Bane

You may also be looking for the episode "Bane"

"I am invincible! I AM BANE!"^[1]

Bane was a chemically-boosted assassin, once hired by Rupert Thorne to kill Batman.

History

The man later known as Bane was an inmate of Pena Duro, a Cuban prison meant to contain the hardest, most dangerous convicts. He was chosen as a test subject for "Project Gilgamesh", a government project to create super-soldiers with a new "super-steroid", Venom. The experiment was too successful—Bane escaped Cuba, stealing the formula for Venom with him, and presumably kills everyone related to the project, as Batman states Bane is the only one who knows how to manufacture Venom. He then hired out his services as a freelance assassin, eventually building his reputation to the point where he could demand five million dollars per job.^[1]

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Bane in his first costume

Being hired by Rupert Thorne to eliminate Batman was the job Bane had been waiting for. In his career, Bane had become fascinated by Batman, and had studied him carefully in prison in the hope of one day defeating him. Bane had also schemed to supplant Thorne as head of organized crime in Gotham City with the help of Thorne's moll Candace, who took little convincing to shift her allegiance from Thorne to Bane. Bane went about getting Batman's attention by destroying the Batmobile with his bare hands, beating Killer Croc so severely that it left him in traction, and kidnapping Robin. In the end, Bane came close, but just as he was about to "break" Batman, the Dark Knight jammed a Batarang into his Venom distributor, giving him a dangerous overdose. A moment later, Batman pulled the Venom tube out of Bane's head before he suffered a fatal heart attack, then dragged him back to Thorne's office. There, he pulled off Bane's mask and taunted the crime boss to do better, along with revealing Candace's treachery.^[1]

Bane later returned to Gotham City with a new, enhanced form of Venom. During Batman's unexplained absence from Gotham, Bane proposed an alliance with the Riddler and the Mad Hatter to rule the city, but this scheme was foiled by Superman, who had temporarily taken on Batman's costume. Even though Bane was stronger than ever, he was only barely a match for Superman, until he pushed the Man of Steel too far and took a vicious beating from him.^[2]

Under the influence of the Scarecrow's fear toxin, Barbara Gordon had a nightmare in which she was killed, and her father James Gordon, went mad with grief upon learning of her alter ego. Gordon blamed Batman for Barbara's death and launched a massive yet unsuccessful manhunt for the Caped Crusader. Desperate to see Batman brought to justice, Gordon cut a deal to release Bane from Stonegate Penitentiary in exchange for Batman's capture. In the final moments of the hallucination, Bane double-crossed Gordon and flung the Bat-signal at him and Batman, knocking them off of the roof of GPD headquarters before seemingly dying himself.^[3]

Unlike many other of Batman's enemies, Bane had no diagnosed mental problems, and so was usually incarcerated in Stonegate instead of Arkham Asylum.^[3]

Still later, Bane was hired by the Penguin and Rupert Thorne to help protect an arms deal they had arranged with the Kaznian military. He went up against Batman and the new vigilante Batwoman. The fight ended aboard a burning cruise liner, where a heavily wounded Batman managed to cut Bane's venom pump and throw him off board.^[4]

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Bane in his later years.

Decades later, after Bruce had retired and Terry McGinnis had become Batman, Bane's constant use of Venom had degraded his body and transformed him into a wheelchair-bound invalid, barely able to move and needing constant infusions of Venom just to stay alive. However, Bane became so weak that he had to trust an assistant, Jackson Chappell with the secret formula of Venom to supply and administer his Venom dependency. Soon Bane became a shadow of his former self. Chapell decided to cash in by turning Venom into easy-to use "slappers". The new Batman stopped Chapell, but during the adventure, Bruce paid Bane the tribute of telling his protege that Bane was a "formidable opponent". Bane was also indirectly and unintentionally responsible for the creation and production of Slappers, as his earlier revelation of the formula to Chappell resulted in the latter, an inwardly-corrupt man, deciding to make money on the side by selling the slappers and increasing the costs.^[5]

Powers and abilities

Bane was an Olympic-level athlete with immense strength, able to punch through a solid brick wall with little trouble even when not infused with Venom. When the Venom was injected into his brain (from a dispenser usually mounted on his arm, and fed through tubes connected to his mask), he achieved superhuman strength and endurance (although he was no match for Superman and was defeated by him).^[1]^[2]

However, the Venom could be dangerous when used in excess; during their first encounter, Batman defeated Bane by triggering an overdose of the drug into Bane's head, stopping the flow just before Bane literally burst.^[1]

Bane was also highly intelligent, with a talent for planning and careful study of his target.^[1]

Background information

Bane is one of Batman's most notorious foes from the DC Comics, having achieved what none of his other foes ever did: he defeated Batman in combat, beating him into submission and breaking his back. The climax of the episode "Bane" of Batman: The Animated Series pays tribute to this scene, when Bane demands that Batman plead for mercy, and then threatens to break him, and Croc's words that Bane will snap Batman in two are likely an allusion as well.

Bane is also one of Batman's most intelligent foes, having read extensively while in prison until he developed a genius-level intellect, and having a master's command of strategy and tactics. Rather than attack Batman directly, he engineered a mass breakout from Arkham Asylum, waiting until Batman exhausted himself rounding up the other escapees and could be easily beaten. He also discovered Batman's secret identity, after observing Bruce Wayne at a fundraiser and seeing the similarity of movement.

There is another reference to the original Knightfall storyline in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Knight Time": Confronted by Superman-disguised-as-Batman, Bane comments, "I feared you had gone forever, Batman. And that would have meant I'd never feel your spine crumble in my hands".

The producers were reluctant to use him in the series, feeling that he was a gimmick character. This may explain the infrequency of his appearances. He never made more than one appearance in any of the series he appeared in.