Twenty-five years... my parents murdered in front of my eyes... the wet rattle of my father's dying breath... the heavy emptiness invading my mother's dilating eyes... so long ago. Too long ago... Too long to feel the loss... or the rage... or the fear... all those things that made me... I can't remember my mother. 
Batman: Death and the Maidens #1 is an issue of the series Batman: Death and the Maidens (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 2003. It was published on August 13, 2003.
Synopsis for "Chapter One"
Nyssa receives news of Lt. Colonel Vasily Vasilievich Arketov's death. She corrects the soldier delivering the news, who believes Arketov was her husband; he was her great-grandson and last descendant. After the soldier leaves, she breaks her tea cup and uses the shards to scratch tear trails down her face. She is comforted by her servant Misha.
Ra's al Ghul asks Nyssa for help because Batman has been destroying Lazarus Pits and preventing him from creating new ones by buying up prospective locations and building over them. She reminds him how she asked him for help sixty years earlier and he rejected her plea, and she rejects his now.
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Thomas and Martha Wayne's murder, Batman goes to Crime Alley to pay his respects. Ubu spies on him from a nearby building, and when confronted, he reveals that Ra's al Ghul is waiting in the Batcave with another Ubu (there being a whole tribe of them). Ra's tells Batman he wants to live in a world without hunger, disease, or crime, and he wants his daughter Talia back and married to Batman; besides that, he wants Batman to stop “murdering” him.
Appearing in "Chapter One"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Joe Chill (Flashback only)
- Nyssa Raatko
- Misha
- Ra's al Ghul
Other Characters:
- Luthor (Mentioned only)
- Martha Wayne (Dies in flashback)
- Talia Head (On a TV or computer screen)
- Thomas Wayne (Dies in flashback)
- Vasily Vasilievich Arketov (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- France
- Russia
- United States of America
- Gotham City
- Crime Alley (Flashback and main story)
- Wayne Botanical Gardens
- Wayne Manor
- Gotham City
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in Batman: Death and the Maidens.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Batman: Death and the Maidens series
- Images from Batman: Death and the Maidens Vol 1 1