Ra's al Ghul's dying in Shadow War Alpha #1 preview kicking off Batman, Robin, Deathstroke crossover

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By Michael Doran, George Marston, Chris Arrant
published

The immortal Batman villain is dying and then assassinated in the March-May crossover

Shadow War: Alpha #1 art
Shadow War: Alpha #1 art (Image credit: DC)

Deathstroke will assassinate (or so it seems) a sickly and dying Ra's al Ghul, kicking off the upcoming 'Shadow War' event crossover. The upcoming event begins Tuesday, March 29 with Shadow War: Alpha #1, before crisscrossing the Batman, Robin, and Deathstroke Inc. titles for the following two months.

Shadow War Alpha #1 (Image credit: DC)

If you're saying to yourself, "waitaminute, don't Batman, Robin, and Deathtroke, Inc. already have something in common?" you'd be right. It's the prolific Joshua Williamson who writes all three series and, of course, is writing Shadow War.

The publisher promises William's epic will have "major ramifications" for the DC Universe.

Written by Williamson, the 48-page Shadow War Alpha #1 (cover price $6.99) is drawn by Viktor Bogdanovic (Detective Comics).

Here's a look at four preview pages from the special: 

Image 1 of 4
Shadow War: Alpha #1
(Image credit: DC)

When Slade Wilson commits his latest 'unthinkable act', Talia al Ghul and the League of Shadows are out to end Deathstroke and Deathstroke Inc. for good. Only Batman and Robin can track down Slade and bring him to justice before Talia gets his hands on him.

The special features a main cover by Jonboy Meyers (see above), with variant covers by Bogdanovic and Dan Mora.

Check out all the covers here:

Image 1 of 3
Shadow War: Alpha #1
(Image credit: DC)

Deathstroke has killed Ra's Al Ghul before. In the 2014 animated film Son of Batman, Slade Wilson acted as a mentor to Ra's Al Ghul's grandson Damian Wayne/Robin but ended up killing Ra's after being jealous that Damian, and not Deathstroke, was chosen to be his successor.

But subsequent marketing materials for 'Shadow War' seem to suggest Deathstroke may not be the true culprit and since this is Ra's Al Ghul, you also have to question is he really dead ... or will he stay dead even if he is?

After the Alpha special, 'Shadow War' continues in Aprils Batman #122, along with Deathstroke Inc. #8 and Robin #13, and then concludes in May with Batman #123, Shadow War Zone #1, Deathstroke Inc. #9, and Robin #14, and as you probably guessed, wraps up in the bookend Shadow War Omega #1.

Does Deathstroke rate as of the best DC supervillains ever? 

Michael Doran

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.

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