Bane (comics)
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Bane is the DC Comics supervillain best known for having broken Batman's back.
Bane first appeared in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (1993). The "Knightfall" story arc ran through Batman #491–500, Detective Comics #659–666, and Showcase '93 #7–8, with tie-ins appearing in several other titles published during that time.
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[edit] Publication history
Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan created the character for the Knightfall storyline, although it is unclear what elements were introduced by each of the two writers (Dixon and Moench). Dixon wrote the character's first appearance (Vengeance of Bane), with art by Graham Nolan. It is also unclear how much input was provided by Denny O'Neil (veteran writer of the Batman books, then Group Editor for the Batman family of books, and author of the novel adaption of Knightfall). O'Neil had previously created Bane's hellish birthplace of Santa Prisca and the drug Venom. In the pages of Azrael, O'Neil introduced Bane's perception of Venom as both an addiction and the weakness responsible for his earlier defeats. The link between Bane and King Snake was introduced by writer Scott Beatty.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Born to serve the life sentence of his father, Bane's childhood and early adult life were spent behind the walls of Peña Duro, an infamous prison located in Santa Prisca. The writers created Bane as a dark mirror of Doc Savage.[1] Though imprisoned, his natural abilities allowed him to gain extraordinary skills within the walls of Peña Duro. He read as many books as he could get his hands on, built up his body in the prison's gymnasium, and learned to fight in the merciless school of prison life. Despite his circumstances, he appears to have found teachers of various sorts during his incarceration, ranging from the hardened convicts who were his company from birth to an elderly Jesuit priest, under whose tutelage he apparently received a classical education. Bane would murder this priest upon his return to Santa Prisca years later. However, he committed the first of his murders at the age of eight, stabbing a criminal who wanted to use him to gain information about the prison.
During his years in prison, Bane carried a teddy bear he named Osito, whom he considered his only friend. It was revealed that Osito had a hole in his back to hold a knife that Bane used against anyone who bullied him.
As an adult, he became a test subject for a mysterious drug known as Venom, which had killed all other subjects. It nearly killed him at first, but he survived and found its effects enhanced his physical strength, although he needed to take it every 12 hours (via a system of cables pumped directly into his body) or he would suffer debilitating side-effects.
Years later, Bane escaped Peña Duro, along with several accomplices (his friends Trogg, Zombie and Bird, all of whom are named for 1960s British rock bands: The Troggs, The Zombies and The Birds), and were designed to mimic three of Doc Savage's assistants Monk, Ham and Renny. His ambition turned to destroying Batman, whom he had heard tales of while serving his sentence, becoming fascinated with Gotham City as, like the prison, it was a place where fear ruled—in this case, fear of the Batman. Bane was convinced that the demonic bat that haunted his dreams since childhood was a representation of the Batman.
Aware that a direct assault on Batman would be foolish, Bane destroyed the walls of Arkham Asylum, allowing its deranged inmates to escape into Gotham City, where Batman spent three months rounding them up. Running himself to exhaustion, Batman returned to Wayne Manor, where Bane awaited him. He fought Batman in the Batcave, defeated him, and delivered the coup de grace: so that there would always be a memory of this day, he broke Batman's back and threw him onto the floor of the Batcave.
While Bane established himself as ruler of Gotham's criminal underworld, Bruce Wayne passed the mantle of Batman to Jean-Paul Valley, also known as Azrael. As Batman, Jean-Paul grew increasingly violent, allowing the villain known as Abattoir to fall to his death. Jean-Paul also refused to recognize Robin as his partner. Utilizing a sophisticated combat suit in place of the traditional Batman uniform, "AzBats" (as comics fans refer to him) fought and defeated Bane at the end of the "Knightfall" arc, severing the tubes that pumped the Venom into Bane, leaving him powerless, and proceeded to give Bane a vicious beating, but decided to leave him alive but broken.
Bruce Wayne, again costumed as Batman, got his rematch with Bane in Detective Comics #701 and defeated him in single combat. Since then, whenever Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Bane square off in battle, their fights usually end in a draw, as Bane's strength is decreased due to his freedom from the Venom chemical. Since then, Bane has found his father, the unscrupulous King Snake, and killed him. (Prior to this, a long running plotline had developed where hints were dropped that Bane and Bruce Wayne actually shared Dr. Thomas Wayne as their biological father, with Dr. Wayne having apparently become close to Bane's mother during his time in Santa Prisca). Bane has also bathed himself in a Lazarus Pit, and he has a clean slate and a new opportunity at life. Whether or not Bane will be an ally or a villain to Batman is still unknown.
The recent events of Infinite Crisis have shown Bane in league with the Secret Society of Super Villains, and using a move, similar to the one that broke the back of Batman, on Judomaster in the Great Battle of Metropolis. Why Bane joined with the Society after his seeming reform from crime remains unknown (though it could simply be a continuity error and/or a result of Superboy-Prime punching at the walls of reality).
[edit] One Year Later
In JSA: Classified the fate of Bane OYL is revealed: he has resurfaced searching for the Hourmen (Rex and Rick Tyler), asking them for help. To win their trust, he tells them how, prior to the Battle of Metropolis, he returned to his homeland to put an end to the drug lords' government, in the process discovering a new, more addicting strain of Venom. In his furious carelessness to wipe out the drug trade, he was captured, and reimplanted with the cranial tubes, hooked to the new Venom, but now unable to shake off his addiction without dying in from the withdrawal. Bane was forced to work as an enforcer for the drug cartel, unable to escape. Believing that Bane was searching for the chemistry expertise of Rex Tyler, Rick let him approach his father, only to discover that the story was a half truth, a clever ruse. Bane, never addicted to Venom, had in fact managed to wipe out the drug lords, and destroyed every research note on Venom, save for some new Venom pills, and had discovered in the process both strains of Venom derived from early research of Rex Tyler on Miraclo. Discovering from the Tylers that no written notes exist on Rex's work, Bane captured Rex and stole Rick's equipment, planning to kill the Rex and force Rick to take the last of the new Venom, living forever as an addict. With a clever plan, Rick and Rex managed to subdue Bane, burying the mercenary in the rubble of the very same Santa Priscan penitentiary where his story began.
[edit] Powers and abilities
- Bane possesses superhuman or near-superhuman strength (strength level varies somewhat depending on the source), enhanced by his use of the drug "Venom".
- He is also quite intelligent (having deduced Batman's secret identity) and devious (he crafted the escape from Arkham Asylum of all of Batman's enemies), and a superb tactician.
[edit] Other versions
Bane also appeared in the crossover comic, Marvel vs DC, in which he confronted Captain America. During the fight, Captain America seems to throw his shield away, spinning it out of frame. Bane grabs him and is about to snap his spine, taunting him about the pathetic 'strategy' of throwing away his shield, when Captain America's shield slams into Bane from behind, knocking him out.
[edit] Other media
[edit] DC Animated Universe
Bane has appeared as a villain on Batman: The Animated Series and its spinoffs (voiced by Henry Silva in all appearances but the direct-to-video Mystery of the Batwoman, in which he was voiced by Hector Elizondo). In these depictions, Bane never achieved what his comics counterpart could: the defeat of Batman. The producers were reluctant to utilize him (along with Doomsday in the Superman Animated Series) because they felt that their comics incarnations were both gimmick characters. This explains his singular appearance in Batman: TAS and his small role in The New Batman Adventures.
Bane first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series as a muscular assassin hired by the mobster Rupert Thorne to eliminate Batman, and in turn by Thorne's moll to eliminate Thorne afterward. Bane fights Batman onboard the boat where Robin had been kidnapped and bound, but before Bane can break Batman's back as he did in the comics, Batman thrusts a crumpled batarang into the controls that inject Bane with Venom. This causes a rapid and uncontrollable feed into Bane's body before Batman pulls out the tube, stopping a fatal overdose of the drug, but leaving him thoroughly beaten.
Bane notably appeared in two episodes of the Batman/Superman Adventures. In the first one, "Knight Time," Bruce Wayne had been brainwashed by Brainiac, and in order to find him, Robin enlisted the help of Superman. To prevent anyone from determining Batman's secret identity by seeing the connection between the simultaneous disappearance of Bruce Wayne and Batman, Robin had Superman dress in Batman's suit and impersonate his voice. During the episode, they ambushed a meeting between Bane, Mad Hatter, and The Riddler, and Bane was quite surprised when "Batman" easily overpowered him.
The second episode, "Over the Edge", chronicled a dream story in which Batgirl was killed by the Scarecrow and Commissioner Gordon lashes out at Batman in grief, starting a war between the vigilante and the police. Gordon even goes to the lengths of contracting Bane to take Batman down. Bane, consummate criminal that he is, decides to restructure the deal once he is freed, preferring to kill the Batman rather than capture him. After a long, brutal fight, Bane dies due to wounds inflicted upon him when Batman electrocutes him by tying his Venom tube to a broken Bat Signal. Just before he dies, Bane rolls the Bat Signal at both Batman and Gordon, killing them both before Batgirl wakes up.
Bane later appeared in the animated movie Mystery of the Batwoman in which The Penguin hired him as an enforcer during an arms deal. Although Rupert Thorne appears as one of Penguin's partners in this movie, there is no reference to their previous meeting. At the end of the movie, Bane falls into a pit of fire after a fight with Batman, seemingly killing him, but somehow survives to appear alive in Batman Beyond.
In Batman Beyond, the effects of Venom appear to have taken their toll. By this time, Bane has become wheelchair-bound and almost in a vegetative stupor, needing the Venom which has ravaged his body just to stay alive due to constant use of the drug. He was under the care of a nurse, who was only using Bane so he could get the formula for Venom. Bane's caretaker sold Venom as a performance enhancer/recreational drug used by teenagers in the form of patches known as "slappers." The caretaker would later die from an overdose of Venom during a fight with Batman, caused by Batman hitting a box of the slappers, which fell on the caretaker and caused many of the "slappers" to stick to him at once until his body could take no more.
[edit] Film
In the 1997 movie Batman and Robin, Bane was played by wrestler Jeep Swenson (1957–1997). Unlike his comics counterpart, he had a real name, Antonio Diego. He was again a convict from a prison, but this time he was turned into Bane by Dr. Jason Woodrue, who injected him with Venom. Rather than being the devious, intelligent villain of the comics, he is an inarticulate thug who served as the lackey of Poison Ivy, one of the main villains of the film. Bane is barely even capable of speech and uses growls, roars, and snarls for most of his communication. However, he is superstrong and unstoppable, easily beating up several thugs, policemen and even holding his own against Batman and Robin in hand to hand combat. His defeat arrives when his Venom tube is kicked out of his head by Robin and Batgirl as Bane was attempting to strangle them. As the Venom leaves his body, it shrinks back to its 'original' size. He is not, however, shown to die. This depiction of the character was one of many aspects of the film which received harsh criticism from fans and critics alike, with many fans wondering why Bane was even included in the story at all, as he serves little purpose in the film other than as a muscle-bound henchman.
[edit] The Batman
In The Batman, Bane appears as a hitman and professional thief voiced by Joaquim de Almeida ("Traction") and Ron Perlman ("Team Penguin"). In this rendition, he is even more monstrous in size and strength and injured Batman in the first encounter. To defeat him, Batman uses the Bat-Bot, a prototype robot. Bane's steroid injection unit is a system of tubes which stretch around his body, activated by a dial on his hand. However, the steroid venom and his tubing system is one of his greatest weaknesses because on several occasions, electrocuting the tubes causes Bane's defeat. In the episode Traction, Batman rammed an exposed eletrical wire into Bane's Venom applier. This caused it to apparently go into overdrive and inject such massive amounts of Venom that he collapsed under the strain. In "Team Penguin", Batman's eletrocution of his tubes caused a chain reaction which shocked him senseless. He later gets an invitation to join this version's Injustice Gang, but gets taken down by Batman and Robin before considering the offer.
[edit] Video games
Bane's first video game appearance was in the video game adaptation of the movie Batman & Robin. Bane appeared in Batman: Chaos in Gotham and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. In the latter game, Bane appears in the Batcave and battles Batman. Rise of Sin Tzu also featured Hector Elizondo's first time voicing Bane, as it was released a month before Mystery of the Batwoman.
[edit] Quotes
- Bane: "Beg for mercy...scream my name!"
- Bane: "I will break you!"
- Bane: "I'm Bane. The last opponent you'll ever face!"
- Bane: "I am Bane, and I could kill you, but death would only end your agony, silence your shame. Instead, I will simply...BREAK YOU!!! Broken and done."
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Batman | |
|---|---|
| Creators: | Bob Kane and Bill Finger • Other writers and artists |
| Supporting Characters: | Robin (Tim Drake) • Nightwing (Dick Grayson) • Batgirl • Batwoman • Alfred Pennyworth • Lucius Fox • Barbara Gordon • Commissioner Gordon • Harvey Bullock |
| Villains: | Bane • Catwoman • Clayface • Harley Quinn • Joker • Killer Croc • Mr. Freeze • Penguin • Poison Ivy • Ra's al Ghul • Red Hood (Jason Todd) • Riddler • Scarecrow • Two-Face • Other villains |
| Locations: | Arkham Asylum • Batcave • Gotham City • Wayne Enterprises • Wayne Manor |
| Miscellanea: | Batarang • Batmobile • Batsuit • Popular media • Publications • Storylines • Alternate versions of Batman |
