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In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane tells Batman that he was born in the shadows. Which is, of course, a lie. Bane was born in the comic books, specifically Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (1993), by writer Chuck Dixon and artist Graham Nolan. That comic established Bane as a revolutionary from the Latin American island Santa Prisca, a tactical genius in a luchador mask who augmented his remarkable strength with the drug venom.
But The Dark Knight Rises remade Bane into a slightly different character, one mostly defined by the incredible vocal decision made by actor Tom Hardy. Drawing inspiration from British bare-knuckle boxer Bartley Gorman, Hardy took the character in a whole new direction, setting a model followed by The Lego Batman Movie and Harley Quinn, but also imitated by people around the globe.
So popular is Hardy’s take that news of an upcoming movie focused on Bane and Deathstroke raises a question: Who do most people think Bane is?
The Birth of Bane
The Bane of The Dark Knight Rises matches the comic book Bane in broad strokes, at least initially. In the comics, Bane was born and raised in a prison made from a deep pit, and his determination to escape won followers—namely the physician Zombie, the muscle-man Trogg, and the falconer Bird. When his captors chose him as a test subject for the muscle-enhancing drug Venom, Bane gained the means he’d need to fake his death and escape. Upon leaving the pit, Bane orchestrated the destruction of Batman. First, he set free all of the criminals in Arkham Asylum to weaken Batman’s strength and resolve, and then Bane bested him in single combat, famously breaking the Bat’s back.
The fall of Batman came during the 1993-1994 storyline Knightfall, a spiritual sequel to the Death of Superman storyline and a precursor to the corruption of Green Lantern, death of Green Arrow, and the reinvention of Wonder Woman, all of which gave DC Comics reason to replace their heroes with hip new upstarts. Yet, while Superman’s nemesis Doomsday only eventually became an interesting character, Bane immediately proved his worth and became a regular fixture in the DC Universe.
His brief appearance as a Hulk-style tough/dapper chauffeur in Batman & Robin notwithstanding, Bane acquitted himself well in Batman’s rogues’ gallery. He even became a compelling antihero as a member of the Secret Six, the Suicide Squad-style team by writer Gail Simone.
In all of these appearances, Bane remained what he had always been: a strong genius transformed by venom. Turns out, his biggest transformation was yet to come.
Out of the Shadows
The Dark Knight Rises gestures to some comic elements, at least at first. Bane does slam Batman onto his knee, and, while languishing in a prison pit, Bruce Wayne learns the legend of the child born there. But eventually, we learn that the child was Talia al Ghul, the woman he met as Wayne Enterprises CEO Miranda Tate. Bane, we finally learn, was Talia’s bodyguard, who swore to protect her since they first met in the prison.
Certainly, the movie version of Bane overshadowed his comic book counterpart in the public opinion. But unlike Alfred, Batgirl, and Mister Freeze—all characters whose current canonical qualities began in serials and TV shows—Bane remained more or less unchanged in the comics. High-profile (and highly-controversial) runs by Scott Snyder and Tom King reasserted Bane’s position as a master strategist who threatens Batman on an existential level, completely ignoring even in-universe connections to Ra’s al Ghul.
Furthermore, the popularity of the Absolute Universe has brought the comic book Bane into the conversation, to a degree that could rival Hardy’s take. In Absolute Batman, Bruce Wayne is a 400-pound man raised on Crime Alley after the death of his schoolteacher father. Thus, his childhood friends include know-it-all Eddie Nygma, the social-climbing Oz Cobblepot, and pretty boy lawyer Harvey Dent.
When we first meet these and other friends, they’re regular people who support Bruce’s crusade as Batman. But when Bane arrives in Gotham, he breaks Batman by destroying his friends, unleashing brutal punishments that transform them into the freak villains they’ll become. Moreover, Venom allows the Absolute Universe version of Bane to become a giant, dwarfing even the imposing Absolute Batman.
Between Snyder’s over-the-top storytelling approach and artist Nick Dragotta’s unsettling designs, Absolute Batman has been an incredible bestseller and a social media sensation. In fact, searching Bane on social media sites such as Reddit is just as likely to return images from Absolute Batman as they are pictures of Tom Hardy.
Furthermore, Tom Hardy’s Bane may not even be replicated in live action. In Matt Reeves‘s The Batman, Bruce Wayne injects himself with a type of adrenaline that increases his strength. Although The Batman II seems to be focusing on Two-Face, the plot point certainly seems to be a set-up for venom, an element largely ignored by The Dark Knight Rises.
Bane Reborn?
Thus, the upcoming Bane and Deathstroke movie finds one of its main characters at a crossroads. Rumored director Greg Mottola is best known for comedies such as Superbad, and directed a few episodes of Peacemaker, which suggests that he’ll capitalize on the humor still offered by the Hardy Bane.
But if Mottola decides to stick with something more comics-based, perhaps adapting elements of Secret Six, he’ll find that the original Bane still has staying power. After all, that’s where he was born.
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