He Who Would Break The Bat

With The Dark Knight Rises already out and myself personally loving it, I’ve honestly become a little Bane crazy. I was very much looking forward to seeing him in the film given that I know about his origin from the comics and how he works. While Bane isn’t exactly a favorite villain of mine, I think he’s very effective when given the right story. However, I feel that he is often misrepresented when portrayed outside of the original source material, and find it ironic that his reinvented persona in The Dark Knight Rises is the most accurate portrayal he’s had outside of the comics aside from a single cameo in The New Batman Adventures.

Bane first appeared in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 in 1993, written by Chuck Dixon. Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan (illustrator) originally conceived the character as a dark mirror to the classic pulp action hero Doc Savage, and was created for the well-known Knightfall storyline. Bane, as written in Vengeance of Bane, was born and raised in the amoral Santa Prisca prison Peña Dura to serve his father’s sentence. Bane honed his natural skills to train his body and mind, reading as many books as he could get his hands on as well as taking tutelage under a Jesuit priest and progressively becoming the most respected and feared inmate. Because of this, the prison holders forced him to become a test subject for the Venom steroid, previously introduced in Batman: Venom (Legends of the Dark Knight #16-20) where Batman had attempted to utilize the drug to his advantage, which less than stellar results. Although the drug had almost killed Bane, he ultimately survived the treatment and found that it greatly enhanced his physical strength, and was fitted with a supply of it, he must take a dose of it every 12 hours, or he will suffer dire side-effects.

As a child, Bane suffered nightmares of a demonic bat, and sees it as a representation of Batman. That, and coupled with the fact that like Peña Dura, Gotham City is a place where fear rules, Bane feels that a confrontation between them is fate. And so we begin the Knightfall storyline, where Bane leads a mass breakout at Arkham Asylum, and Batman is forced to overexert himself for three months getting a good amount of his rogues gallery back into the asylum. Exhausted by the end of it, Batman retreats back to Wayne Manor, where Bane (who had deduced his identity) ambushes him and in one of the most iconic scenes in Batman lore, breaks his back, leaving him unable to walk.

Part of the reason Bane has been so well endowed in terms of the comics is because there was enough build up toward his character, he was able to take a steroid that Batman himself couldn’t utilize and use it to his advantage, makes him a more physical durable and offensive force. However, unlike portrayals like Batman & Robin and the Arkham video games, he is not just a brute force with no discernible tact or intelligence. Bane also acts as a mental foil to The Dark Knight, hence why I thought he was a good contrast to the Joker for the third Nolan film. When you really get down to it, while Bane isn’t the most popular villain, nor is he a favorite of most, he honestly is probably one of the most effective, more so because he already knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne.

Although, while I know his main iconography is often associated with his strength being increased by Venom as well as his luchadore mask, I feel that these are just gimmicks, little quirks to the character that do not define him, at least not significantly. The main drive of the Bane character is his physical equilibrium as well as near mental symmetry compared to Batman, he can battle the Caped Crusader on both ends. These can both be done without the Venom and luchadore mask (which were both absent in The Dark Knight Rises). Besides, the mask in a live-action film would look ridiculous (Batman & Robin being evidence to that), so I was welcome to the very different mask in the film.

The Animated Series

The New Batman Adventures

Anyone who knows me knows my absolute love for Batman: The Animated Series as well as the entirety of the DC Animated Universe (minus Static Shock and the scarcely known Zeta Project). I could spend all day talking about it, but I won’t, the reason I bring it up, is that The Animated Series episode named after the same character, almost gets it right, but kind of fumbled the ball. You’ve got the Venom; you’ve got the mask (which looks ridiculous in this episode), Bane is calculative and smart. So, what went wrong? The ultimate fact (this could be just me, not sure) of the matter is that he seems like more of a caricature of Bane than Bane himself, very exaggerated, over-the-top with a seemingly forced Spanish accent, and really, he isn’t much of a threat, he’s disposed of rather easily, and isn’t portrayed as nearly a force as he can be. What made up for this was his appearance in The New Batman Adventures episode “Over the Edge”, where they got it right, and the returning actor Henry Silva, turned in a more reserved and grim performance befitting him.

In terms of The Dark Knight Rises, without giving spoilers, Nolan gets the ultimate point of the character, and in my opinion, his reimagining for the sake of Nolanverse continuity actually made him a more interesting character overall. Bane in the film is not just Bane in name only. And so I end on my favorite quote from the film, of course by him: “Oh, you think darkness is your ally? But you merely adopted the dark, I was born in it, molded by it.”

The Dark Knight Rises - Review

And so we come to the end of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. This was my most anticipated film of the entire year, partly because I love Nolan’s take on the mythos, mostly because I’m an avid comic book and Batman fanatic. I already know this film will be nitpicked more than it deserves and will not be considered a superior installment over The Dark Knight for a few reasons. Firstly, the expectations are different. I went into The Dark Knight expecting a good time and came out mesmerized and completely blown away by it. Second, The Joker is top dog for Batman villains, and so any movie without one of the most charismatic and entertaining villains in fiction is destined to underwhelm most. Third, far too many have the incorrect notion that The Dark Knight is the epitome of what a Batman film should be, and that nothing can succeed it, and lastly, the film goes in a different direction than most would expect.

The Dark Knight Rises picks up eight years after the end of the previous installment, where the Dent Act has since eradicated organized crime in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is in recluse, lonely and guilt-ridden Rachel’s death in the last film, and he finds himself living a life without purpose. The years Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) has spent keeping the secret of Dent’s turn eight years prior has been plaguing him. But, with a new menace in town, Batman puts on the cape and cowl once again to face a new enemy, Bane, the villain famous for breaking Batman’s back in the comic book storyline Knightfall.

The first act of the film gives Gotham City a new feel, and the turn of a near decade instills a fresh and welcome atmosphere for the film’s setting. Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon have become seasoned in the passing years, and a young John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has stepped up to the plate. Performances from the recurring ensemble cast including Michael Caine’s Alfred Pennyworth and Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox are great as always, and the additions of Blake, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) do not clutter the overall narrative. I have to give special praise to Christian Bale in the best performance he’s delivered within the trilogy, particularly for Bruce Wayne, who goes through a major character arc. No spoilers, of course, but just let it be known that it makes me happy so many years have passed between films.

The storyline is the largest a comic book film has ever had, never have we seen the stakes so high for a character, although the narrative is not without a few hiccups. There were the occasional instances in which I tilted my head and questioned some of the logic and science behind some of the technology, but when you get down to it, it’s been nearly a decade since the last film. Think about how much technology has advanced in our own time given the short time span in recent years, we are constantly in a state of advancement. Also, for as grounded in reality as the Nolanverse films are, like the character of Batman himself, it’s still hyper-reality. What I like about this story in particular is that it brings the trilogy full circle, and is a direct continuation of Begins and Dark Knight.

Anne Hathaway, despite many doubts surrounding her casting, is a damn good representation of the Selina Kyle character, she’s lovely, she’s deadly, she’s enjoyable to watch. The original character of John Blake is an addition that helps the story proceed smoothly, as he acts as a child of both Gordon’s and Batman’s ideals. I feel the film would have suffered were this character not included. Bane’s portrayal in this film is the most accurate he’s ever had outside of comic continuity, ironic considering that no, he does not utilize the Venom steroid. In fact, I’d go as far as say that his reinvention here makes him a more interesting character than he is in the comics.

This is a very bleak and dystopian film, which always tickles my fancy in any kind of fiction, when done properly. Despite the iconography associated with The Joker and all the chaos he instilled in the previous entry, Bane unleashes Hell in Gotham City in a way The Joker could have never accomplished. That, coupled with the fact that Bane is physically superior to Batman as well as a mental foil makes him all around, a more effective villain. I love The Joker as much as any good Batman fan, and do agree that he is the Caped Crusader’s true archnemesis, but he could never tear down Gotham like Bane does here.

The new Batwing, or “The Bat” as it’s called here was something I was extremely skeptical about upon its coverage in the trailers. I had hoped they would use the Batwing in the third installment but when I had seen that it resembled an airborne take on the Tumbler, I was disappointed. To my surprise through, I liked it. Would’ve liked to see Batman utilize some new gadgets, but I’m not going lose any sleep over it. All-in-all I’m delighted to see another solid set of three movies again, it’s been quite a while but there is no Curse of the Trilogy to be found here. Nolan has left his stamp on Batman adaptations and I am curious as to how the second reboot will turn out. As it stands here though, The Dark Knight Trilogy is one of the best. Enjoy the superhero epic. 9 out of 10.