The Dark Knight Rises ~ Introducing: BANE

"When Gotham is in ashes, you will have my permission to die." - Bane

Character: Bane

Real Name: Unknown

Portrayed By: Tom Hardy

Characteristics: Gender - Male, Hair - None, Eyes - Brown

Publisher: DC Comics

Created By: Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Graham Nolan

Appeareances In Movie: Batman & Robin, The Dark Knight Rises

About Bane

Bane is a fictional character who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character's origin was in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (January 1993), and was created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan. Bane has been one of Batman's more physically and intellectually powerful foes. A virtually unstoppable juggernaut, he is best known for breaking Batman's back in the "Knightfall" story arc. IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Bane as #34.

Bane was portrayed by Robert Swenson in Batman & Robin, directed by Joel Schumacher. Tom Hardy played Bane in the finale of the Christopher Nolan Batman film trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. Henry Silva voiced the character in Batman: The Animated Series.

Bane's Biography

Bane's origin story is established in the story "Vengeance of Bane". He was born in the fictional Caribbean Republic of Santa Prisca, in a prison called Peña Dura ("Hard Rock"). His father Edmund Dorrance had been a revolutionary and had escaped Santa Prisca's court system. The corrupt government, however, decreed that his young son would serve out the man's life sentence, and thus Bane's childhood and early adult life were spent in the amoral penitentiary environment.

Though imprisoned, his natural abilities allowed him to develop extraordinary skills within the prison's walls. He read as many books as he could get his hands on, built up his body in the prison's gym, and learned to fight in the merciless school of prison life. Despite his circumstances, he found teachers of various sorts during his incarceration, ranging from hardened convicts to an elderly Jesuit priest, under whose tutelage he apparently received a classical education. Bane murdered this priest upon his return to Santa Prisca years later. He committed 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 carried a teddy bear he calls Osito (Spanish for "little bear"), whom he considered his only friend. It is revealed that Osito has a hole in his back to hold a knife that Bane used against anyone who bullied him.

Bane ultimately established himself as the "king" of Peña Dura prison. The prison's controllers took note and eventually forced him to become a test subject for a mysterious drug known as Venom, which had killed all other subjects; the drug was administered by a doctor who bore a passing resemblance to another Batman foe, Hugo Strange. Later, in Vengeance of Bane II the very same doctor encountered Bane again in Gotham and it is confirmed that it is not Hugo Strange, who at that point in Batman continuity was a crazed psychologist and not a surgeon. The Peña Dura prison Venom experiment nearly killed Bane at first, but he survived and found that the drug vastly increases his physical strength, although he needs to take it every 12 hours (via a system of tubes pumped directly into his brain) or he will suffer debilitating side-effects.

He is fascinated with Gotham City because, like the prison, it is a place where fear rules—but in Gotham, it is the fear of Batman. Bane is convinced that the demonic bat that haunted his dreams since childhood is a representation of the Batman. Therefore, he also believes that fate has placed the two on a collision course. Aware that a direct assault on Batman would be foolish, Bane instead destroys the walls of Arkham Asylum -- allowing its deranged inmates (including the Joker, Two-Face, Mr Freeze, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter, the Ventriloquist, Firefly, Poison Ivy, Cornelius Stirk, Film Freak and Victor Zsasz) to escape into Gotham City. Consequently, Batman is forced to recapture the escapees, a mission that takes him three months. Having run himself to exhaustion in the process of completing this mission, Batman returns to Wayne Manor where Bane ambushes him (having previously determined his secret identity). Bane attacks Batman in the Batcave, defeats him, and delivers the final blow: breaking Batman's back, leaving him a paraplegic. Bane thus becomes the only man to have "Broken the Bat"

Power

Bane is highly intelligent; in Bane of the Demon, Ra's al Ghul says that Bane "has a mind equal to the greatest he has known." In prison, he taught himself various scientific disciplines equal to the level of understanding of leading experts in those fields.  He knows six active languages and at least two additional arcane and dead ones. Among these are Spanish, English, Urdu, Persian, and Latin.  The Bane of the Demon storyline reveals that he has a photographic memory. Within one year, he is able to deduce Batman's secret identity.

He is also highly devious and a superb strategist and tactician. In prison, Bane also invented his own form of calisthenics, meditation, and a unique fighting style. Usage of Venom enhances his physical abilities, including his strength, and healing process to superhuman levels. Although Bane had sworn off using Venom in Vengeance of Bane II in 1995, and his character is actually written as having kept that promise to himself, it is still not uncommon for artists to draw Bane as still wearing the tube leading from his old wrist device to the back of his head, as well as almost all media adaptions of the character show him actively using the Venom compound. Writer Gail Simone explained these lapses in the continuity of Bane's appearance in an issue of Secret Six, in which Deadshot remarked that Bane merely kept his old Venom equipment with him out of habit, even though he states that he would sooner die than use it again.

Ability

Peak human physical condition

Venom enhances his physical abilities to superhuman levels

Genius-level intellect

Photographic memory

Expert strategist, martial artist, and escapologist

Master of disguise

Batman & Robin

Bane appears in the live-action film Batman & Robin (1997). Unlike the DC comics, this incarnation of Bane has a real name, Antonio Diego (portrayed by Michael Reid MacKay), a skinny serial killer serving life in prison. A mad scientist, Dr. Jason Woodrue (John Glover) acquires him for an experiment to produce super-soldiers using "Venom" to sell to the highest bidder. Dr. Woodrue uses him as a test subject by injecting Venom into his body through tubes connected to his head transforming him into the muscular Bane (portrayed by Robert Swenson). Rather than being the devious, intelligent villain of the comics, this version is an inarticulate thug who serves as the bodyguard and assistant of Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman). Bane is barely even capable of speech and uses growls and roars for most of his communication. Despite this however, he is still muscular, wears a slight variation of his classic mask, and is still superhumanly strong; easily overpowering various thugs, cops, and holding his own against both Batman and Robin in hand-to-hand combat. Bane is defeated when Robin and Batgirl kick the Venom tube in the back of his head and disconnect it from the rest of his body, which changes him back to his regular self. This depiction of the character was one of many aspects of the film which received negative criticism from fans and critics alike.

The Dark Knight Rises

Bane is a terrorist that comes to Gotham with the intent of destroying it. He wears a mask that pumps gas into his system that makes him impervious to pain.

The character was chosen by Christopher Nolan because of his desire to see Batman tested on both a physical and mental level. Bane has been described as "a terrorist in both thought and action" and is "florid in his speech, the physicality of a gorilla".