Anti-Climax

SPOILER ALERT: I know a lot of us got our comics late this week. So please don't read this post if you haven't yet read Detective Comics #840. C'mon back later...I'll still be here...

So, I've already made clear the fact that I wasn't a big fan of the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul storyline. Well, after a prologue and 7 parts, we get the epilogue this week (or last week, whatever....grrr, I hate holidays). Heck, that's even the title of the issue: "The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul Epilogue." Good imagination, there, guys.

The cover features the phrase, "After the Resurrection..." Convenient, those ellipses, as they cover a hideous truth. If DC had completed the phrase on the cover, it would read "After the Resurrection...Batman Defeats Ra's in One Page and Locks Him in a Basement in Arkham Forever."

Seriously.

Talk about your dramatic "THUD"s. After 8 issues of build-up, globe-trotting, body-switching and angst, that is really how they end it. Really.

Can I ask, why, exactly, DC went to all the sturm und drang to revive Ra's, give him a shiny new body, and re-establish him as a threat in Batman's world, if Dini is just going to have Batman whoop him faster than the average mugger and immediately remove him from the field only one issue later? Baffling, simply baffling.

Wouldn't it have been simpler to not revive him? Or have him actually hang around for a few issues, in the background at least, as a menace, so there was actually some point to the crossover? Seriously, Ra's return lasted less time than the New Guardians...and thus the arc actually had less impact on the DC Universe than Millennium. It's as if they revived him, and looked at each other, and said, "We have no idea what to do with him now." And Dini stepped up and said, "OK, I'll get rid of him..."

Here's what the complete cover blurb should have been: "After the Resurrection...You Realize We Suckered You Outta Your Money Again."

Some bullet points, because it's easier than actually writing:

• Remember two weeks ago, in Detective #839, when Ra's in his new body essentially fought Batman to a draw? This week, not so much...Ghul doesn't even land a single blow. HUH?


• Remember those 5,000 ninjas of Ra's', who broke into Wayne Manor a few weeks ago, and who chased Batman away this issue? Even if the Caped Crusader has successfully taken Ghul off the board, aren't they still out there? Don't they still know where Batman works and lives? Isn't that the first place they'll go if they're hunting for their missing master? 5,000 unemployed ninjas who know Batman's secret identity running loose around Gotham...odds that this will ever be followed up on? 10,000-1.


• In the final scene, the first time someone refers to Arkham, he says "Arkman." Nice editing, Mike Marts. Yeah, I know typos happen, but these was a fairly blatant one, and interfered with our understanding of the scene. What, no one at DC can proofread?


• Speaking of Arkman, that sounds like ALMOST as silly a Batman villain pastiche as the one Dini actually presents to lead off this issue: The Globe!! Prediction as to when we'll next see the Globe? Never. Then again, The Globe did put up more of a fight against Batman than Ra's did...
• "NEXT ISSUE: Zatanna guest-stars!" Probably a good idea, now that Bruce Wayne has entered Identity Crisis mode of dealing with inconvenient villains...maybe he can get a few pointers from her...