I had this thought while thinking about another franchise and some dubious/revolting romantic decisions made therein (it was Star Wars and Reylo, if you’re curious), and thought it might be fun to get some feedback on why I think Talia had a somewhat schizophrenic first decade in the 21st century, and how I think it was the inevitable fallout of trying to treat her more seriously without “hurting” Bruce, because her original form was a bit too retro for serious consideration. And I think the argument and dispute over how Morrison wrote her character was also inevitable, because her position in the mythos forced hard choices if no one had patience for a slow burn retcon or the like.
Talia entered the 21st century estranged from her father and positioned in an initially ambiguous but eventually anti-heroic role as Lex’s replacement for running LexCorp, where she wound up backstabbing Luthor at Bruce’s request; she had lost her (ancillary) villainous function, not for the first time, but this time with an actual attempt to fit her somewhere else in the DCU in regards to morality…
…Then Greg Rucka, wanting her back as a villain, had her sister Nyssa kidnap her and brutally brainwash her, Cobra-in-GIJOE-style, to make it so she changed into a more straightforward and stereotypical villain; she was back as a baddie, and arguably presented as a more prominent antagonist in her own right given how few people wanted to do much with Nyssa, but they still wanted it clear she’d been a better person before hand, so the brainwashing was the excuse for the change while still making ti clear it *was* a change…
…Until Grant Morrison started their magnum opus run on the books, and simultaneously (if perplexingly) canonized her relationship with Bruce extending to having a kid alongside her having *always* been a villain in substance, with no ambiguity, no acknowledgment of previous ambiguity, and even going so far as to imply Bruce was her victim in sexual helped solidify her as a major villain without any boss, but also kind of burned down any complex emotions between her and Bruce in the attempt to solidify her heel status.
And I think all this happened because of one simple realization by more modern writers, one that kind of mirrored Catwoman’s growing much less lethal and villainous: Talia didn’t make sense as a romance option for a good person in Bruce Wayne if she was a passive participant in Ra’s’s genocidal schemes.
And while Catwoman could more easily slide further and further into being a classy cat burglar and sometimes vigilantewithout losing her prominence, and if anything, increasing in it as both a comic star and romance interest, Talia being Ra’s sidekick forced a harder break in her most likely “matured” form: either she becomes a secondary anti-hero who it makes sense could have had a relationship with Bruce, or she becomes a high profile villainous “update” to Ra’s and her own old role, even if that that doesn’t make sense for one of Bruce’s love interests.
She was an outdated concept for modern Batman, and trying to update her resulted in a strong villain with a contradictory history with Bruce.