Spotlight On: Bane

Spotlight On:

Bane

        Introduced in 1993 in Batman: Vengeance of Bane, the character was designed as a counterpoint character to Batman, intended to be his mental equal, and physical superior. Bane was born in the Caribbean Republic of Santa Prisca, the son of revolutionary soldier for hire Edmund Dorrance. Dorrance, better known as the blind master martial artist King Snake, fled the country after being arrested, leaving his unborn child to serve his sentence. Bane was born inside in the walls of the Peña Dura prison, learning at an early age to kill or be killed. After the death of his mother, Bane was released into general populace, and during a prison brawl, fell off of a walkway, and ended up in a coma for a month. During the coma, Bane saw a visage of his future self, warning him against fear, which in the vision took the form of a giant bat.  After coming out of the coma, Bane murdered a fellow inmate, and was thrown into la Cavidad Oscuro, a dark crevasse that flooded with each high tide.

     

     However, Bane refused to die, living off of fish and rats, and developing meditation techniques to avoid going insane in the ten years he was confined to the pit. After the warden released Bane into general populace again in the hopes that someone would kill him, Bane met an inmate known as

Bird, from Gotham. Bane became intrigued by the idea of a place ruled by fear of one man and believed the Batman was the incarnation of fear he had seen in his vision. Bane became convinced that destiny had put the two of them on a collision course. Being a natural intellectual, he began incessantly reading all the books available in the prison, learning to read in six languages. After reading all of the books available to him in the prison, he began using his network to smuggle more in. He began conditioning his body, pushing it to its limits. He stopped sleeping, instead going into a recuperative meditation for four hours each night.

A young Bane in the Cavidad Oscuro

         Around this time, scientists came to the prison to experiment on inmates, and choosing Bane for his strength, they began administering the super-steroid known as Venom, a highly addictive compound originally employed by Batman to surpass his physical limitations. After becoming addicted, Batman was able to kick the habit. The steroid took Bane, who already possessed peak human strength, to superhuman levels. Bane then escaped  Peña Dura and left for Gotham to confront his nightmare.  After observing Batman for some time, Bane saw that even his enhanced strength would not be a match, and realized he would need to wear the Batman down. To this end, Bane blew up the outside wall of Arkham Asylum, releasing the inmates. After more than a month of going nonstop, Batman was exhausted, and becoming sloppy. allowing Bane to follow him back to his cave, and in turn, deduce his civilian identity. Bane broke down the door of Wayne Manor, and beat Batman nearly to death in the Batcave, before breaking his back over his knee. 

Batman on Venom

         The story goes on and is mired in continuity, but we'll stop here. This is to give you an idea of what Bane is like, since there is yet to be a movie, videogame or animated series that does him complete justice. If I had to pick the closest interpretation, the Dark Knight Rises version was very true to the comics version. That version was a master strategist, terrorist, and trained by Ra's Al Ghul, much like Bane in the comics. As far as the drug Venom goes, at no point has it ever caused Bane to instantly increase in size, although this has become a staple of the character. Rather than increasing his size, it maintains his superhuman level of strenght, and has a calming effect. The drug was actually conceived to be Bane's weakness, because it was so addictive. Bane later beat his addiction, but retained his size. Bane has been shown  to be highly intelligent, even beating Ra's Al Ghul at chess, and being able to understand when Ra's and Talia attempted to conceal information from him by speaking in various dead languages(i.e. Dhari, Urdu, and Farsi) . Even after ceasing to use Venom, in Bane of the Demon, he is shown as able to rend steel bars. 

        As a quick update, as of the New 52, Bane has been shown preparing an invasion forc

e to march on Gotham, as well as moonlighting as muscle for the Court of Owls