The Dark Knight Rises Bane's place in the rogues gallery post-Rises

[Tacit Ronin]

Bane was terrible in AA and AC! Their only misstep.

 

[JDonaldD]

It seemed like with the New 52 DC had a great opportunity to make him a much more compelling villain but they haven't really jumped at that chance to integrate some stuff from TDKR into the comics world. Even the Arkham Games played up the dumb brute stuff.

I would like to see him redesigned a bit in the style of Hardy's Bane and some of his attributes like the revolutionary stuff thrown in there. Seems like a lot to explore but he's still at C list level.

 

[Snow Queen]

Hopefully he pops up in Detective Comics (they have probably the best current Batman writer, aside from Morrison if that's your taste) inspired by Hardy's design sometime.

 

[The Joker]

Bane was terrible in AA and AC! Their only misstep.

I'd swear Paul Dini has something against him.

 

[Anno_Domini]

Bane was huge, which was a huge mistake....and then he was dumb as ****. I swear, I hate the fact that you could trap Bane inside that storage area in AC and Bane just stood there like he was stuck.

 

[DACrowe]

Here something I was thinking about today but don't remember it being discussed to any great length - where Bane now stands in the the gallery of villains. There's no doubt pre-Rises Bane was at best a C-grade villain in the Batman universe, Knightfall was essentially his claim to fame but outside of that he never really hit any great heights again in 20 years of story telling. To add insult he was then lampooned in Batman and Robin as this brain dead mutant thug, destroying the credibility of the character to the wider audiences. So Bane languished as a C-level bad guy for a while in comics and animation until Nolan decided he was to be the villain in Rises. It came as a surprise to most of us, but the logic behind it made sense in that it gave Batman the physical threat he lacked in the series. On top of that it gave Nolan a chance to use a character that was reasonably unknown to the masses making him as close to an original villain as Nolan could get. So we get our first image which was a very different, and IMO, much better look for the character, a year later the film is released and whilst he never reached the same heights as the Joker it's a fair statement to say Bane still left a mark on the series regardless of how you view the movie. So the question is 9 months after the film came out - where is Bane's place in the Batman mythology rogues gallery now? He's been elevated, but I don't know if he's quite in the same league as Joker, Two-Face, Riddler, Catwoman etc still. What do you all think?

EDIT

Dovetail question: Should the comics/animation adapt what Nolan brought to the character?

Possibly because I only read the "major" Batman stories, the only Bane story (not counting the video game, B&R or TAS) that I know is Knightfall. So he probably ranks where he has always been since I first read some of Knightfall as a kid (and boy does it not play as well as an adult).

1. The Joker
2. Ra's Al Ghul
3. Two-Face
4. Catwoman
5. Bane
6. Harley Quinn
7. Mister Freeze
8. Poison Ivy
9. The Riddler
10. Scarecrow
11. Hush
12. Zsassz

So, he is strangely at the same level. Go figure that Nolan would end up using of all my top 5. I wish we could have seen Harley as well.

 

[DACrowe]

Ok here's a follow up question, how many people do you all know who are now familiar with Bane since TDKR?

On both follow-ups, belated I know, I can say I only knew him for Knightfall originally, hence my stronger opinion of him than some pre-TDKR.

For the future, I hope to see him get the mask he has from TDKR and a similar costume (though not necessarily identical) in the comics. I think Bane's biggest weakness in the books has been his boring look. The pro-wrestler get-up is why so many write him off as a C-lister with a gimmick and never realize he is quite a brilliant tactician in his own right. I hope Nolan has remindd comic writers that Bane can be a genius if written that way.

That and the mask change will do away with the wrestler jokes. My thoughts.

 

[OutRiddled]

In terms of popularity, I'd say Bane is right up there with Batman's main rogues now. Being the main villain in a blockbuster movie is bound to do that. He'll show up a lot more from now on.

 

[BatLobster]

I'd swear Paul Dini has something against him.

Yeah, from what I heard he was never too big a fan of the character. I think they were kind of pressured to use him in BTAS due to the popularity of Knightfall at the time. He did give him a pretty badass cameo in Over the Edge though.

In other news, Bane is going to be in the upcoming Talon #7. Looks like they've incorporated the armor look, but still no change with the mask. Here's the cover:

Spoiler

The panel then showed the new cover to "Talon" #7 where the gatefold cover reveals that the person who has defeated Talon at the Court of Owls' request is Bane. "It's going to blow your mind what happens with Bane," Snyder said. Tynion added that the story will spin out of his work on the backup for "Detective Comics" #19.

source http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44588

 

[JackWhite]

lol, he's still so overly muscular. Hopefully he's written well.

 

[The Joker]

Yeah, from what I heard he was never too big a fan of the character. I think they were kind of pressured to use him in BTAS due to the popularity of Knightfall at the time. He did give him a pretty badass cameo in Over the Edge though.

I know, but even that turned out to be just a dream lol.

 

[Snow Queen]

Yeah, from what I heard he was never too big a fan of the character. I think they were kind of pressured to use him in BTAS due to the popularity of Knightfall at the time. He did give him a pretty badass cameo in Over the Edge though.

In other news, Bane is going to be in the upcoming Talon #7. Looks like they've incorporated the armor look, but still no change with the mask. Here's the cover:

Spoiler

source http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44588

Oh, thank you. I'll need to pick that up this month, mostly because it spins off of Detective Comics 19. I've heard nothing but great things though so hopefully Tynion writes a great Bane.

 

[OutRiddled]

Possibly because I only read the "major" Batman stories, the only Bane story (not counting the video game, B&R or TAS) that I know is Knightfall. So he probably ranks where he has always been since I first read some of Knightfall as a kid (and boy does it not play as well as an adult).

1. The Joker
2. Ra's Al Ghul
3. Two-Face
4. Catwoman
5. Bane
6. Harley Quinn
7. Mister Freeze
8. Poison Ivy
9. The Riddler
10. Scarecrow
11. Hush
12. Zsassz

So, he is strangely at the same level. Go figure that Nolan would end up using of all my top 5. I wish we could have seen Harley as well.

I'd put him above Ra's Al Ghul in terms of popularity now. Ra's Al Ghul is not a very distinctive villain. If it weren't for Batman Begins, nobody would know about him except for the hardcore fans.

 

[AnneFan]

Bane was huge, which was a huge mistake....and then he was dumb as ****. I swear, I hate the fact that you could trap Bane inside that storage area in AC and Bane just stood there like he was stuck.

Indeed. Bane in that universe is terrible.

 

[Clerk]

Hah, I remember before TDKR came out, I was "Ugh, Bane? Seriously, Nolan? You follow up Joker with freakin Bane?" Arkham City pretty much fueled that fire for a while- just locking up Bane in a toy factory after a few second scuffle.

 

[BatmanGoesToRio]

Only the visual look. Bane's back story is fine the way it is. I don't think we need him with his mask welded to his face because he's in constant agony.

Agreed. I like Bane's mask in TDKR. Other than that his comic counterpart is much more interesting. So I wouldn't mind if they'd replace his (somewhat silly) luchador mask with something more TDKR style - but this mask feeding him with Venom, of course. And they should leave his back story at is.

 

[The Batman]

Bane has moved up a notch in terms of pop culture awareness, but to suggest he's on the level of the Big 4 (Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler) would be silly, IMO.

 

[Anno_Domini]

Penguin's on a higher level than Bane? I would never know.

 

[Clerk]

Walk up to a random person on the street, say "Penguin or Bane?" Chances are, they'd only know Penguin.

 

[BatLobster]

Ironically, Bane currently has Penguin beat in number of appearances in post-1989 live action films.

 

[The Joker]

Ironically, Bane currently has Penguin beat in number of appearances in post-1989 live action films.

So does Scarecrow over all the Batman villains save Catwoman

I think Bane fans would like to pretend the first appearance never happened lol.

Walk up to a random person on the street, say "Penguin or Bane?" Chances are, they'd only know Penguin.

Yeah, between Burgess Meredith and Danny DeVito, Penguin is definitely more iconic. He is in Batman's comic book world, too.

 

[Anno_Domini]

Wouldn't Tom Hardy be just as iconic in his role as Bane, though?

 

[The Joker]

Wouldn't Tom Hardy be just as iconic in his role as Bane, though?

Only time will tell in regards to any iconic status. The movie is not even a year old. Bane was not the most talked about element of TDKR. Hathaway's Catwoman got more praise and attention than him.

 

[BatLobster]

Only time will tell in regards to any iconic status. The movie is not even a year old. Bane was not the most talked about element of TDKR. Hathaway's Catwoman got more praise and attention than him.

Not according to our dear ol' friend OutRiddled, lol.

 

[The Joker]

Not according to our dear ol' friend OutRiddled, lol.

That guy lives in an alternate reality to ours