Shadow War: Alpha #1 Discussion/Spoilers

[thwhtGuardian]

I'm betting that wasn't the real Ra's and that faking his death turns out to be his plan to unite the League of Assassins.

[king81992]

I'm betting that wasn't the real Ra's and that faking his death turns out to be his plan to unite the League of Assassins.

The way I see it Ra's is behind everything, Slade is responsible and used a body double to create an ally or someone with beef against Ra's and Slade did this.

[king81992]

I started flicking through this as a breeze read, just keeping up with Batman's zeitgeist. I've found the Bat-Family of titles to be on an uptick lately but not monumentally good or anything, but that baseline level of "goodish" has been nice because nothing is glaringly bad - and that's a trend that continues here although I was pleasantly surprised that I had to stop trying to read and do other things at once because there was at least enough clear direction (and misdirection), canonical valuation and "neatness" - both in the sense of a well-told or "tidy" story but also in the "oh neat!" pings a long-time fan might get here. That's not a premature estimate that the whole crossover will be good, but just this first issue, which had the benefit of that clean Bogdanovic art.

I really have a lot of fondness for Williamson because of his Flash run, which took a really holistic, really all-encompassing approach. He was the one, with his Rebirth run, after all, who had neatly bundled story arcs which fit together with nicely seeded longer story threads and did a clean job of mixing the old (A Rogues arc here) with the new (some big new thematic villain) while making it look effortless to incorporate the expanded elements of Flashness from the TV show into the long canonical history in a way that felt like it's just always been like that. By and large, these were the Rebirth runs that I thought the most highly of - Steve Orlando's Supergirl and Ben Percy's Green Arrow also did this very well for me, and they're hardly the first either.

So I think his Batman run (and eventual DC kung-fu & mysticism takeover) has a lot of potential, but I do think it's going to be a slow build (and even this "shocking!" crossover event is probably just laying ground-work). But at least in that slow, or long-game approach, he's paying a lot of love to ... or I should say, it's clear he's read the last 15, 20 years of Batman comics and has his favorite runs and like just a handful of other DC writers (Your Orlandos, your Seeleys), there's a lot of Morrison in there. Oh, not with Morrison's trademark panache or ability to cut right to the red meat. Morrison's plating of a dish is clean, vivid and the presentation is always a three course meal by a chef that knows what they want you to experience. These "long and holistic runs" feel more like they come from a more modern school but do at least seem like they have an eye for balance between "a pop that gets excitement in this season of 2022, contrasted with a plan for how to have an actual five year run of comics stories with some cohesion and thematic structure."

This doesn't mean the dialogue is all tight and pitch-perfect or that using a character that's had other odd history thrown into their recent status quo doesn't feel weird or underserved or all the other things that can be problems, pacing, structure, the art selling the stakes, the vibe, the tone. Bogdanovic's art is gleeful and really slick for instance, but is far more in that Greg Capullo school of dynamism with the hints of the cartoon or anime elements that, looks really good ... but also might not 100% be the kind of urban warfare or shadowed alley ninja vibe that would best suit a proper "assassin war" tone. But he still draws the crap out of every page, I still prefer a clean, almost more T.A.S. look to somebody being a grim & gritty try-hard laying down paltry pencils then expecting their inker to "shadow it all up" without somehow drowning the whole page in a lack of clarity, composition or narrative flow.

I also like the somewhat animated style and then how he depicted "we're gonna kill Ra's al Ghul but you know, he dies and comes back all the time, so we're going to go to comedic lengths to show that somebody really thought this through diagetically and is "really really really gonna kill Ra's al Ghul"." And I think it's a fine shot to fire to tell a Batman and Damian come back together story because it's a relatively simple and novel concept about a real life thing that often happens where you haven't spoken to a family member and don't until someone dies and then you can add all the Bat-Family, Demon-Family and Wilson-Family melodrama on top of it to complex it out.

Anyway, the bit I really wanted to focus on but ends up just being me saying "nice job Williamson" is that I did feel like we were looking at a post-Inc., and post a bunch of other drama Batman (he's clearly post-Tom King, too, vis a vis Alfred), interacting with a Robin who has definitely leveled up from the Tomasi days and had those Rebirth Titans experiences, and a Deathstroke who has definitely been in Priest's run recently. Add in other family members pulled from their Spring 2022 status quos as spice to flavor the stew. I saw the direct evidence of those pulls and that reckoning of 20 years of ... semi ... contiguous storytelling from the "peanut gallery" of outsiders commenting on the news as it unfolded this issue. The Outsiders - in and including what Geo-Force is up to lately, Luthor representing the Legion of Doom, Bat-Oracle-Girl, Vandal Savage with Hawkgirl and Mister T. in that very odd illuminati ... er ... Totality situation so we know that Death Metal ---- Dark Crisis is still a through-line. This is Batman's "International Life" writ large, a three-houses style conflict where there's connected kids who could be problems or opportunities or melodramatic side-choosing (with side-houses, too - I see Sportsmaster and Merlyn, a Raptor cameo and Damian's cousin, you show me a Mad Dog Cain, Tigress and Cheshire and the smaller houses could get crazy).

Anyway, with those outsiders chiming in peanut gallery style, I shouldn't have been surprised to see Talia pull in that Outsiders lady, the Seven Men of Death, the Demon's Fist kid assassins (Damian's cousin and crew, scions of the White Ghost), or even some of the completely rando assassins from Lobdell's Red Hood early days. There's notably some folks missing whose inclusion (because they're up to their own things) actually would have to be story driven. Shiva, Bronze Tiger, Cheshire, and many others, if they're going to enter this tale, it's an actual plot point - and whose side they choose between Talia and Slade would also be a plot point. I think Shiva is probably the most glaringly obvious of those. So anyway, it's quite nice that he (with exceptions for those who it would cause head-scratching to just have show up for the wide-shot and can better use as pieces in the narrative), he didn't really forget too many folks. Like, he really didn't forget too many folks. Talia straight up references Melisande the Fortune-Teller and Nyssa al Ghul on page six or whatever.

With all those boxes ticked, it really feels like a sort of continuity where "Demon's Quest" morphs into "Son of the Demon", "New Teen Titans" alongside, folding into the Nineties stuff into "Death and the Maidens" into Dini & Morrison's "Resurrection", Tomasi's "Outsiders", and "Incorporated/Leviathan" and into "Rebirth Teen Titans" and "Recent Outsiders" and "Priest Deathstroke" and to the recent "Robin" stuff and it more or less makes sense. Even one panel of Vandal Savage hints at a 20 year history of stories and the Morrison run, while Luthor watching plays to both Johns & Snyder's Justice Leagues, and so on and so forth. These are characters with relationships, even if not every frame hits the "wow, this panel is the sum total of a 80 year history" magic mark every single time. Sometimes the episode just needs some padding to get from point A to B, sometimes the season needs some filler episodes. I'm sure it'll all be here.

I speculate that Jericho or Adeline might be targeted right out of the gate, which should make an interesting sequence. I think we're overtly meant to figure that "Deathstroke Classic" is part of a Ra's al Ghul scheme even if the "how" or "why" aren't clear in issue # 1. It's all set up. But anyway.

Rose, Jericho and Adeline are definitely involved. Possibly Terra, since Geo Force cameod.

[thwhtGuardian]

The way I see it Ra's is behind everything, Slade is responsible and used a body double to create an ally or someone with beef against Ra's and Slade did this.

I'd discount Slade being behind it, he has nothing to gain from a full on war with Talia so I'm thinking he really was blindsided here. Your third option does sound plausible, someone with beef with Slade and an an axe to grind with Ra's would definitely want to kick this event off...and Talia might be that someone. She's seen Slade as a Rival for a while now and she didn't seem pleased with her father's plan so she very well could see Ra's death as a way to build power for herself and cement a new future for her and Damian.

[PowerPlay25]

I LOVE WHEN I get to see the Al GHULS interact with the rest of the DCU good and especially bad so I expected to like this event and very much do so far. I NEVER IMAGINED a Mea culpa from Ra's. the authorities seemed almost as eager to get their hands on Talia as they ere Ra's.

[The Cool Thatguy]

It's so weird that Bruce is completely inadequate with Damian. He can't say things to help Damain, but when he say something, he worded wrong. He can't even hug the boy the right way. It feels forced when you remember some of their previous interactions, even if you discard the pre-new 52 stuff.

Meanwhile, we have Deathstroke, a dude that literally killed his son before and it's a absolute piece of sh*t, being a better parent in this.
My hope is that Williamson will flip the script with this later in the crossover, cause it's a bad look right now.

The rest was fine, it's a solid book.

In Slade's defense, he only killed Jericho because the situation demanded it, and Jericho was literally begging him to do it

[Bad Witch]

Yawn. I can't wait for july!

[Factor]

It was a nice start to the crossover. It does look like Ra's is behind everything (as usual), but I have a feeling fake Deathstroke might be Geo-Force.
I guess I'm just surprised the character is being acknowledged, but it would explain other elements like the Outsiders cameo.

[marvelprince]

It was a nice start to the crossover. It does look like Ra's is behind everything (as usual), but I have a feeling fake Deathstroke might be Geo-Force.
I guess I'm just surprised the character is being acknowledged, but it would explain other elements like the Outsiders cameo.

I honestly would love this. During Meltzers run they established an even deeper rivalry with Geo Force and Deathstroke and I would love to see that followed up on.

[Frontier]

The way I see it Ra's is behind everything, Slade is responsible and used a body double to create an ally or someone with beef against Ra's and Slade did this.

Yeah, Ra's turning over a new leaf and trying to do right just seems like there's a bigger plan behind it.

[Coco Loco]

Agreed Ra’s is, at minimum, complicit here. He is strategically withholding info from everyone including Talia.

[Restingvoice]

Yeah, Ra's turning over a new leaf and trying to do right just seems like there's a bigger plan behind it.

Oh that's gonna be disappointing for al Ghul fans, they really like redeemed hot grandpa Ra's

[king81992]

I honestly would love this. During Meltzers run they established an even deeper rivalry with Geo Force and Deathstroke and I would love to see that followed up on.

Geo Force has reason to screw over Ra's and Slade, Ra's for occupying Markovia and Slade for using Terra.

[Frontier]

Oh that's gonna be disappointing for al Ghul fans, they really like redeemed hot grandpa Ra's

Yeah, but they should know better .

[thwhtGuardian]

Yeah, but they should know better .

Yeah, Ra's going legit had the same odds as him staying dead here: zero.