Hey, guys. Just a quick reminder that Talia Al Ghul, just like Bruce Wayne, is a victim of SEXUAL ASSAULT!
TW for comic panels below, this is gonna be a long post:
This occurs in Batman: Bane of the Demon, written by Chuck Dixon (I think that alone should give away how bad this situation is gonna be), 1998. Quite a good fucking amount of time before Grant Morrison in 2006!
Bane blatantly assaults and threatens her. She does not reciprocate his feelings whatsoever, this much is obvious with how he's shown to manhandling and tying her up.
Even prior to this, he is shown to push Talia's boundaries:
Despite being shown the interaction turns consensual here, he still very much does manhandle her. Later, and throughout this ENTIRE story arc, Talia makes it clear that she truly does not have any attraction to Bane. At all.
Here she shows her distate again in the same exact issue:
Oh look, here he manhandles her again:
Bane, unsurprisingly, manages to escape his demise that was being locked in a flooding pit. He proceeds to slaughter his way through Ra's Al Ghul's men, making his way to Talia's private quarters where the first two panels on this post occurs.
He ties her up and makes way to Ra's Al Ghul, where more henchmen are killed. Ra's and Bane have a duel, in which the proceeding happens:
Yeah, so, if it wasn't clear before, Ra's is a shittier father than usual here during this run. The issue ends with them arriving at their destination, but Talia is only looking at Bane with pure resentment.
Of course, this isn't all there is to it. There's even more via Batman: Legacy!
Ra's talks to Bruce and has his evil monologue, ordering for Bruce, Dick, and Tim to be killed. During this, Talia doesn't look in their direction much, turning her head away with her hand raised. They leave to finish the plan, with Ra's telling Talia to look away, telling her to not weep for Bruce, that he wasn't a "fit" for her after all. Bane caresses her face, and as per usual, she's repulsed by him.
Then Ra's goes on to have another villian monologue, yapping about how his virus will wipe out most of the planet, leaving a small percentage left that would be more intelligent and docile, a new world for his heirs.
Talia points out that Ra's originally preferred Bruce, though he commanded for him fo be killed, to which Ra's responds that he's found a more "suitable" candidate in Bane. Ra's does not care that Talia states she doesn't love him and never will, demanding that she does. Cue more yapping, but there's also two more panels that just really twist the knife in with their interaction.
"Are you not appreciative of all I have done, child?" Fuck no, Ra's! She's not!
Getting back on track, Bane is shown mistreating Talia again. She is having a miserable time, as anyone in her situation would. She visibly revolts in Bane's grasp, she's terrified of him. Despite her underlying rejection, Bane ignores it for his own wants.
Yeah. And there's also the underlying fact that Bane fully intended to have a child with her against her will as well.
Good news is that Bruce kicks Bane's ass, thank fucking goodness! The most satisfying part of this story for me!
There are more panels I wanted to add, but I reached the 30 image limit, so now you're stuck with links to the panels.
When Ra's learns of Bane's defeat, he decides that he was wrong about the man being a suitable partner for Talia. After the defeat, instead of when Bane was continuously abusing his daughter. Okay.
The story continues, you can check it out for yourself. But, I'm gonna be completely honest, this was a mess. However I will begrudgingly say that Dixon ended up making a few interesting moments of Talia's character on accident.
Adding a few extra moments that I found instresting as well, such as Bane's nightmare during his boat ride to Gotham. Even in his nightly conscious, he KNOWS Talia hated/hates him! That she rather be with someone better like Bruce!
But still, his attraction toward her isn't diminished, and Bruce calls out Bane on his bullshit, straight up telling him that Talia "died" a captive of her father's fantasies along with Bane's. And goodness, I do have to admit that one landed hard.
Alas, that story ends. Yet, I would still like to mention Talia's next appearances after this, which are The Batman Chronicles: #8 and Azrael #29 - 30 (mostly 30).
During a chat with Jean-Paul (Azrael) about why Ra's is interested in him, Bane is very vaguely brought up. She explains that only two other men have pleased her father, that "One was a brute, and the other, the first… was not a brute. He was… is magnificent."
Even after Batman: Legacy, Talia still has not a single nice word to say about Bane, and rightfully so!
Batman Chronicles has a short story in Talia's point of view, and it is just pure angst. I'm going to cover it on its own in the future, so sorry for not talking about it here, but I do highly recommend checking it out if you want a deeper read of Talia's relationship with her father.
This is long, and I really don't want to make it longer, however I think it's important to note that this is Bane's earlier characterization. That Chuck Dixon is in fact Bane's creator, so unfortunately Bane's inappropriate behavior here isn't too far fetched.
As I stated in the beginning, this occurs years before Grant Morrison's interpretation of Talia. With this heavily in mind, it really only makes their writing decision even worse. I see many coming on here talking about how her raping Bruce could make sense as she grew up in a cult, so obviously she wouldn't have a good understanding about consent or boundaries 🥺.
Which is partly true! Just not in the way they think in order to excuse the shitty writing decision!
Once again, I recommend reading Batman Chronicles for a quick deep read on Talia's psyche, because despite being short it really does a good job at interpretating her relationship with Ra's, why she would have/has trouble putting her foot down and setting boundaries.
I made this post because for as much as everyone talks about the retcon that is Talia raping Bruce, no one ever talks about her own trauma that came before it. And that sucks.
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