Pre-Crisis Primer: Say 'Hi' to Batman

Batman 331-335

'The Lazarus Affair'

If it has to be a volcano, make sure it's flaming.

I'm not going to lie; I have a lot of Batman comics and it was a struggle to limit the amount of Batman I read during this entire Post- and Pre-Crisis run. Batman consistently appears in multiple times and unless a cross-over warranted it, I tried to keep Batman stories to the major 'Batman' title or those stories with continuity points I wanted to hit. One of those continuity points happens to be represented with this early entry: 'The Lazarus Affair.' One of my goals was to hit all Batman stories featuring the the arch-foe Ra's Al Ghul, of which this is the first.

Like most Ra's al Ghul stories, that fact that  Ra's is even a part of the story is kept a secret from readers until a suitably dramatic reveal; it's never a well-kept secret, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of mystery now and again.

'The Lazarus Affair' begins with Bruce Wayne, not Batman, under fire for allegedly owning slum tenements throughout the city. This is of course not true and traced to an unscrupulous businessman with ties to a 'mystery benefactor.' An appearance by long-lost Batman love interest and some James-Bond-style globe-trotting and Batman ends up in the volcano lair of Ra's al Ghul, with Robin and Catwoman. We learn al Ghul doesn't have a cool, destroy-most-of-the-population-of-the-planet scheme in mind, he just wanted to screw with Batman, convince him to marry Talia, and gain usage of Wayne International assets. A little weak, but when the story leads to a drawn out sword/hammer/fist fight that ends with Ra's al Ghul ablaze and still fighting, I'm not complaining too much. The story ends with Ra's dead, Talia escaping, and Batman on top, per usual.

No, being consumer by lava will not be enough to kill Ra's Al Ghul you plebian.

This is also the first of many times a story will end with Ra's al Ghul believed dead (spoilers: he's not), so let's keep a running tally at the end of this entry.

With secret lairs, two femme fatale characters, an extended ski-chase with laser-wielding enemies and a global stage, the writer is clearly channeling James Bond films and does so to great effect. I'm a proponent of getting Batman out of Gotham City, out of the alleyways and away from disfigured psychopaths and muggers. The Batman character is incredibly versatile, he can really play in any sandbox, so why confine him? 

I love that he's been shot twice by lasers and doesn't seem to give a shit.

At five issues long, this is absolutely epic by the standards of comics at the time (1981) and it reads as something special, utilizing most of the main support cast as well as wrapping up several main sub-plots that had been appearing in the book. Another aspect I really enjoyed was the focus on Bruce Wayne in the beginning of the story: Bruce Wayne is being attacked and it is his reputation on the line, rather than Batman's. This is also a great subtle clue that Ra's, being the only villain to know of Batman's double-identity, would be behind everything as well as giving Batman a different kind of conflict, one he's unsure of how to tackle. I do so love seeing Batman stumped for anything length of time. Make him work at it.

Ra's al Ghul death count: 1