Comic Book Questions Answered - Where Did Batman Take Ra's Al Ghul After He First Defeated Him?

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Jun 29, 2016

Where did Batman take Ra's Al Ghul after their famous barechest sword fight in the desert?

Comic Book Questions Answered - where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com). Here is a link to an archive of all the past questions that have been answered so far.

Reader Dan S. wrote in to ask:

After their famous sword duel in the desert, Batman slings Ra's al Ghul over his shoulder and carries him away. Where does he take Ra's?? (Not to Arkham Asylum or Gotham City jail, I presume.) In Ra's al Ghul's next appearance, whenever that was, is there any mention of where he's been since their fight in the desert?

Interesting question, Dan, let's take a look!

The famous first storyline involving Batman taking down Ra's Al Ghul opened with Ra's stealing the brain of a scientist and Batman stopping him from stealing the brain of another scientist. Batman then forms a ragtag team made up of the scientist, himself (disguised as Matches Malone, who made his first appearance as Batman's fake identity, after the real Matches is killed accidentally) and an assassin sent by Ra's whose life is saved by Batman, making the assassin now in debt to both Ra's AND Batman, a dilemma he resolves in Batman #243 (by Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano)...

They are later joined by a female ski champion (talk about a ragtag group!). However, in the end, it comes down to just Batman tracking Ra's down to the desert, where they had their classic barechested sword fight...

Batman then just carts him off on his shoulders...

So to Dan's question, where is Batman taking him?

Well, the previous page basically answers it, as Talia asks Batman if he must take her father to "the authorities," and Batman says that he must...

The question is, of course, who would be the authorities in this situation?

On the next page, find out where Batman took Ra's...

Thanks to reader Eduardo Duran, we see that Batman took Ra's to Gotham City, where he was arrested and was serving time when Batman came to confront him in Detective Comics #445 (by Len Wein and Jim Aparo) over Batman being framed for the alleged murder of Talia Al Ghul...