Batman - One Bad Day: Ra's Al Ghul Review (Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis)

I initially thought that the One Bad Day series was intended to be about Batman’s villains’ origins, and maybe the majority are (the only other one I’ve read is The Riddler’s, which is), but Tom Taylor and Ivan Reis’ entry for Ra’s Al Ghul isn’t. It has a brief flashback to Ra’s as a boy at the start and then it’s about his latest evil scheme in the present-day. Regardless, this isn’t a very good comic.

Ra’s is up to his old tricks, trying to save the planet by killing humans again, this time targeting the CEOs of companies damaging the environment. Ra’s is aiming for companies that also happen to have successors lined up who are sympathetic to the needs of the planet rather than the shareholders. There’s apparently quite a few companies that conveniently fit this plan.

It’s a very simplistic idea though. Taking out the CEO changes the entire company? What about the boards, the shareholders - are they not a consideration either? Would they not want to continue the practices of the company so long as they continue to make money?

The story then is just waiting for Batman to confront Ra’s, which isn’t very exciting. As usual, whenever these two meet, they both take off their shirts and sword-fight (which is only slightly less gay than it sounds), while any possible dramatic tension is negated by the existence of magic pools that bring anyone back from the dead - lotta Lazarus Pits in this one!

Ivan Reis’ art is fantastic throughout even if he overdoes Batman and Ra’s’ muscles in some of the pages and Danny Miki’s colours are excellent. Tom Taylor hasn’t written a bad script here, he just hasn’t written a good story and the whole thing comes off as completely pointless. I suppose it’s a decent introduction to the character - his background, how he’s managed to live for 700 years, his motivations, etc. - to anyone who’s unfamiliar with him though.

The thing is that you can also get the same info in this book in pretty much every comic Ra’s appears in too, like Grant Morrison’s Batman run or Mike Barr’s Son of the Demon, both of which are more entertaining than One Bad Day: Ra’s Al Ghul. This one doesn’t have much to recommend it unless you’re a fan of Ivan Reis’ art - a weak addition to the One Bad Day series that does little to nothing for the character of Ra’s Al Ghul.