In the wake of her father’s murder in Shadow War Alpha, Talia al Ghul seems to be going through a metamorphosis, perhaps learning from Ra’s mistakes.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from Shadow War: Alpha #1, on sale now from DC Comics.
With Ra’s al Ghul dead, his daughter Talia has become the head of what remains of their family empire. However, what that means for the future is still up in the air, especially given Talia’s recent choices. In Shadow War: Alpha #1 (by Joshua Williamson, Victor Bogdanovic, Daniel Henriques, Mike Spencer, and Troy Peteri), Talia has assembled her deadliest warriors to seek revenge on Deathstroke for her father’s murder, but she has also made decisions that indicate that she may have learned from his greatest mistakes.
After being injured during the attack that killed Ra’s, Talia was taken back to Nepal to be healed. Rather than fix the damage by being dipped in the Lazarus pit, she opted to see a regular doctor. This is a strange choice for her, one that Ra’s would not have made years ago and one she might not have made prior to her father’s decision to surrender. This act suggests that even though Talia wants to avenge her father, she also intends to honor his wishes and change the way the League of Assassins operates.
When Ra’s offered to surrender himself to the governments of the world, Talia was understandably livid and confused. To her, it seemed like he was throwing everything away just when they had managed to reunite their family as well as start rebuilding their lost empire. However, even Talia could see that Ra’s was going through some sort of change. Even though he had not earned it, she decided to give her father the benefit of the doubt, perhaps intrigued by his desire to find a new way to help the world.
Unfortunately, al Ghul’s new ideals were cut short before they were truly revealed. Still, her father’s last words and actions seemed to have resonated with Talia. By electing to not use the pit, she made a conscious decision to choose the harder path because she has seen where the easy way out could lead her. It’s a level of wisdom never really seen in the al Ghuls before, more in line with heroism in a way.
Talia has previously expressed a desire to break her family’s cycle of violence, and has started by repairing her relationship with her son, Damian Wayne. This may also explain some of the reasoning behind her actions. Part of her father’s reasoning for surrendering was to do right by Damian, and try to build something better for their family, and she may be following his example in this as well.
This new course of action could very well lead to Talia tempering her passion to protect the world with the morals her son managed to discover while living with the Bat-Family. If she continues down this path she could become a better leader for the League and effectively transform the organization into something that could truly aid the world.
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