As someone who has more invested in both the original Al Ghul characters, I see the whole matter quite differently, as I noted below. To me, the Nyssa character is a Mary-Sue, seeing as she was portrayed as more ruthless and more cunning than Talia, the true heir, and thus the real opponent to Batman. There is no prior story or even hint of her (that I know of), and that just strikes me as weak. To be honest, I'd even have preferred it if the Nyssa character were male, as that would fit in with the earlier role of the Al Ghul characters (Ra's selects Batman as his son-in-law because he can't name a female as his heir...) Thus, although I've read some of Greg Rucka, and people have said good things about his female characters, I don't have the appreciation that some of my fellow readers do. Indeed, I looked at this series as an opportunity to read his writing, which I'd heard praised, and have been most disappointed.
Part of my annoyance is that I've always felt the character of Talia had huge potential that was never used - she's in this interesting gray area between being a hero an villain, as half the time she helps Batman, and half the time she helps her father. It just seems that most of the authors wrote her off in standard "daughter-of-villain-loves-hero" scenarios, and that was that. Son of the Bat was, after all, one of the better! treatments of her, though it was thrown out of canon, and there was a good Superman/Batman Adventures episode that showed the difficult balance she walks.
I actually found the recent Lex Luthor as President/Talia Head running LexCorp arc quite promising in that regard, despite it never being developed - and I could draw huge parallels to Smallville Lex Luthor and DC Talia Al Ghul in terms of their situation, upbringing, etc. (Lex/Talia? Maybe...;)
Also, there were so many other ways this story could have been more interesting, and (I believe) more true to canon. I mean, this was originally sold to me on the premise of Batman facing the question of whether his destruction of the Lazarus Pits is tantamount to murder, and that got very little play. Or Nyssa and Ra's could fight to the death, with no one knowing what exactly happens (leaving a return possible) and Talia is left to decide whether to continue her father's organization. Or even Ra's makes his daughters fight each other, and *then* they decide to team up to defeat him. But brainwashed, Stockholm syndrome Talia? Feh.
Apologies for this rant, everyone. I'll stop now....
Interesting -
Part of my annoyance is that I've always felt the character of Talia had huge potential that was never used - she's in this interesting gray area between being a hero an villain, as half the time she helps Batman, and half the time she helps her father. It just seems that most of the authors wrote her off in standard "daughter-of-villain-loves-hero" scenarios, and that was that. Son of the Bat was, after all, one of the better! treatments of her, though it was thrown out of canon, and there was a good Superman/Batman Adventures episode that showed the difficult balance she walks.
I actually found the recent Lex Luthor as President/Talia Head running LexCorp arc quite promising in that regard, despite it never being developed - and I could draw huge parallels to Smallville Lex Luthor and DC Talia Al Ghul in terms of their situation, upbringing, etc. (Lex/Talia? Maybe...;)
Also, there were so many other ways this story could have been more interesting, and (I believe) more true to canon. I mean, this was originally sold to me on the premise of Batman facing the question of whether his destruction of the Lazarus Pits is tantamount to murder, and that got very little play. Or Nyssa and Ra's could fight to the death, with no one knowing what exactly happens (leaving a return possible) and Talia is left to decide whether to continue her father's organization. Or even Ra's makes his daughters fight each other, and *then* they decide to team up to defeat him. But brainwashed, Stockholm syndrome Talia? Feh.
Apologies for this rant, everyone. I'll stop now....