Elsewhere, I got involved in a discussion about Ra's al Mary Sue and the Lazarus Pits. This particular discussion revolved around multiple uses of the pits, whereas I'm pretty sure that at some point it was established that each pit was single use--once used by anyone, it could no longer be used again. I'm liely wrong, and it's likely been retconned several times since whenever I had this understanding, but now I'm wondering if such a rule was ever established.
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I don't remember if the single-use-per-pit was established. I do know that it became an easy-out for writers wanting to bring back any dead DC character. At first it was clear that the revived person would be uncontrollable and bonkers, but I think this was soft-pedaled later.
The problem was that practically every Ra's Al Ghul story had to feature the Lazarus Pit in some way.
But for the longest time, it was only Ra's who used the Pit. And yes, he would emerge in a violent frenzy but only briefly.
When I read the original story I assumed the Pit only worked for Ra's. At that stage I think there was only one.
In Kobra #7/DC Special Series #1 Kobra modified it so it would kill people and then restore them to life as his slaves. And he left the room while Batman and Burr were being lowered into it so he wouldn't see their escape.
I've read very little Batman since the 80s. I think I heard of the one use thing in a conversation on the board some time back.
Talia debuted just before Ra's, in a story drawn by Bob Brown. My theory is Batman's relationship with them was modelled after Bond's relationship with Tracy and Draco in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
I could have sworn that originally, there was only one Lazarus Pit, its location known only to Ra's, and he'd been using it repeatedly over the years/centuries, but not too often. Over time, additional Pits started popping up in various locations, in much the same way Dr. Doom used to suddenly have an auxiliary castle or two pop as needed. Sometimes, Talia had also been using the Pit/s over the years, sometimes not, depending on whether the writer wanted her to be relatively young & innocent, or perhaps not so much.
These comments jogged my brain into another question.
At first I believe Ra's (and whoever) would use the pit while still alive to regain youth and strength. I don't believe it would work on a dead body. Later they apparently changed this.
Batman #400's climax involved Ra's decision to bathe into one of his Lazarus Pits (in Gotham, apparently) while still alive. One of his advisers was opposed to it, presumably because it was dangerous. Ra's himself felt certain (apparently correctly) that it would nevertheless give him a combat advantage against Batman.
It was strongly implied but not stated that he had never attempted to use the Pits on living people before.
I think that, until Batman #400, they'd been vague about the whole dead or dying thing. It seemed more like Ra's used the Pits when gravely wounded or seriously ailing, but it never seemed to make anyone younger, altho it seemed to be one of the reasons that Ra's was in such excellent physical shape. Eventually, its resurrection capabilities were such that he once offered to bring Bruce Wayne's parents back to life if Batman would join him. By that point, Thomas & Martha must have been fairly well decomposed, so it might have been interesting to see if the Pit would bring forth a healthy living couple, or a pair of shambling zombies.