Talia al Ghul is a piece of...

[Agent Z]

Well, I didn't expect such heated discussions surrounding Talia.

Now, I wonder what people think of her in The Silencer...

What does she do there?

[Korath]

What does she do there?

Engineered the Leviathan Civil War to cull from it those interested by money and power, all so she could get the Silencer back as her personal killing machine, threatening Honor's family in the process and generally being really evil.

She does seem obsessed and sometimes even genuine on her attachment to The Silencer, however.

Generally has made Leviathan something far more dangerous than in Batman and apparently meant to create a new society/world.

[K. Jones]

Honestly, I've never gotten why Talia was ever considered a serious love interest for Batman in the first place, beyond "Denny O'Neil said so and he was head honcho of the Batman books for a good decade or so".

I suppose I'm biased, but I've always regarded the al-Ghuls as one of the few rogues objectively more evil than the Joker, if only in sheer scale and destructive potential. If he's in an extra-assholish mood the Joker might kill a few dozen. Ra's slaughtered an entire fucking city as an opening act and just got worse from there, and Talia, as mentioned, is the kind of person who orders her personal bodyguards to suicide like you or me tossing away a tissue.

Part of the nature of returning Batman to his "detective" pulp roots in the late 60s/early 70s was definitely the revival of a lot of classic tropes associated with that genre. Denny did a lot to start out with - reviving the Joker, of course, but also bringing in Golden Age villains and doing a lot of very pulpy one-off Gothic detective stories - murder mysteries, ghost tales, that sort of thing. Obviously there was also the concerted effort to have Batman fight creatures, like Man-Bat and so forth - sort of a double-down on the "Gothic" parts of Batman but also a very, VERY 70s thing - Horror Comics were huge at the time and so you know, you had to have Batman fight werewolves and vampires.

So Talia ... was pretty purely a revival of the Femme Fatale archetype to go with our detective. She's not a good girl, but she's not super-evil ... she's a bit caught up in it. The James Bond influence was also pretty circular here. As was introducing Ra's al Ghul, who was definitely a very modernized, "different" take on the Fu Manchu archetype (there's good stuff in there, too - eco-terrorism was certainly a pretty poignant counterattack on Bruce's "billionaire industrialist" footprint). It was definitely a "Denny says it's so" mandate but at the time Batman was fixing for a Femme Fatale character and Catwoman was a bit past the point of mystique and gray area, and more firmly in the "Old, Cheesy Villains" category. And it's funny because Talia is also mega-rich, so yeah ... coming from this place of ultra-privilege and not even thinking about some of the little people. Another weird reflection of Bruce, who we know to at least try pretty hard not to be that way when it comes to Wayne Foundation, Enterprises, Tech, or whatever. There's a concerted effort to try to paint him as a pretty benevolent ultra-rich executive.

I think the seriousness of their relationship definitely fit into that trope though, of like ... "of course for some reason Batman is drawn to the bad girls with the murky gray morality." Julie Madison? See ya. Linda Page? Linda who? Vicki what? Silver how? He wants to solve the mysteries of women like Catwoman and Talia. Women are more puzzles or cases for him to solve. This could perhaps (if we were to read into it) a result of losing his mom at such a young age. He didn't get to see her as he was developing into adulthood and start seeing her faults and foibles and quirks and little humanizing moments, so women haven't ever quite been demystified for Batman. And so he's drawn to the ones that are the most mysterious.

...

I haven't been up on Silencer, though when I last left off Talia was pretty intrinsic there, using Honor and their old "friendship" to clean out some of the trash from the Leviathan organization. And she's in like, full-on Leviathan-leading, Lazarus-reviving mode.

[PowerPlay25]

While I may have preferred her a little more grey, I do still love Talia as a character. She's like the living embodiment of aristocracy but capable and highly intelligent mixed in. This woman has turned up her nose to Superman, right before having his skin turned into glass.

We've seen her issue orders to Cheetah, Felix Faust, Doctor Light, Calculator, Metallo and many others. She's hatched schemes that have threatened MASS destruction and we still see her shopping in NYC when the mood suites her. As she told Nightwing, "I don't make appointments, I come and go as I please."

I wish they would further explore her dynamic with Jason Todd and I actually ship her with Deathstroke. I've liked many moments with her and Bruce through the years and I maintain it says a lot about his feelings for her, that he didn't ever incarcerate her when given the chance, considering he did have Selina thrown in jail, but at the same time, I am happy to see Talia broaden her horizons.

Slade's a lot more junkyard bad, to Talia's diabolical debutante, but I like the way they play off of each other. I hope we get backstory about when they hooked up and what brought it about. I wonder if Deathstroke was her hidden dagger while she was working with The Society.

[adrikito]

I had that opinion during years but...

The fact that she is a bad/horrible mother never affected Damian negatively for this I decided forget my hate for her until the day that I see her making something unforgivable again(maybe I will make one exception with Bendis, I am sure that I will see the worst of her with him) like in Bad Blood, she was a bitc.. in that film where I had enough reasons for hate her..

I prefer hate things that I think that affect Damian character negatively(writers, comics..).. Enough of hate each image with Talia and Damian in the same image for kill him many years ago.

[oasis1313]

I kinda see Talia as The Ex From Hell, dumping her kid on the guy who didn’t even know he was a dad, then butting in whenever just to annoy everyone. I think it’d be a fun side plot for her lawyer to show up on Bruce’s doorstep demanding back child support for Damian and all his clones.

[Arsenal]

I kinda see Talia as The Ex From Hell, dumping her kid on the guy who didn’t even know he was a dad, then butting in whenever just to annoy everyone. I think it’d be a fun side plot for her lawyer to show up on Bruce’s doorstep demanding back child support for Damian and all his clones.

Gotta send him a bill for the time she took care of Jason too. All that time she spent nursing him back to help and getting him the best private instructors deserves to be compensated tbh

[oasis1313]

Gotta send him a bill for the time she took care of Jason too. All that time she spent nursing him back to help and getting him the best private instructors deserves to be compensated tbh

Amen to that. And she needs compensation for having to take off a few months from running a crime empire because she was knocked up. Bruce probably owes her several million.

[Arsenal]

Amen to that. And she needs compensation for having to take off a few months from running a crime empire because she was knocked up. Bruce probably owes her several million.

Couple billion atleast.

[oasis1313]

Couple billion atleast.

Does DC have any Matt Murdocks? Talia needs a good lawyer.

[Jackalope89]

Does DC have any Matt Murdocks? Talia needs a good lawyer.

Kate Spencer (Manhunter), though I don't know if she's the kind of lawyer Talia would want.

[Korath]

Kate Spencer (Manhunter), though I don't know if she's the kind of lawyer Talia would want.

I don't think that Talia would want or need a lawyer to begin with. She would probably play the part herself.

[dietrich]

Does DC have any Matt Murdocks? Talia needs a good lawyer.

She killed Damian making they are even [or giving Bruce a counter case] but then Damian died again while Talia and Bruce stood just at the entrance arguing. At this point someone has to call social services.