Talia al Ghul in the context of "Damian Wayne"

Dennis "Denny" Joseph O'Neil (May 3, 1939 – June 11, 2020) was an American comic book writer and editor, principally for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.

His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams. For Batman, the team is credited with returning the character to his dark pulp fiction roots, in contrast to the campy Batman television series of the 1960s. However, comics historian Les Daniels considers O'Neil's "vengeful obsessive-compulsive" Batman to be an original interpretation that has influenced all subsequent portrayals of the character. It was during this run that O'Neil co-created the Batman villains Ra's al Ghul and Talia al Ghul. During their Green Lantern/Green Arrow run, O'Neil and Adams introduced a mature, realistic tone through stories such as "Snowbirds Don't Fly", in which Green Arrow's ward Roy Harper is revealed to have become addicted to drugs. They also created and introduced the Green Lantern character John Stewart in 1971.

Ra's al Ghul is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. Created by editor Julius Schwartz, writer Dennis O'Neil, and artist Neal Adams, the character first appeared in Batman #232's "Daughter of the Demon" (June 1971).

Most notable as the leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's al Ghul's name in Arabic translates to "Head of the Ghoul". He is the son of Sensei; the father of Talia al Ghul, Ali al Ghul, Nyssa al Ghul, Dusan al Ghul and Arkady Duvall; and the maternal grandfather of Damian Wayne, who is the biological son of Bruce Wayne/Batman and Talia. Other versions include other grandchildren such as Athanasia al Ghul (Injustice timeline), Hafid al Ghul (Damian's clone), Tallant Wayne (Brotherhood of the Bat timeline), and by last the siblings: Saif al Ghul, Taj al Ghul and Janan al Ghul (in the Earth al Ghul timeline). Stories featuring Ra's al Ghul often involve the Lazarus Pits, which restore life to the dying. The Lazarus Pits have considerably prolonged Ra's' life, making him particularly dangerous, as he has honed his combat skills for centuries. Though primarily an enemy of Batman, Ra's has also come into conflict with Superman and other heroes in the DC Universe.