Henri Ducard



Henri Ducard is a fictional character in the  Batman  comic book  universe. Created by Sam Hamm, Ducard's  first appearance  was in Detective Comics #599 (April 1989), part of the " Blind Justice " story arc.  Sam Hamm  was the  screenwriter  of the 1989  Batman  film and was asked by Batman comic editor  Denny O'Neil  to guest write a story arc in  Detective Comics ,| [1]  within the arc he created the character of Henri Ducard. The character was later amalgamated  with  Ra's al Ghul  as the main villain in the film  Batman Begins , a reboot of the  Batman  franchise Hamm had helped originate.

History
Bruce Wayne approaches Henri Ducard for training in Paris, during his early days traveling the world. Ducard, a knowledgeable detective with excellent man hunting skills, imparted much of his knowledge to the young, keen Bruce.

Later in the series, it is revealed that Ducard is largely amoral, working for criminals as often as he does the law. He deduces Batman's secret identity, but keeps it to himself, thinking as he leaves that Batman continues to exist because true criminals realize that he distracts the people from the greater crimes by his public battle against lesser crimes.

Ducard has also worked with the third Robin, Tim Drake, who went to Paris during his training, as Bruce did. Unlike Bruce, however, Robin only encounters him in passing at the end of his training, in Hong Kong.

Movie appearance
Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins merges Henri Ducard with Ra's al Ghul as the film's main antagonist. Ra's uses the alias Ducard, pretending to be subservient to a decoy Ra's al Ghul for the first half of the film, until he reveals that he is in fact Ra's al Ghul himself. He is portrayed by Liam Neeson, while his decoy is played by Ken Watanabe. In The Dark Knight Rises, the younger version of Ra's al Ghul is played by Josh Pence.

Videogame appearance
Liam Neeson reprised his role as Henri Ducard/Ra's al Ghul in 2005 Batman Begins game, in which he plays a role very similar to that in the film.

Parodies
The Liam Neeson portrayal of Henri Ducard appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Password: Swordfish" voiced by Seth Green. In a segment that parodies Batman Begins, he trains Heimlich to save people who are choking on food.

Trivia

 * In the original draft of the 1989 film Batman, there is a large part of the film concentrating on Bruce traveling abroad and training with Ducard. Bruce would discover Ducard to be a criminal. Ducard was dropped from the original Tim Burton film. The draft was written by Sam Hamm, the screenplay writer of the film. Hamm was eventually invited to write for Batman comics where he incorporated his character into the comics.
 * In the film Batman Begins, Henri Ducard is the alias Ra's Al Ghul takes while training Bruce Wayne.