Greg Rucka is a writer, similar to Ed Brubaker, who contributed vastly to the Batman universe in the early 2000's as scribe of Detective Comics. Together, they were responsible for brilliant stories like Officer Down and Bruce Wayne: Murderer? Rucka also gave the world some superb Ra's al Ghul tales, including Evolution (which is available as a trade paperback) and Death and the Maidens, which was billed as the LAST Ra's story. Of course, given that this is comics, and nobody ever stays dead except for Uncle Ben, Ra's made his return a few years later. But that doesn't lessen the impact of this story, which is at least one of the best Ra's stories, if not the last. Death and the Maidens is a nine-issue miniseries with artwork by comic book legend Klaus Janson (The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil), and deals with a dying Ra's al Ghul who makes Batman a tantalising offer in exchange for the location of a life-preserving Lazarus Pit - the ability for Batman to speak with his dead parents! The series is intriguing because it reminds the reader that while Ra's is virtually immortal and has lived for centuries, it is only because of the Pits and in this story he is very much in danger of dying for the first time in hundreds of years. The idea of Batman being able to talk to the spirits of his parents is a writer's dream as well. Would they be proud of Bruce for dedicating his life to a war on crime? Or would they be sad that their son has held on to their deaths so much that he has never led a normal life? The story is also notable for introducing us to Nyssa Raatko, Ra's' second daughter and half-sister of Talia. One of the great benefits of any Ra's story is that it can be tied into real world history, and Death and the Maidens does this with aplomb, tying Nyssa's backstory into the Nazis and World War Two is fascinating ways. It becomes apparent that while Nyssa disagrees with her father in some ways, in other's she is very much her father's daughter, and her ultimate plan is just as extreme as anything Ra's would dream up.
