, delivered wonderfully by Kevin Conroy, he's understandably upset. The brief moment establishes the duality of Talia well. She's capable of compassion, and can't hide her affection for Bruce. Yet, in this relationship, she's the one keeping secrets.

The finale has Batman and Talia pursuing Vertigo up a bell tower, with the villain meeting the episode's fourth vague death scene. Batman's recovered the drill, and is ready to return home. In another deviation from the source, Talia pulls a gun on the hero, stealing the weapon. Vertigo, we learn, was a rogue agent of her father. Talia's been playing Batman since the beginning.

Talia flies away in a personal aircraft, speaking to her mysterious father over videophone. She's not granted the final victory, as Batman has sabotaged the device. However, her father predicts this isn't their last encounter with Batman. Turning to the camera, we're introduced to the legendary Ra's al Ghul.

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The Wrap-Up

Design-y

Perhaps for legal reasons, the "Statue of Freedom" isn't a direct copy of the Statue of Liberty in the episode. Also, some believe Twitch the Snitch is modeled after Tim Burton. Not intentionally...he just came back from Japan off-model.

Production Notes

Initial airings featuring a horribly off-timed lip synch for Ra's al Ghul's speech to camera. In fact, three different versions of the episode aired. The distortion effects initially done in post in America were supposed to be temporary, for the first airing. When Sunrise finished their distortion effects, another version aired. But, the producers later decided they liked theirs better, and went back to those takes.

Hey, I Know that Voice

Michael York voices Vertigo. He's best known today as Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers films. He'll go on to play many of the "refined" villains in the DCAU.

Approved By Broadcast Standards & Practices

The League of Assassins has to be renamed "The Society of Shadows" for the animated series. Later, Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins merges the two names together into "The League of Shadows." (Young Bruce Wayne likely wouldn't join a "League of Assassins," so the name's altered for the movie.)

Over the Kiddies’ Heads

Kids aren't likely to pick up on the two Hitchcock homages in "Off-Balance." Twitch's fall from the statue comes from Hitchcock's Saboteur. And Vertigo's fall from the tower borrows from the 1958 Hitchcock movie Vertigo.

Battle of the Mystery Beauties

The advantage of the animated series has is hindsight. They know who Talia is, what resonates about the character, what her most memorable stories will be. Denny O'Neil, clearly, doesn't have that benefit. He's creating something new, testing out ideas to see what works. Maybe this girl he's introduced can lead to something, maybe she'll be forgotten by the next issue. Exposing Batman's secret identity to her indicates O'Neil has some plans for Talia, but he's still flying blind.

"Off-Balance"works because the creators know where this is going. And, because the source material is so brief, there's plenty of room to have some fun. Is Vertigo a fantastic villain? Probably not. He's about as cliché as it gets, right down to detailing his nefarious plans before leaving the hero inside a deathtrap. But, he's kind of fun, and enables the animators visuals Doctor Darrk wouldn't provide. While some of the episode is an exercise in killing time, it looks darned nice throughout. The source material is entertaining as well, as a straightforward adventure tale. It's understandable why it stuck with the producers, why they'd select it for adaptation. In the end, it turns out they surpassed their inspiration.

That’s all for now. If you have any suggestions for the future, just leave a comment or contact me on Twitter.