Hey youtubers, it’s Charlie.
Hopefully everyone’s had a chance to see Episode 9 and process a little.
Because Ra’s Al Ghul is such a big thing this season I wanted to do a bonus breakdown
of the most important stories I think you should read and an explanation of the Lazarus
Pit.
He’s appeared in over 500 Issues, and not all of them were Batman Titles.
But most of his best stories are Batman stories.
I tried to pick stories I think are really good and are relevant to what’s happening
on the show.
So general spoiler warning for Arrow episode 9.
Here we go, Top 5 Ra’s Al Ghul Stories.
Number 5 - Tales Of The Demon Collected Edition
Number 4 - Death And The Maidens
Number 3 - Tower Of Babel
Number 2 - Birth of The Demon Trilogy
Number 1 - Daughter Of The Demon
Now just to explain the Lazarus Pit a little more.
Ra’s Al Ghul’s origin story explains that he found the pits as a young man completely
by accident while trying to save a prince’s life.
He was completely healed, but as a side effect, left completely insane and ended up killing
Ra’s wife.
Ra’s was framed for the murder and given the death sentence of being forced to wander
the desert.
He found help and eventually began to use the Lazarus Pits over and over.
There was a pit called the Fountain of Essence that had different effects.
It healed Ra’s Al Ghul after he’d been dead for a long time.
He didn’t go insane, but he did come back in a really old feeble body.
Batman used it when he had minor wounds and it de-aged him a little.
Another character was with them and when he tried to use the Fountain it killed him.
So not all the pits are the same.
But usually when someone refers to the Lazarus Pit, they’re referring to the traditional
ones.
And yes, there are many all over the world in the comics.
There was even a period where Batman and Bane traveled around trying to destroy them all
so Ra’s wouldn’t be able to keep healing himself.
But as expected there were a bunch of hidden ones they never found.
There have been a ton of characters that have used a Lazarus Pit including:
Black Canary, she used it to restore her Canary Cry powers and her ability to bear children.
Nyssa Al Ghul used
them
to stay young and to warp Talia’s mind.
She’d kill her and heal her over and over to brainwash her.
Lady Shiva, Dick Grayson, The Riddler and Mr Freeze have all taken advantage.
Because Arrow is really conservative with how they do superpowers, it’s possible we
could see a twist on the idea of resurrection.
Oliver seemed like he should have died when he tumbled off the cliff.
But in the promo for episode 10 we see someone approaching his body.
Clearly he’s going to come back.
So what I think will happen is someone will just nurse him back to health and use some
extra powerful techniques.
I don’t think we’ll see the traditional Lazarus Pit.
I do think we’ll see some easter eggs, the show will acknowledge it, but I don’t think
Oliver will be bathing in green fire anytime soon.
A lot of people have pointed out Malcolm Merlyn’s necklace here.
The Green Vial as being a potential easter egg for the Pit.
It’s possible he’s the person we see in the promo and he’ll save Oliver as a way
to repay him for wiping his debt with the League.
John Barrowman made some comments about filming Episode 9 and he said he was in a very cold,
windy place.
Implying that he was filming scenes on that mountain top set.
Since we didn’t see him there in the episode, the evidence points to him being the person
right here.
Let me know if you agree, do you think Malcolm Merlyn will
be the one
to save Oliver?
And What’s your favorite Ra’s Al Ghul Story?