10 Superhero Movie Staples That Weren't In The Comics

1. Ra's Al Ghul As Bruce's Trainer - Batman Begins

Though Ra's al Ghul only has a major role in the first of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, Batman Begins, his training of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and subsequent betrayal traces a narrative trajectory that intersects through the entire franchise, concluding with the defeat of Talia al Ghul at the end of The Dark Knight Rises.

Yet despite Nolan's (mostly) respectful treatment of the source material, his depiction of Ra's al Ghul is markedly different from the comics, where he was never a mentor to Bruce, nor did he hide under the guise of Henri Ducard (who is a totally separate character in the source material).

If Nolan made Ra's a purity test of sorts for Bruce/Batman, testing the limits to which he's prepared to go, Ra's in the comics was a decidedly more conventional, even one-note villain.

Furthermore, in the comics he's literally hundreds of years old, and is able to revive himself through use of the Lazarus Pit, all of which was elided from Nolan's grittier, more "realistic" treatment.

Post-Batman Begins the character did enjoy quite the boom in the comics, with some runs (such as Superman: American Alien) even depicting Ra's training Bruce.

But given how fundamentally the Ra's-Bruce dynamic defines the origins of Batman in Nolan's franchise, it's pretty staggering how significantly he changed the character from the source material.