Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul Reading Order: The Complete Guide for The Battle for the Heir

ByBobo
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When Grant Morrison started writing his celebrated seven-year run on Batman, his first major contribution to the lore was the introduction of Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. He didn’t take long for DC Comics to put the boy at the center of a crossover event leading to The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul!

The Ghul family made a big comeback, as dangerous as ever, and young Damian is to play a key role in bringing his grandfather fully back from the dead. But he is not easily controlled and will not just bend the knee when he has another side of the family ready to fight for him. Well, maybe not that ready, but Batman’s sons will never let someone die if they can save them.

As the whole story spans across Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, and Robin, this is not a storyline entirely written by Grant Morrison. Peter Milligan, Paul Dini, Fabian Nicieza, and Keith Champagne also wrote one or more chapters, with artists Tony S. Daniel, Ryan Benjamin, Freddie Williams II, Don Kramer, David López, David Baldeón, and Derec Donovan.

  1. Historical Context
  2. A Short Review
  3. Collecting the Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul in 2026
  4. Full Reading Order
  5. After the Event

1. The Resurrection Event: The Hunt for a Host

Ra’s al Ghul had been “dead” since the events of Death and the Maidens, a 2004 limited series by Greg Rucka and Klaus Janson. He was believed dead for good, but nothing can keep the Demon from coming back. Except for one thing: he needs a host. His body is gone, and he needs a new one. One genetically compatible host that can tolerate his spirit without rapidly deteriorating. He needs the body of a family member. That’s why his grandson, Damian Wayne, was engineered.

Once Ra’s has taken over Damian’s body, the boy will simply cease to exist. But Damian is not one to go without a fight, and he needs to get his father’s help if he wants to survive. If someone can stop the leader of the League of Assassins, it’s Batman.

Batman and his family (Nightwing, Robin, and Alfred) are not the only ones working to stop Ra’s. It’s also a fight to get control of the League. Old allies are fomenting a coup to stop the resurrection, while Talia is stuck between her father and her son.

Key Historical Elements:

  • The Trial of the Heir: This event is the first time Damian Wayne is forced to reject his mother’s world. It marks his transition from a “weapon” of the League to a member of the Bat-Family.
  • The Batman Legacy: One of Morrison’s themes during his run is the legacy of the bat. This event ties into it by having Damian, Tim, and Dick all forced to deal with the ideological choices their father, adopted or biological, made.
  • The Tim Drake/Damian Rivalry: The crossover leaned heavily into the friction between the current Robin (Tim) and the blood-son (Damian), a conflict that would define the next five years of Bat-history.
  • Tim’s grief: Tim has lost family and friends. The event deals with the effect that accumulating so many losses has on him, as Ra’s may have the key to bring everyone back. Tim has to fight to move on.
  • The Immortal Return: It successfully reestablishes Ra’s al Ghul as a high-level adversary. It also set up a new fragmented power structure in the League of Assassins.
  • The International Scope: Grant Morrison’s run developed the international scope of Batman’s operation, and the event played with that concept, steering the action away from Gotham to Nanda Parbat.

2. A Short Review: The Demon’s Mid-Life Crisis

The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul is not a big crossover event, with seven core issues. There is nothing to set aside, as every chapter moves the story forward. Despite that, this one feels to me disjointed at times, with Batman on one side and his sons on the other.

For Tim Drake, I think it offers solid developments, and Nightwing plays a strong role as the big brother, providing action and moral support. Damian is still much of a free agent, but eventually shows he can make good choices when the moment arises. And Batman in all of this? He mostly follows his own path. He may trust his sons to do the work, but the way the event is structured isolates the Dark Knight on a narrative level, making the event unfocused.

In Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume 1, only the Batman issues are collected, with the addition of two pages to explain what happened. If you really are only into the Bat, it’s almost enough, and this highlights for me how the whole story fails as a crossover event. There was not much to support this narrative structure. I would not say it’s bad, as it’s full of action, and it moves at a good pace, but I think it lacked a cohesive vision to make it feel truly epic. As it is, it’s a bit unremarkable.

3. Collecting the Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul in 2026

While you can find the Batman tie-in issues in Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Vol. 1, the only way to read the full event is to get the trade paperback dedicated to the event, and it is reprinted in 2026.

Batman #671 by Tony S. Daniel

4. The Complete Reading Order

This crossover is strictly chronological. Unlike bigger and more editorially ambitious events, the tie-ins are all adding to the main plot. I recommend not skipping any of them.

Before reading the Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul, you need to be up-to-date on Batman, Damian, and Tim’s situation. Read the trade paperback Batman and Son (collects Batman #655-658 and #663-666). For more details, I invite you to check out my Complete Grant Morrison Batman Reading Order.

The Prologue

Batman #670 is the one you must not skip, but the two annuals add context. If you are not familiar with Ra’s Al Ghul, Batman Annual #26 will catch you up.

  • Batman Annual #26: Talia recounts Ra’s Al Ghul’s life to Damian to prepare him for a ritual organised by her father’s right-hand man, White Ghost. By Peter Milligan.
  • Robin Vol. 4 Annual #7: On the island of Cheung Chau, Damian is drugged and wakes up in a cemetery full of ghosts. By Keith Champagne.
  • Batman #670 (Prelude): A war to control the league takes shape as Ra’s Al Ghul comes back to life. By Grant Morrison.

The Main Crossover

  1. Robin #168: Part 1 – Damian is on the run, destination: The Bat Cave. By Peter Milligan.
  2. Nightwing #138: Part 2 – Nightwing joins the fight to save Damian. By Fabian Nicieza.
  3. Detective Comics #838: Part 3 – Batman and Talia are on their way to Ra’s Al Ghul’s hideout. By Paul Dini.
  4. Batman #671: Part 4 – To save his sons, Batman makes a deal. By Grant Morrison.
  5. Robin #169: Part 5 – Tim is contemplating a way to bring back the dead. By Peter Milligan.
  6. Nightwing #139: Part 6 – Dick has to fight to save Tim. By Fabian Nicieza.
  7. Detective Comics #839: Part 7 – In Nanda Parbat, time for the last battle. By Paul Dini.

The Epilogue

  • Detective Comics #840: What happened to Ra’s after his last fight against Batman, revealing his new status quo. By Paul Dini.

5. After the Resurrection: Where to Go Next?

Once the event came to an end, and Paul Dini delivered his epilogue in Detective Comics #840, Nightwing dealt with Talia in his own series, in Nightwing #140-146 (collected in Nightwing by Peter J. Tomasi).

As for Batman, he has to deal with another menace:

📂 The Next Case: Batman R.I.P.

If Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul was a battle for Batman’s legacy, the next case is a battle for his very mind. In Batman R.I.P., we see what happens when the “Black Casebook” finally catches up to the Dark Knight…

[Proceed to Next Case: Batman R.I.P]

More Files from the Casebook

  • The Batman Case Files: Introduction to Grant Morrison’s Masterpiece Run (2006-2013)

    ByBobo
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    Grant Morrison’s seven-year run on Batman is widely considered one of the most ambitious long-form epics in the history of modern comic books. Running across multiple titles from 2006 to 2013, the story functions as a massive three-act saga that breaks down Bruce Wayne before rebuilding him on a global scale.

    As it is a big read, this may not be the most inviting entry point for new readers. But it’s one influential run that continues to impress and, at times, leave a little confusion. It’s a dense and coherent narrative driven by big ideas, fueled by deep cuts into obscure DC lore.

    This article presents Grant Morrison’s run, outlining the key ideas, plot points, and characters. It serves as a roadmap providing context for my detailed reading order and retrospective review. So, let’s start exploring this rich case file!

    Of course, Morrison was not alone. During his run, he worked with artists Andy Kubert, J.H. Williams III, John Van Fleet, Tony Daniel, Ryan Benjamin, Lee Garbett, Frank Quitely, Philip Tan, Cameron Stewart, A,dy Clarke, Frazer Irving, Scott Kolins, Chris Sprouse, Ryan Sook, Yanick Paquette, George Jeanty, David Finch, Scott Clark, and Chris Burnham.

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    Batman: Battle for the Cowl Reading Order: Looking For a New Batman

    ByBobo
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    In 2009, following the psychological warfare of Batman R.I.P. and the cosmic sacrifice of Final Crisis, Gotham City woke up to its ultimate nightmare: a world without Batman. Battle for the Cowl deals with the Dark Knight’s succession.

    Written and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel, this three-issue limited series focuses on what would happen when Batman, as a symbol more than a superhero, were to vanished from Gotham City. With the tie-ins, the story examines what happens in such a case, leaving a vacuum that both the underworld and the Bat-Family scramble to fill. This is a key event as it sets up the next era of Batman.

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  • DC Comics History: Following the Dark Road of the Modern Age

    ByBobo
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    It’s never easy to pinpoint the exact beginning and end of an era in the history of comics. The conclusion of the Bronze Age and the start of the Modern Age is no exception. It was a transition that occurred as much on the pages of the comics as in the shops, the convergence of multiple publishing efforts and editorial decisions that changed the way comics were sold and read, but also the stories they were allowed to tell.

    Dark, British, Violent, and Paperbacks, it’s 1980s DC Comics

    The key change that occurred in the comic book industry that DC Comics quickly embraced was the emergence of the Direct Market. Consumers were not buying their comics in the newsstands, they started going to comic book shops instead. Also, the old readers were going nowhere and wanted more mature books.

    DC President Jenette Kahn looked for new ways to develop the DC Comics brand with new lines, unexpected licensing deals, and by recruiting emerging talents and allowing them to make their mark. That’s how Frank Miller came and made Ronin, then pushed DC into its dark era with The Dark Knight Returns. This violent story about an old Batman coming back to fight crime in an alternative politicized future was a comic book for adults, an instant success that started to change the creative direction of the company, but also its economic model. It was the book that incited the creation of the DC line of paperbacks, making it available long after its original publication.

    Read More “DC Comics History: Following the Dark Road of the Modern Age”

  • Millennium (1988) Reading Order: No man escapes the Manhunters during this Weekly Crossover event

    ByBobo
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    Following the line-wide restructuring initiated by Crisis on Infinite Earths and the subsequent relaunch momentum of Legends, DC Comics introduced Millennium as its next major crossover event. I’m sure readers today may feel the use of the word “major” as an overstatement and, in the overall history of the DC Comics universe, I would certainly concur. Nevertheless, as a publishing initiative, this one was ambitious for the time. Published as an eight-issue weekly limited series between January and February 1988, the project represented one of DC’s most coordinated line-wide efforts of the decade, with extensive crossover chapters running through 45 issues of DC’s ongoing titles.

    Written by Steve Englehart and illustrated primarily by Joe Staton, Millennium centered on the Guardians of the Universe and the revelation that the ancient robotic Manhunters had secretly infiltrated Earth for centuries. The event introduced the “Millennium Week” banner across DC’s publishing line, with individual issues revealing long-standing supporting characters as sleeper agents, an approach that reoriented the DC Universe toward themes of distrust, conspiracy, and institutional corruption.

    Positioned as both a cosmic epic and a paranoid thriller, Millennium marked a tonal shift from the post-Crisis optimism of 1986 to a narrative climate defined by hidden enemies and systemic infiltration. It remains the definitive story of the Manhunter cult’s attempt to thwart the evolution of the “Chosen” ten.

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    Countdown to Final Crisis Reading Order: The Year the Multiverse Fractured

    ByBobo
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    Published between 2007 and 2008 by DC Comics, Countdown to Final Crisis was designed as the weekly lead-in to Final Crisis, following in the publishing model established by 52. Running for 51 issues, the series attempted to lay the groundwork for the next major crisis in the DC Universe while following multiple parallel storylines involving cosmic threats, multiversal instability, and several major DC characters.

    Things didn’t turn out as well as with 52. It was a massive editorial blunder. As Grant Morrison explained it at the time: “Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written.” But despite that, the writing led by Paul Dini seems to lack enough details to not contradict what would eventually happen in Final Crisis. As a result, plotlines in Countdown had diverged so much that continuity between the two publishing initiatives became partly nonsensical. Some elements complement Final Crisis and add a greater understanding of the end story, but most do the opposite. Characters who died end up alive (and are killed again), and whole storylines are redone in Final Crisis, and the overall tone doesn’t fit. If you add to that Death of the New Gods by Jim Starlin, to which Countdown began to respond before veering away from it, the confusion became maddening.

    Today, Countdown to Final Crisis is a complicated affair to deal with for readers. If you are a completist, you can’t skip it. Idem if you are trying to follow some secondary characters. Ultimately, this is widely considered to be non-canonical.

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    Batman R.I.P. Reading Order: The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh Rises

    ByBobo
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    Following the world-spanning quest of The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul, Batman faced a threat in Gotham that didn’t target his body or his family, but his very sanity. Batman R.I.P. is the downfall of Batman. It is the moment where every reference in the Black Casebook (the aliens, the hallucinations, the bizarre transformations) is revealed to be part of a singular, sinister conspiracy.

    The “Black Glove,” a secret society of the world’s wealthiest and most depraved individuals led by the mysterious Doctor Hurt, wages a war of “total weaponized trauma” against Bruce Wayne. Their goal? Not to kill Batman, but to prove that he can be broken into something pathetic, insane, and common.

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