Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul

My second foray into Batman as a father.

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul addresses Ra's' attempts to re-animate to continue his work with the League of Shadows. The first prelude chapter was amazing as it described the process by which Ra's is brought back to life: in my opinion, the strongest chapter in the entire graphic novel. We're also given more insight into Damian as Batman's son. His cockiness is still there, but it is now masked in the form of adolescence. Damian continues to want to get to know Bruce/Batman, but there is still something more to the character, more of a sinister intention that is hovering under the surface.

The novel also introduces new characters (new to me, that is) I-Ching and Sensei. I-Ching is a character with a lot of untapped potential. I like how he just shows up at opportune moments. I also enjoyed seeing Talia al Ghul more involved in the story. She's another character with significant potential.

This particular book, though noted as “by Grant Morrison”, is actually written by four different authors. Though generally cohesive, the constant switching in authors was much more jarring to me than chapter-by-chapter changes in illustrators and colorists.

The spin on the theme of family is good stuff. We've always had the family theme with Batman stories given what happened to Bruce's parents, but that angle had to do with how does one rebuild the concept of family. This particular book assumes that it's been built and now asks how it should be kept together. What does it mean to be a family? Is it blood relation? Common goals? Friendship? There are no answers given, but the path taken toward the answers...there's the depth.