Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul by Grant Morrison and Paul Dini

Batman and Talia, the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul, had a liason, out of which came a son named Damian. With Talia now running the criminal organization that Ra's once headed, this became just another source of conflict between them. She tried to get Batman, and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne to help her raise their son together, but Damian was far too spoiled and cruel for Batman to keep around his mansion.

He attacked Alfred and nearly killed Tim Drake, who Damian was jealous of, with his place at Batman's side. Though he failed to kill Tim, Tim didn't take too kindly to the effort, and he doesn't want to help Damian at all. In fact, he'd like to see Damien dead or imprisoned, although he won't kill the other boy himself.

At the end of the last book, Damien had returned to his mother after she became upset with the way Batman was raising him. She faked her own and Damien's death, but now her decision is coming back to haunt her. Despite her problems with how Bruce/Batman was treating him and trying to reform him, Damien preferred being with Batman to her and has become especially difficult to raise. Meanwhile, Batman himself has come to investigate the disappearance of two WayneCorp zoologists, who disappeared while tracking down some insects that were living to six or seven times their normal lifespan.

As Batman tries to retrace their path, Talia is teaching Damian about his grandfather and the life he led as she attempts to groom him into taking over the leadership of the Band of Assassins when she is gone. Her father's servant, the White One, tells her that Damian must understand and know the details of her father's life, but in reality, it is all a ploy so that Damian may serve as a new body for Ra's to inhabit. But the spirit will not return with all its memories, unless Damian knows about them as well.

Damian finds the history lesson boring and runs away, but is returned to his mother by assassins under her control, but when she gets an inkling of the plan her own father has in place for her son, she saves him from the reanimated corpse that Ra's has become. But when Damian flees to Gotham to enlist his father's help, he doesn't realize that Batman is already on the trail of one of Ra's' Lazarus Pits, and is finding out about the plot to bring him back.

Can Batman keep his son safe and see Ra's completely dead, or is his longtime foe more powerful, cunning and wily than he thought? Will Talia side with her father, or her son? And will Tim Drake, promised the secrets of resurrection by The White One, betray Batman and all he stands for to bring back his parents and the many friends he has lost?

While I didn't like the last graphic novel very much, finding Damien whiny, petulant and downright murderous, this volume redeems him somewhat as a character by pitting him against an even greater foe: his grandfather, Ra's Al Ghul. I wouldn't mind Damien biting the big one, but not at the cost of returning Ra's Al Ghul to life. And since Batman can't protect Damien himself, he calls on Tim Drake and Dick Grayson to do so in their identities of Robin and Nightwing. But Tim's antipathy towards Damien may turn out to be his undoing. By attacking and nearly killing him, Damien has made an enemy who may not be doing his best to keep Damien out of the hands of his Grandfather. But will he turn on his mentor for such a reason as that, and the promise of resurrection for his family and friends?

I liked this graphic novel. It was taut and well-written, though the turns and reverses that seemed to come every few pages at the end put me in danger of losing the thread of the story. While it goes a short way towards retrieving Damien from his utter unlikeableness as a character, it still couldn't make me care about him much or at all. I cared less about Damien than about seeing his grandfather finally, irrevocably die.

It's a solid effort, and well worth the price, but if you are like me, it still won't make you like or care for Damien. He's not a very likeable character. But Batman, Tim Drake and Nightwing, along with Talia, come off much better, as does Alfred, who shows us that just because he's Bruce Wayne's Butler doesn't mean you should underestimate him.