Talia al Ghul
Talia al Ghul is a female comic character who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Talia al Ghul (Arabic: تاليا الغول) was a female human who was born the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and his wife Melisande. Her parents had met during the last World War where her father used his resources to fight against the Axis powers. When she was a child, their household had within their care a boy called Quinlan whose parents were warriors serving Ra's al Ghul but died during the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Afterwards, the boy became moody and more erratic leading to Melsiande asking him to be expelled from the household but Ra's al Ghul could not do so. One day, a young Talia witnessed the boy entering into a forbidden chamber that contained an earlier version of the Lazarus Pit where a panic he fled and knocked Melsiande into the the pit. This caused her instantaneous death which was something witnessed by Talia with Quinlan escaping from the home of the Demon's Head. (Batman: Son of the Demon v1 #1)
Beloved
After failing a mission, Doctor Darrk turned against Ra's al Ghul and took control of the League of Assassins where he kidnapped Talia. This saw Batman arrive where he rescued by Talia al Ghul and she later shot and killed Darrk in order to save the Dark Knight's life. Afterwards, Talia was seemingly captured alongside Robin with Ra's al Ghul recruiting the vigilante detective. Ultimately, it was shown that the entire kidnapping was orchestrated by Ra's. The reason for this was because Talia had fallen in love with Batman and that the staged kidnapping was to prove Batman's suitability and worth as a husband for Talia along with being Ra's al Ghul's successor. Batman rejected Ra's offer but he did have similar and return Talia's feelings.
Sometime afterwards, she came to pose as a servant of the Penguin in order to steal loot from the criminal. Her ultimate goal was to use this money to release her father from prison and rebuild his empire. Howevr, in the end, she came to help the Batman capture the Penguin with her being left empty handed. (Batman v1 #257)
After her mourning, she decided to travel to Gotham to be with her beloved Batman again in order to help him in his fight against crime and used her informants to aid him in locating Timothy Fox. (Batman v1 #329)
Daughter of the Demon
She later assisted her father in his plot to cull the world population with him starting by eliminating the Justice League. To defeat them, he had stolen plans Batman had actually created in case he had to ever oppose the Justice League with these being used to cripple them. (JLA v1 43)
Out of her love of Batman, she came to take the reborn Jason Todd to her father where he spent months in the care of the League of Assassins. Though his body recuperated, his mind was shattered with Talia finding no means to help him where she threw him into the Lazarus Pit. This led to Jason was fully revived both in boy and mind. Talia then aided the boy's escape to spare him from her father's wrath where she also supported him financially and tried to aid in him recovering his life. (Batman Annual v1 #25)
After being disillusioned with her father, she left the company of her father and sought to escape from his shadow with her taking the name Talia Head with her wanting to be alone. During this time, she was residing in Hong Kong when she was approached by President Lex Luthor who wanted her to manage his company LexCorp as he headed the country. This was because of her own experience in managing corporate assets of her father with Luthor offering her protection from her father. Talia refused and said that she wanted to be left alone but was attacked by assassins seemingly from her father. She was saved by the intervention of Luthor's bodyguards who brought her to him with her accepting the position of CEO of LexCorp. (President Luthor Secret Files and Origins v1 #1)
During the Asteroid X crisis, Talia in her role as C.E.O. of LexCorp began to drain all the company's resources and sell its assets to the Wayne Foundation leaving Luthor with nothing as his crimes were exposed to the world and his presidency came to an end. (Superman/Batman v1 #6)
Three years ago, she was at a retreat in Xigatse in Tibet where was approached by Catwoman. Talia stated that the two of them were the two women that Batman had loved as well as entrusted the secret of his identity. Thus, this made them targets of other people who would seek the two women to betray him. To protect him, Talia decided to teach Selina a mind control technique whereby she could bury the secret of Batman's true identity to prevent acts of mind control from revealing this information. (Gotham City Sirens v1 #2)
The Society
Around this time, she became one of the core founders of the Secret Society of Super Villains. (Countdown to Infinite Crisis v1 #1) The Society went about recruiting villains into their number with many accepting the offer. Talia and Doctor Psycho then approached Catman about him joining them but he came to refuse. The pair were ultimately allowed to depart where they reported the failure to the other members of the Society. (Villains United v1 #1)
Leviathan
Following the revelation, she went to meet her father who was impressed at her deception of the Dark Detective but stated that he could not let her destroy his arch-foe. However, Talia had no interest in following her fathers orders and instead usurped control over his fathers followers and placed Ra's al Ghul under house arrest for opposing her plans. She then intended to take her revenge against Batman for the wrongs he had done to her where she had planned for both the Dark Knight and his city of Gotham to fall by her hand. (Batman Incorporated v2 #2) She then became the mastermind behind the shadow organization Leviathan that was formed in opposition to her beloved's Batman Incorporated project. During this time, she placed US$500,000,000 dollar bounty on the head of her own son Damian and declared war against Batman. (Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes v1 #1)
Arriving in the Batcave, she challenged him to a duel using sabres where she kissed him before they fought and revealed that her lips were coated with deadly nightshade. However, this was not with any malice but rather for nostalgia sake and because she knew that he had already taken an antidote. They later fought but in the fight fragments of her blade shattered and actually poisoned Batman where he only had 10 minutes to live. It was then that the Wingman arrived where he offered a trade where he would give Talia the Oroboro trigger in exchange for the antidote for the poison. She agreed but after the exchange she found that the box she was given was empty whilst the cure was given to Batman who made a quick recovery. Thus, Leviathan's goals were thwarted but Talia continued to gloat about her plans when she was then shot in the head by Spyral agent Kathy Kane who then disappeared from the scene. (Batman Incorporated v2 #13)
Return
She later joined with Batman to fight alongside their son against the threat posed by Suren Darga. (Robin: Son of Batman v1 #11)
Holly Robinson later sought shelter under the protection of Talia who kept her safe. Around this time, Batman and Catwoman sought her out as the pair intended to get married. This led to a battle with Talia who lost to Selina and expressed her admiration for Catwoman. (Batman v3 #35) She was later hired for an assassination of Lois Lane and used this opportunity to test her son Damian as she sought him to achieve his true potential though once more he rejected her. (Super Sons v1 #14)
The truce in Leviathan came to an end forcing Talia to seek out the retired Honor Guest who had departed the life of an assassin and had become a wife as well as mother to a child. (The Silencer v1 #1)
She was operating secretly in Markovia when her son tracked her down with Damian looking to claim back his role after he had rejected Batman. Thus, he sought to take the mantle as the grandson of Ra's al Ghul and as the Heir to the Demon. Though his mother was at first disappointed that he only did this after all his other options had been closed after having been rejected by all the heroes he once called friend. Their meeting was then interrupted by ninjas who had targeted Talia with these assassins claiming to be from the League of Lazarus. (Batman v3 #106) She killed the assassin threatening her and told her son about the Lazarus Tournament though she had no interest in it with her instead looking to revive her empire. Talia though did tell Damian that he now had a choice between the path of the Demon or the Detective. (Detective Comics v1 #1034)
Following the defeat of Perpetua, a team known as the Totality was formed that looked to protect the Multiverse with Talia being recruited to join their ranks. She agreed to join this group after coming to learn that the changes in reality had led to her son following his fathers path rather than her own and Talia not wanting further disruptions in the Multiverse to separate her from her son. (Infinite Frontier Secret Files v1 #4) She later joined a group of covert intelligence experts that were looking to handle the threat of Leviathan. (Checkmate v3 #1)
Her father by this point came to feel regret over his past and looked to make restitution for these past crimes. This saw him convincing Talia into surrendering herself to the authorities at the Markovian embassy in the United States. Arriving at the scene, Ra's al Ghul made a speech with reporters which was interrupted by Deathstroke attacking and killing him where his body was destroyed by the mercenary using a bomb. (Shadow War: Alpha v1 #1) The badly injured Talia came to take over her father's empire where she declared war against Deathstroke and his Secret Society of Super-Villains. (Batman v3 #122)
Overview
Personality and attributes
For a brief time, she wore a robe with a skeletal mask over her face during the time she operated as the hidden leader of Leviathan. (Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes v1 #1) She once came to operate under the name of Talia Head when she tried to escape from her father's control. (President Luthor Secret Files and Origins v1 #1)
She believed that battles were only ever won when the killing stroke was made against an opponent. (Robin: Son of Batman v1 #2)
Her father had given her everything she had ever asked for and demanded though Talia had later said that he never asked what she truly wanted in life. To her, she said that she had always needed a mother in her life with this being deprived from her. Ra's had said that he would give anything to Talia as he intended for his empire to pass to her and her child. (Batman Incorporated v2 #2)
She saw no man as being his equal and as such he could be the only man she could love. To Batman, Talia was everything he could want in a woman with Bruce describing her as being beautiful, intelligent and loyal. He only opposed marrying her because he felt that she would stand in the way of his mission against crime. (DC Special Series v1 #15)
The resultant son she came to name Damian and had intended for him to one day rule the world. She had wanted for their child to be a leader and a modern age Alexander. (Batman Incorporated v1 #2) Talia had told her son that the world needed him to save it. (Robin: Son of Batman v1 #2) Over time though, she came to see Damian as simply another pawn in a grand game. (Batman Incorporated v2 #2) However, it was later revealed that this stemmed from lies and poisons from her own father with Talia having a mother's love for her son. (Robin: Son of Batman v1 #3)
Powers and abilities
Her father had taught her how to master her mind and will so thoroughly that it could not be broken. She was able to teach a more simplified version of this skill that was considered a parlour trick whereby a person could disguise the truth. (Gotham City Sirens v1 #2)
From a young age, her father had her train in various skills including martial arts and even had her go through an intense education. It was said that she rarely got to practice her lethal martial arts. (Batman Incorporated v2 #2) She claimed that she knew one hundred ways to kill a person with her bare hands. (Birds of Prey v1 #49) Talia had a certain level of medical training allowing her to treat a person for their injuries. (Batman: Son of the Demon v1 #1) This included the use of special healing salves that were created by her father. (Batman v1 #329)
Her father was noted to have left her a fortune of millions and that she had no need for money. (Batman v1 #329)
Talia came to gain a fearsome reputation in the international super-crime community. It was said that many people tended to underestimate her with this being a common and fatal error on their part. (Batman Incorporated v2 #2)
Notes
- Talia al Ghul was created by Dennis O'Neil, Bob Brown and Dick Giordano where she made her first appearance in Detective Comics v1 #411 (May, 1971).
- IGN came to rank her as #42 in their Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time List.
- In the Comics Buyer's Guide (2011), the character was ranked 25th in their "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.
Alternate Versions
- In Batman: Dark Knight of the Round Table v1 (1998), Talia al Ghul appeared in the alternate reality Elseworld set in the Arthurian era where she was the daughter of Ra's al Ghul who desired to marry the Dark Knight Bruce of the House of Waynesmoor that was battling the forces of Mordred.
- In Injustice 2 v1 (2017), Talia al Ghul appeared in the alternate world that tied in with the Injustice series. She was the former lover of Batman and was the mother of his son Damian Wayne who left her to follow his fathers path. She had another daughter who went by the name of Athanasia al Ghul (Daughter of the Bat) who took the identity of Nightwing and helped Talia rescue her brother Damian from prison.
- In Batman/Superman Authority Special v1 #1 (2021), an alternate version of Talia al Ghul was shown to inhabit a world in the Dark Multiverse. On this world, she was married to Batman who decided to join Ra's al Ghul's empire and created the Empire of Shadows. Talia came to be his dutiful wife where she bore him three children named Janan al Ghul, Saif al Ghul and Taj al Ghul who came to be great generals of their empire. Using magic and their strength, they conquered their Earth and looked to expand their empire across the Multiverse.
In other media
Television
- In the DC Animated Universe, Talia al Ghul made a number of appearance in the various animated series of the setting.
- In Batman: The Animated Series, Talia made her first appearance in the animated television series starting in the episode "Off Balance" where she was voiced by actor Helen Slater.
- In Superman: The Animated Series, Talia made a guest appearance in the animated television series in the episode "The Demon Reborn" where she was voiced by actor Olivia Hussey.
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Talia al Ghul appeared in the setting of the animated television series where she was voiced by actress Andrea Bowen.
- In the Arrowverse, Talia al Ghul made a number of appearances in the shared continuity setting.
- In Legends of Tomorrow, a young Talia was shown in the live-action television series episode "Left Behind" where she was portrayed by actor Milli Wilkinson. Her father Ra's al Ghul brought her to the training session of Sara Lance where he noted on the young warriors proficiency in combat.
- In Arrow, an adult Talia made a number of appearances in the live-action television series fifth season where she was portrayed by actor Lexa Doig. She was shown initially in flashback in Russia where she found Oliver Queen and helped train him to become a vigilante to seek his vengeance. Years later, she trained Adrian Chase for the skills he needed to get his revenge on Oliver Queen for killing his father. This was because she resented Oliver for killing her own father Ra's al Ghul and intended her student to get her revenge.
- In Young Justice, Talia al Ghul appeared in the animated television series third season Outsiders where she had a cameo in the episode "Rescue Op" and was later voiced by actress Zehra Fazal. Seeking an heir for his empire, Ra's al Ghul wanted to Talia to mate with the Batman and she entered into a relationship with him. This resulted in her becoming pregnant and she secretly had a son named Damian who she kept by her side.
Films
- In Batman: Under the Red Hood, Talia al Ghul appeared in a cameo non-speaking role in the animated film.
- In The Dark Knight Rises, Talia appeared as a supporting protagonist initially before being revealed as the primary antagonist where she was portrayed by actor Marion Cotillard with Joey King and Harry Coles portraying the character during flashbacks. Whilst in Gotham, she began operating under a new identity as Miranda Tate who was seemingly a wealthy executive and philanthropist.
- In Son of Batman, Talia al Ghul appeared in a supporting role in the animated film where she was voiced by actor Morena Baccarin.
- In Batman vs. Robin, Talia al Ghul appeared only in a cameo non-speaking role in the animated film as a hallucinatory vision experienced by Batman.
- In Batman: Bad Blood, Talia al Ghul appeared as an antagonist in the animated film where she was voiced again by actor Morena Baccarin.
- In Batman: Death in the Family, Talia al Ghul appeared in three of the multiple choice storylines of the animated film where she was voiced by actress Zehra Fazal.
Video games
- In DC Universe Online, Talia al Ghul appeared as an alert dispatcher for the villain faction in the setting of the MMORPG where she was voiced by actress Ellie McBride.
- In Batman: Arkham Asylum, Talia al Ghul was referenced in the setting of the video game where she was mentioned in the biography of Ra's al Ghul's as Batman's love interest.
- In Batman: Arkham City, Talia al Ghul appeared in the video game where she was voiced by actress Stana Katic.
- In Injustice 2, Talia was referenced in dialogue in the fighting video game.
Misc
Appearances
- Detective Comics v1: (1971)
- Batman v1:
- Batman: Son of the Demon v1:
- Batman: Gotham Knights v1:
- Countdown to Infinite Crisis v1:
- Villains United v1:
- Gotham City Sirens v1:
- Batman Incorporated v2:
- Batman and Robin v2:
- Robin: Son of Batman v1:
- Batman v3:
- The Silencer v1:
- Super Sons v2:
- Batman v3: (2021)
- Infinite Frontier Secret Files v1: (2021)
- Checkmate v3: (2021)
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