Bane was developed in the early 1990s to have a specific narrative purpose: he was to be the one who would “Break the Bat,” unlike the other “traditional” members of the Batman rogues gallery. He would serve the same goal as Doomsday did when he first appeared in the early 1990s Superman comics with the specific intent of “killing” the Man of Steel.
The extra-sized special, written by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Graham Nolan, made its debut in the pages of Vengeance of Bane in January 1993. It served as the character’s introduction and origin tale.
Bane was incarcerated from birth for his absent father’s revolutionary crimes and was born within the prison known as Pena Dura (also known as “Hard Rock”) on the fictitious Caribbean island of Santa Prisca. Bane would quickly ascend to become the undisputed monarch of Pena Dura by developing both his mind and body inside the jail.
But, Bane’s ascent to the top of the prison food chain had earned him a reputation with the guards, and it was they who made him a test subject for the enigmatic Venom super-steroid. Venom was pumped straight into Bane’s brain, greatly enhancing his physical prowess but also making him dependent on ongoing Venom infusions. With the help of his medical care, Bane and his three jail goons, Trogg, Zombie, and Bird, managed to escape from Pena Dura and turn their attention to Gotham City.
Bane had heard rumors about Gotham and its defender Batman within the prison. Bane had frequent dreams as a child about a terrifying bat demon. Bane was determined to travel to Gotham to figuratively vanquish the personification of his childhood anxiety. He saw Batman as a symbol of that fear. Bane attacked the Dark Knight in a military-style campaign after arriving in Gotham with his team. In a campaign that lasted several months, Bane forced an under-pressure Batman to recapture all of his main adversaries by releasing the convicts from Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison onto the city.
Following the conclusion of the mission, Bane engaged Batman in a one-on-one fight inside the Batcave, winning and breaking Batman’s back in the process. Bane started his mission to take over Gotham’s criminal underground once the first Dark Knight was defeated, and he quickly ascended to the top of the food chain, much like he did inside Pena Dura.
Unfortunately for Bane, the reports of Batman’s demise were somewhat overblown since Azrael, the assassin-turned-hero picked by Wayne to be Gotham’s new defender, went after Bane and defeated the city’s new criminal leader to demonstrate his own worth. Bane was vanquished and imprisoned once more, but this time inside the walls of Blackgate Prison rather than Pena Dura, after being beaten to within an inch of his life by the vicious new Batman.
Bane finally broke out of Blackgate after kicking his Venom addiction (as depicted in Vengeance of Bane II: The Redemption) and ended up eliminating a network of Venom distributors before supposedly abandoning Gotham forever.
Following the conclusion of that narrative, Bane had a second appearance in the miniseries Bane of the Demon, when he was seen looking for his long-lost father and coming into contact with Ra’s Al Ghul, the Demon’s Head. Ra’s, who had previously rejected Batman’s offer of the title of heir, was impressed by Bane’s skills and placed it upon him. Together, this new team would battle Batman once more during the Legacy storyline in 1996.
Bane and Bruce Wayne, who is now once again wearing the Bat-suit, will eventually square off during this storyline. However, Batman would prevail this time, and as a result, Bane would grow distant from both Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Assassins. The Vengeance of Bane and Knightfall storylines were tied together in the Legacy storyline, placing Bane’s persona in a precarious position.
Bane’s appearances in No Man’s Land (1999) and Gotham Knights (2002), the latter of which experimented with the idea of making him Bruce Wayne’s long-lost half-brother, gave the impression that different creative teams were struggling to come up with a use for the character.
Bane finally seems to find a home in the pages of writer Gail Simone’s Secret Six series starting in 2008 after many less-than-memorable appearances during the Infinite Crisis and One Year Later DC events.
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Writer:
Risalat Rahman Hridoy
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE