In the months leading up to the breaking of the bat in the legendary storyline "Knightfall", DC Comics fans were introduced to a brand new character for the first time: Bane. In this 64-page One Shot issue, creators of the character, Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench, brought to life one of Batman's greatest enemies of all time.
In January of 1993, fans have already met the likes of Doomsday. A gigantic, bone-protruded monster who did the unthinkable: He killed Superman. But DC Comics wasn't quite done shocking the fan base. Batman writers Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench had their own monster that would do what not even the Joker could accomplish since 1940: He was going to break the bat. But before any of this could happen, fans needed to be introduced to this monstrosity known only as Bane. Enter the 64-page One Shot comic book "Vengeance of Bane"!
"Vengeance of Bane" begins this villain's story the only place it can: At the very beginning. It starts with Bane's unnamed father being apart of a bloody massacre that lands him in the Pena Duro prison on the island of Santa Prisca. Unfortunately, Bane's father dies, forcing his child (if it were a boy) to serve the remainder of his life sentence. As Bane was born to life, he was given a life sentence in one of the most hellish prisons on the planet.
In the first 4 years of his life, Bane's mother watched over him as he was free to roam the prison and learned it's every nook and cranny. But with no hope or will to live, Bane's mother died. Her corpse thrown over the bluffs, into the water to feed the sharks. With his mother no longer alive to be his guardian, the warden threw Bane in with general population. After being accosted by another prisoner and accidently pushed from one of the higher levels of the prison, Bane fell hitting his head and putting himself into a coma for over a month. In his coma, Bane saw an older version of himself. This older version told Bane that he would make himself into the "ultimate man", free from fear. Then and only then would he be able to conquer his greatest enemy, pointing to a giant bat. After awaking from his coma, at the age of 7, Bane went back to the prisoner who knocked him off the balcony and killed him.
Killing the prisoner landed Bane in a 5 ft X 10 ft cell that would fill with water every time the tide came in. That was the only way Bane knew of the passing of time. Bane spent years of his life in this tiny cell, doing thousands of push ups, pull ups, and sit ups every day and then meditating instead of sleeping. All of this to fulfill the promise his older self showed him in his vision. Now a young adult and at physical and mental perfection, the warden released Bane from his cell and back into the general population.
In general population, Bane gained access to the library where he self taught himself many things, among which being several different languages. It is after this that Bane stops being a model prisoner and begins killing inmates again, ratcheting up his bodycount. The warden then locks him up again and does not let him out again until he is volunteered for an experiemental procedure that has killed 5 inmates before him. It is here that Bane has the holes drilled into his skull to allow the super steroid Venom to be delievered directly into his skull, growing him to immense size. Bane then fakes his death to escape Pena Duro and heads to Gotham with Bird, Zombie, and Trogg to begin his plan to take on Batman and take control of Gotham.
For anyone who is a true Batman fan, Bane is surely near the top of your list for favorite villains. He arguably poses the greatest combination of physcial and mental threat to Batman than any other villain, except for maybe Ra's al Ghul or Prometheus. While Bane's origin in "The Dark Knight Rises" promises to be a little bit different than the origin explained in this comic, "Vengeance of Bane" is still a must-read for anyone who is looking to know more about this menacing man before the movie hits theaters this summer. With incredible writing by Chuck Dixon and great artwork by Graham Nolan, "Vengeance of Bane" is a great comic that never gets old. It's as captivating on Page 1 as it is on Page 64, and leaves you wanting to see more of Bane. While in other stories involving Bane, we are primarily given a lot of fight scenes, demonstrating his physical might that towers Batman's. However, in "Vengeance of Bane", we see that Bane is much more than a savage brute. He is an incredible intellect with great tactician skills. This seems very much like the Bane we will be seeing this summer in Tom Hardy's interpretation of the character.
Please stay tuned as I will be posting future articles showcasing comics and storylines featuring Bane, Catwoman, Talia al Ghul, and Ra's al Ghul. Leave your comments in the usual place.