Bane

Bane is a fictional character, associated with DC Comics' Batman. Created by writers Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench and artist Graham Nolan, he first appeared in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (January 1993).

Overview
Originally intended as a "dark mirror" of the highly disciplined and multi-skilled pulp hero Doc Savage, Bane spends his childhood in a hellish prison on the corrupt island nation of Santa Prisca. He develops superhuman strength through a forced experiment involving the drug Venom. Although his dependency on Venom is an immense weakness, Bane has been one of Batman's most intelligent and physically powerful foes. He is best known for breaking Batman's back in the "Knightfall" story arc.

Although primarily a villain, Bane is a complex character and has worked to take down drug lords. Despite their history, he has sometimes had Batman's financial backing and direct assistance.

Bane has appeared in some other media adaptations of Batman, including Batman: The Animated Series, its sequels and spin-offs and its successor The Batman. Pro-wrestler Jeep Swenson played him in the 1997 film Batman & Robin. In most of these adaptations, he is more simplistic and thug-like than his comic book counterpart.

Publication history
Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan created the character for the Knightfall storyline, although it is unclear what elements were introduced by each of the two writers (Dixon and Moench). Dixon wrote the character's first appearance (Vengeance of Bane), with art by Graham Nolan. It is also unclear how much input was provided by Denny O'Neil (veteran writer of the Batman books, then Group Editor for the Batman family of books, and author of the novel adaptation of Knightfall). O'Neil had previously created Bane's hellish birthplace of Santa Prisca in The Question and the drug Venom in the storyline of the same name (published in the pages of Legends of the Dark Knight #16-20, and later reprinted as a graphic novel). In the pages of Azrael, O'Neil introduced Bane's perception of Venom as both an addiction and the weakness responsible for his earlier defeats. The link between Bane and King Snake was introduced by writer Scott Beatty.

Background
The origin of Bane has similarities with another fictional character, Alexandre Dumas' Edmond Dantes. Born to serve the life sentence of his father, Bane's childhood and early adult life are spent behind the walls of Peña Duro, an infamous prison located in Santa Prisca. Though imprisoned, his natural abilities allow him to develop extraordinary skills within the prison's walls. He reads as many books as he can get his hands on, builds up his body in the prison's gymnasium, and learns to fight in the merciless school of prison life. Despite his circumstances, he appears to have found teachers of various sorts during his incarceration, ranging from hardened convicts to an elderly Jesuit priest, under whose tutelage he apparently receives a classical education. Bane murders this priest upon his return to Santa Prisca years later. However, he commits his first murder at the age of eight, stabbing a criminal who wanted to use him to gain information about the prison.

During his years in prison, Bane carries a teddy bear he calls Osito (Spanish for "little bear"), whom he considers his only friend. It is revealed that Osito has a hole in his back to hold a knife that Bane uses against anyone who bullies him (this is spoofed in Italian superhero parody Rat-Man by Leo Ortolani where the titular bumbling and goofy superhero has constant and heated discussions with a stuffed teddy called Piccettino, whose voice only he can hear).

Bane ultimately establishes himself as the "king" of Peña Duro prison. The prison's controllers take note and, eventually, force him to become a test subject for a mysterious drug known as Venom, which had killed all other subjects. It nearly kills him at first, but he survives and finds its effects enhance his physical strength, although he needs to take it every 12 hours (via a system of cables pumped directly into his brain) or he would suffer debilitating side-effects.

The Man who broke the Bat
Years later, Bane escapes Peña Duro, along with several accomplices (his friends Trogg, Zombie and Bird, all of whom are named after 1960s rock bands: The Troggs, The Zombies, and The Byrds, and were designed to mimic three of Doc Savage's assistants Monk, Ham, and Renny). His ambition turns to destroying Batman, whom he had heard tales of while serving his sentence. He is fascinated with Gotham City as, like the prison, it is a place where fear ruled: in this case, fear of Batman. Bane is convinced that the demonic bat that haunted his dreams since childhood is a representation of the Batman.

Aware that a direct assault on Batman would be foolish, Bane destroys the walls of Arkham Asylum, allowing its deranged inmates (including the Joker, the Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter, The Ventriloquist, Firefly, Cavalier and Victor Zsasz) to escape into Gotham City, where Batman spends three months rounding them up. Running himself to exhaustion, Batman returns to Wayne Manor, where Bane awaits him. He fights Batman in the Batcave, defeats him, and delivers the coup de grâce: he breaks Batman's back and leaves him paraplegic, thereby having been the only man to have "Broken the Bat".

Downfall
While Bane establishes himself as ruler of Gotham's criminal underworld, Bruce Wayne passes the mantle of Batman to Jean-Paul Valley, also known as Azrael. As Batman, Jean-Paul grows increasingly violent, allowing the villain Abattoir to fall to his death. Jean-Paul also refuses to recognize Robin as his partner. Utilizing a sophisticated combat suit in place of the traditional Batman uniform, he fights and defeats Bane at the end of the "Knightfall" arc, severing the tubes that pump the Venom into Bane's bloodstream, causing severe withdrawal. Valley then gives the weakened Bane a vicious beating, leaving him alive but broken.

Legacy
Following the events of "Knightfall", Bane recovers from his Venom addiction while serving time in prison, as seen in Vengeance of Bane II: The Redemption (1995). He eventually escapes from prison and returns to Gotham, where he fights alongside Batman to take out a criminal ring that is distributing a Venom derivative to street-level thugs. Following a victory over the criminals, Bane proclaims that he is "innocent" of his past crimes and urges Batman to stop hunting him. He then leaves Gotham (without fighting Batman) to begin a search for his father.

Bane's search brings him back to Santa Prisca (shown in the Bane of the Demon miniseries published in 1998). In search of leads, Bane questions the Jesuit priest who had taught him while he was in Peña Duro. The priest explains that there were four men who could possibly have been his father: a Santa Priscan revolutionary, an American doctor, an English mercenary, and a Swiss banker. While searching for the Swiss in Rome, Bane encounters Ra's al Ghul's daughter Talia al Ghul. Talia introduces Bane to her father, and eventually Bane impresses Ra's so much that he chooses Bane as his heir (an "honor" he had previously imparted on Batman).

Ra's al Ghul and Bane then launch a plague attack on Gotham in the "Legacy" storyline. Bruce Wayne, again costumed as Batman, gets his rematch with Bane in Detective Comics #701 (September 1996) and finally defeats him in single combat. Since then, whenever Batman and Bane square off in battle, their fights usually end in a draw.

Following the "Legacy" storyline, Bane appears in a one-shot publication called Batman: Bane (1997) and fights Azrael in the "Angel and the Bane" storyline in "Azrael" #36-40 (December 1997 - April 1998). He then surfaces in the story arc "No Man's Land", serving as an enforcer for Lex Luthor. Following a fallout with Ra's al Ghul, Bane later embarks on a campaign to destroy Lazarus Pits around the world, and in the process, encounters Black Canary in Birds of Prey #26 (February 2001).

Veritas Liberat
According to the Jesuit priest that Bane speaks with in "Bane of the Demon" #1, there is a possibility that Bane's biological father is an American doctor. In researching this issue, Bane comes to the conclusion that he and Batman share Dr. Thomas Wayne as their biological father, with Dr. Wayne having apparently become close to Bane's mother during his time in Santa Prisca. Bane alerts Batman to this possibility, and during the time that the DNA tests are being performed, stays at Wayne Manor and fights alongside Batman on the streets of Gotham in the "Tabula Rasa" storyline (Gotham Knights #33-36, November 2002 - February 2003). Ultimately, it is revealed that Dr. Wayne is not Bane's father, and Bane leaves Gotham peacefully (and with Batman's blessing and financial backing) to pursue leads in the snowy mountains of Kanchenjunga.

Bane eventually finds his father, the unscrupulous King Snake, in the "Veritas Liberat" storyline (Gotham Knights #47-49, January - March 2004). Bane, with Batman looking on, helps foil King Snake's plans to unleash a powerful weapon upon the world. Bane saves Batman from being shot by King Snake, but is mortally wounded in the process. Batman then saves Bane by bathing him in a Lazarus Pit, and leaves him with a clean slate and a new opportunity at life.

Infinite Crisis & One Year Later
In Infinite Crisis #7, Bane is shown fighting alongside the villains during the Battle of Metropolis. During the battle, he breaks the back of the hero Judomaster, killing him. No reason was given for his actions in #7, though in Infinite Crisis's collected edition, one of the many changes made to the original series was Bane saying "I finally know who I am. I am Bane. I break people." while breaking Judomaster's back.

Bane resurfaces in the One Year Later continuity in JSA Classified #17-18 searching for the Hourmen (Rex and Rick Tyler), asking them for help. To win their trust, he tells them how, prior to the Battle of Metropolis, he returned to his homeland to put an end to the drug lords' government, in the process discovering that a new, more addicting strain of Venom had been created. In his furious carelessness to wipe out the drug trade, he was captured, and reimplanted with the cranial tubes, hooked to the new Venom, but now unable to shake off his addiction without dying from the withdrawal. Bane was forced to work as an enforcer for the drug cartel, unable to escape. Believing that Bane sought Rex Tyler's expertise in chemistry, Rick lets him approach his father, only to discover that the story is a ruse. Bane, who had never truly been addicted to Venom, had in fact wiped out the drug lords, and destroyed every research note on Venom. He discovered in the process both strains of Venom derived from Rex Tyler's early research on Miraclo. He discovers from the Tylers that no written notes exist of Rex's work, captures Rex and steals Rick's equipment, planning to kill Rex and force Rick to take the last of the new Venom, living forever as an addict. Rick and Rex eventually subdue Bane, burying the mercenary in the rubble of the very same Santa Priscan penitentiary where his story began.

Eventually Bane resurfaces in Santa Prisca, leading the country to democratic elections. Upon discovering that the elections were rigged by Computron, he uses his influence to enforce martial law, plunging the country into a civil war. Computron offers information to Checkmate on who ordered him to rig the elections in exchange for their help in escaping the country. Fire and Judomaster's son, Thomas Jagger, are sent on the mission, with Jagger debating whether or not to seek revenge for his father's murder. He fights Bane in order to allow Fire to escape, defeating him easily, but chooses not to kill him.

As appearing in Outsiders #50, Bane has joined the Suicide Squad. He appears once more to be wearing the tubing system to apply Venom- whether he has returned to the drug is unknown.

In Salvation Run #2, Bane was tricked by his fellow squad members, and sent to the prison planet. In Salvation Run #3 Bane remains with Lex Luthor's faction after Joker's faction rebells against Luthor's leadership.

Batman: The Animated Series
Bane has appeared as a villain on Batman: The Animated Series and its spin-offs (voiced by Henry Silva in all appearances but the direct-to-video Mystery of the Batwoman, in which he was voiced by Hector Elizondo). In these depictions, Bane never achieves what his comics counterpart does: the defeat of Batman. The producers were reluctant to utilize him (along with Doomsday in the Superman Animated Series) because they felt that their comics incarnations were both too gimmicky.

Bane first appears in Batman: The Animated Series as a muscular assassin hired by the mobster Rupert Thorne to eliminate Batman, and in turn by Thorne's moll to eliminate Thorne afterward. Bane fights Batman onboard the boat where Robin is kidnapped and bound, and nearly defeats him; before Bane can break Batman's back, however, Batman thrusts a crumpled batarang into the controls that inject Bane with venom. This causes a rapid and uncontrollable feed of venom into Bane's body. His muscles began to grow larger and larger in an amazing speed. It's until Batman pulls out the venom injection tube, stopping a fatal overdose of the drug, but leaving Bane thoroughly beaten.

Bane appears in two episodes of The New Batman/Superman Adventures. In the first one, "Knight Time", Bruce Wayne is brainwashed by Brainiac, and in order to find him, Robin teams up with Superman. To prevent anyone from determining Batman's secret identity by seeing the connection between the simultaneous disappearance of Bruce Wayne and Batman, Superman dresses in Batman's suit and impersonates his voice. During the episode, they ambush a meeting between Bane, Mad Hatter, and The Riddler. Bane attacks "Batman", shocked and surprised that he can't hurt him at all. Superman smiles and beats him into unconsciousness.

The second episode, "Over the Edge", chronicles a dream story in which Batgirl is killed by the Scarecrow. Barbara's father, Commissioner James Gordon, lashes out at Batman in grief, starting a war between the vigilante and the police. Gordon even goes to the lengths of contracting Bane to capture Batman. Bane restructures the deal once he is freed, preferring to kill Batman rather than capture him. After a long, brutal fight, Bane dies when Batman electrocutes him by tying his Venom tube to a broken Bat-Signal - but with his last ounce of strength, he rolls it at both Batman and Gordon, knocking them both off the building before Batgirl wakes up.

Bane later appears in the animated movie Mystery of the Batwoman in which The Penguin hires him as an enforcer during an arms deal. Although Rupert Thorne appears as one of Penguin's partners in this movie, there is no reference to their previous meeting. At the end of the movie, Bane falls to his apparent death into a pit of fire after a fight with Batman, although his appearance in Batman Beyond makes it clear that he survived the fall.

Batman Beyond
Bane reappears in the Batman Beyond episode "The Winning Edge", which is set 40 years later. The effects of long-term Venom use appear to have taken their toll; his body and mind ravaged, he sits in a vegetative stupor with only constant injections of the drug keeping him alive. Bane's caretaker sells Venom as a performance enhancer/recreational drug used by teenagers in the form of patches known as "slappers." The caretaker later enters a catatonic state from an overdose of Venom during a fight with Terry McGinnis, Bruce Wayne's successor as Batman. McGinnis hits a box of the slappers, which fall on the caretaker and sticks to his body, pumping him with even greater amounts until he collapses.

Batman and Robin (1997)
In the 1997 movie Batman & Robin, Bane was portrayed by the late wrestler Jeep Swenson. Unlike his comics counterpart, this incarnation has a real name, Antonio Diego. He is again a convict, but this time he is turned into Bane by Dr. Jason Woodrue, who pumps his body with a recipe of steroids and venom, by drilling three holes into Antonio's skull, and interconnecting them with hoses, feeding into a leather mask. At the climax of the scene, Antonio can be heard screaming loudly through the mask, as he begins to change and grows into his sagging costume, and becomes what Woodrow names as Bane.

Rather than being the devious, intelligent villain of the comics, this version is an inarticulate thug who serves as the lackey of Poison Ivy, one of the main villains of the film. Bane is barely even capable of speech and uses growls, roars, and snarls for most of his communication. He retains the comics version's inhuman strength, easily beating up several thugs, policemen and even holding his own against Batman and Robin in hand-to-hand combat.

In the film's climax, Robin and Batgirl kick out Bane's venom tube as their monstrous assailant attempts to strangle them. As the Venom leaves his body, he shrinks back to his original size. Like the two other main villains in the film, he does not die. Although both Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze are arrested in the end, Bane's ultimate fate is not shown at the end of the film.

The Batman
In The Batman, Bane appears as a hitman and professional thief voiced by Joaquim de Almeida ("Traction") and Ron Perlman ("Team Penguin"). In this rendition, he is even more monstrous in size and strength, and injures Batman in the first encounter. To defeat him, Batman uses the Bat-Bot, a prototype robot.

Bane's steroid injection unit is a system of tubes which stretch around his body, activated by a dial on his hand. However, the steroid venom and his tubing system is perhaps a weakness, since on several occasions he is defeated when they are electrocuted. In the episode "Traction", Batman rams an exposed electrical wire into Bane's Venom applier. After the resulting electrocution, Bane collapses under the strain. In "Team Penguin", Batman's electrocution of his tubes causes a chain reaction which shocks him senseless. He later gets an invitation to join this version's Injustice Gang, but is taken down by Batman and Robin before considering the offer.

He later made minor appearances in the fourth season of the show, in the episodes Rumors and The Joining, Part 2.

He also appeared in the season five episode The Batman/Superman Story, Part 1, as one of the Supervillains hired by Black Mask to attack Superman.

Video games
Bane's first video game appearance is in the video game adaptation of Batman and Robin. Bane also appears in Batman: Chaos in Gotham and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. In the latter game, Bane appears in the Batcave and battles Batman. Rise of Sin Tzu also features Hector Elizondo's first time voicing Bane, as it was released a month before Mystery of the Batwoman. Also in Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, Bane may do a similar move to the hero that he did when he broke Batman's back.

Toys
Kenner released different versions of Bane for each of its Batman The Animated Series, Batman & Robin The Movie, and Legends Of The Dark Knight action figure lines.

D.C. Direct has released two Bane figures. One as the character appeared in the Batman "Knightfall" comic series as well as in the "Secret Files & Origins" series. Each came packaged with a figure stand specific to that particular series, with no other accessories.

Mattel has included two versions of Bane in their D.C. Superheroes line of action figures. Both versions share the same mold and only vary in paint applications. The first version is set apart by black pants while the second (2007) version has pants decorated with a camouflage pattern. Both versions of this figure came with a small "Osito" accessory, although many of the first version seem to have been shipped to stores without.

In 2007, LEGO released a Bane mini-figure in a Bat-Tank building set, alongside a Riddler mini-figure.

This depiction of the character was one of many aspects of the film which received harsh criticism from fans and critics alike.