Ra's Al Ghul

Ra's Al Ghul is a character from the DC comics.

Ra's al Ghul, whose name translates to "The Demon's Head" in Arabic, is the centuries-old leader of the League of Assassins. He sees humanity as a cancer poisoning the Earth, and seeks to eliminate most of them in order to stave off environmental disaster. He has clashed frequently with Batman, whom he hoped to make his successor.

Personality
Ra's al Ghul is a fierce and imposing leader treated by his direct subjects with most respect and reverence. All his Shadows will do his bidding; he can even order them to go to sleep. Despite having their total submission, Ra's only provides his assassins with the information they need to fulfill a job.

Abilities
Ra's is an elite fighter, with centuries of training and experience. He has fought evenly with the likes of Batman and Deathstroke, and has shown himself capable of easily incapacitating trained combatants like Tim Drake even when burdened with a weakened, rotting body. Ra's is proficient with a wide range of weapons, including firearms, but typically prefers the use of swords. He once boasted that he'd trained the very first sword masters of the world's first fencing academies.

Over the centuries, Ra's has immersed himself in many fields of study, both scientific as well as mystical. Among his many skills is a mastery of alchemy; Ra's has created potions and compounds capable of producing intense illusions, altering memories, and even communing with the dead. Ra's is most commonly associated with the Lazarus Pits - mystical wells scattered around the world that can heal grievous injuries, cure the most dire of diseases, and even resurrect the dead. Ra's has used the Lazarus Pits to stay alive for centuries.

Ra's is also a masterful tactician, strategist and leader, having led armies into the battles of history himself, as well as engineering the twists and turns of world history behind the scenes using guile and manipulation. Among other things, Ra's set into motion the events that would lead to World War I, hoping that a cataclysmic war would reset humanity back to a pre-industrial era. In the modern era, Ra's has defeated the entire Justice League using contingency plans based on their weaknesses that he stole from the Batcave without Batman's knowledge.

Ra's has also acquired a staggering amount of wealth and influence over the ages, to the point that he once remarked that the Wayne fortune was a mere drop in the ocean compared to his own riches.

Trivia

 * Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pit is composed of the same chemical compound that gave Vandal Savage his immortality and the Pale Man his, as revealed during the Endgame storyline.


 * Ra's al Ghul is always accompanied by a servant known as Ubu, who is also an especially dangerous fighter. It should be noted that rather than being a single individual, Ubu is actually a title held by a line of replaceable servants. Along with Malhar Naik, he has been one of the League of Assassins' leaders.
 * Ra's al Ghul is among Batman's most formidable foes. Not only can he physically and mentally challenge "the Detective" (the name by which Ra's always refers to Batman), but he has also deduced Batman's secret identity (in his first appearance, he realized that Batman would need to possess certain equipment, and research revealed that Bruce Wayne alone bought what Batman would need).
 * When Ra's was kept in Arkham Asylum his assumed identity was American, not Egyptian.
 * It remains unknown exactly how old Ra's al Ghul is (see Notes above). All that is known is that he has lived well beyond a normal human life span.