Is Bane still relevant?

Darthkush

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I was rereading my old Knightfall trades the other day when I started thinking about how Bane has become kind of an crappy villain. He started off as a huge threat to Batman and even defeated him but it seemed like after Knightfall, it was an continous slide into irrelavance(sp?).

I think it really hit home for me when I saw some ad for an suicide squad comic where Bane had up some sign that said something like Will rob for money(or something like that. I dont' remember exactly what it said. Anybody else see it?)

Do we still need Bane as an villain? Would it have been better if he had died at the end of Knightfall? I think they should've either killed him or just bring him out every once in an blue moon as an mastermind level threat not some silly hired goon.
 
Yeah it's too bad about him. I wouldn't mind seeing him in a movie one day. One of Batman's greatest one hit wonders.
 
Bane has the potential to be the biggest comeback villain ever. I think DC knew they screwed up with him, so instead of fixing it, they came up with Hush. :o
 
Bane frequents the Gimmick Bar, along with his pal Doomsday
 
Bane has alot of potential, all it takes is one good story.
 
I always thought he was overrated. He really sort of well...dissapointed after all the great things I heard about Knightfall.
 
[A];16614445 said:
Bane frequents the Gimmick Bar, along with his pal Doomsday

Doomsday is in an similar but even worse boat. At least Bane is an genius thus enabling an whole bunch of different story possibilities if written carefully. Doomsday was just an monstrous brute that killed Superman. After he did that, there was nowhere else to go but down. Making him intelligent after the fact is forced and without intelligence, he's got nothing else going on.

I went to wikipedia after posting this topic and after Knightfall, Bane did an whole lot of well...b.s. Probably the most interesting thing he did was be chosen as Ra's Al Ghul's heir(for an bit). Other than that it's an mishmash of stupid thug for hire junk combined with searching for Bane's father(as if anybody cared). The worst part is this neverending going back to the well of the Venom. He STILL has an problem with that? That entire aspect of his character should've been dropped after Jean Paul defeated him in my opinion. The constant resurgence of that when he's around is tired and old. He kicked the "habit" he had about it and then he's recently been seen with the stupid tubes in his head again. It makes no sense for this character to have been portrayed as such an criminal genius for his first couple of years and then be just an boring, hired goon now.

Even marvel's Venom has had more character development and he's just as much as an 90's "gimmick" character as BAne and Doomsday were.
 
I believe he is still relevant. He's no longer the criminal mastermind who broke the bat, but his involvement in the Secret Six is great. It may not be a big-selling title, but nevertheless it's a great book, and it wouldn't be as good without him. Gail Simone has done a top job in redefining his character.
 
Any doubt about Bane's value as a character is obliterated by Secret Six.
 
I think Bane makes his glorious comeback with AA. He plays a big part in the game, which is awesome as a Bane fan.
 
I think Batman Returns and LEGO Batman after that, turned MOST Comic Book Batman Villains into gimmicky merchandising.
 
I think Batman Returns and LEGO Batman after that, turned MOST Comic Book Batman Villains into gimmicky merchandising.

I totally ran out to pusrchase my "Official" Batman Returns Penguin green mouth ooze, the kids love it.
 
I know this is an old post, but I'm quoting it as if it's still relevent for lack of anything better to do.
Doomsday is in an similar but even worse boat. At least Bane is an genius thus enabling an whole bunch of different story possibilities if written carefully. Doomsday was just an monstrous brute that killed Superman. After he did that, there was nowhere else to go but down. Making him intelligent after the fact is forced and without intelligence, he's got nothing else going on.

I went to wikipedia after posting this topic and after Knightfall, Bane did an whole lot of well...b.s. Probably the most interesting thing he did was be chosen as Ra's Al Ghul's heir(for an bit). Other than that it's an mishmash of stupid thug for hire junk combined with searching for Bane's father(as if anybody cared). The worst part is this neverending going back to the well of the Venom. He STILL has an problem with that? That entire aspect of his character should've been dropped after Jean Paul defeated him in my opinion. The constant resurgence of that when he's around is tired and old. He kicked the "habit" he had about it and then he's recently been seen with the stupid tubes in his head again. It makes no sense for this character to have been portrayed as such an criminal genius for his first couple of years and then be just an boring, hired goon now.
No, he doesn't really have a problem with venom any longer. Other than very recently in Secret Six, where they've brought it up, the venom gimmick was ditched a long time ago. Artists just drew him with the tubes still in his head in a few recent appearances because, like most people who haven't followed the character through his stories, they just went with his most well known look and drew it on the page regardless of whether it violated continuity or not. Secret Six tried to explain that inconsistency as Bane being a junky who carries his old drug gear out of habit or nostalgia. Yeah, it's kind of a flimsy excuse, but it does the job.
Even marvel's Venom has had more character development and he's just as much as an 90's "gimmick" character as BAne and Doomsday were.
Bane has had years and years of character development, where he's actually grown over the years from being a pure master villain into the man he is today who actually has a heart behind his gruff exterior. Yes, he still does plenty of horrible things, but he's grown a conscience, which is a development that is not at all hard to follow or believe. It's just a matter of people actually reading his stories and following that development of his character, rather than just getting the cliffnotes from Wikipedia. If nobody does that, of course they're going to assume that his only noteworthy action over the years was Knightfall.

Bane became a replacement heir to Ra's Al Ghul's empire after Batman turned him down, and then fell out with Ra's and decided to get back at him by destroying all of the Lazarus pits. That's definitely something of note, considering Ra's recognized Bane's intellect as being equal to the greatest he's ever seen, and then he was taking on the world's deadliest assassin ring by himself.

Successfully beating his addiction to venom and becoming more dangerous for it, Bane might not have superhuman strength anymore, but he's still a waaay stronger and skilled fighter than most guys around, and is now more focused and not at risk of going into sudden crippling withdrawal (which is how he was eventually beaten by AzBats). He also slaughtered almost all of Two-Face's gang single-handedly during No Man's Land, beat up Joker, and then gained control of his home country of Santa Prisca for a short while, and was suspected of possibly being Bruce Wayne's half-brother for a bit.

Aside from his vast collection of world-spanning accomplishments (not limited to just breaking one dude's back), Bane's very personality is pretty damn interesting to read. He's now developed into almost an anti-hero rather than an all-out villain, and is ironically the moral compass of the Secret Six currently. He's a success story of a man defeating his own personal demons and beating the world back in a huge way for all of the abuse he's taken, in the form of his beaten addiction and controlling the country that imprisoned him. If none of that is impressive or interesting, than I don't know what is.

The only qualm I have with some recent developments with his character is in Secret Six, quoted from that thread in the DC Comics forum:
[...]I'm a tad concerned about the hints being thrown around that Bane is going to go back on venom on at least a semi-regular basis. I was cool with him using the drug to save Scandal and all, since they showed him fighting off the addiction again later, but the way that the characters keep bringing it up in the book... eeehhhh.

I mean, it was Bane's mind that made him such a dangerous opponent in all of his past exploits, even Knightfall. The venom was just a gimmick that wasn't even necessary to his breaking of Batman. The way that he executed that plan, superhuman strength was not required at any time. It's a gimmick that is faaar overrated by just about everyone except Bane, who recognized that it clouded his thoughts and was actually a pretty large weakness that Jean Paul Valley used against him when he put Bane into a severe sudden withdrawal to defeat him. So why exactly does everyone seem to think that he needs to go back on venom again? He's a much more dangerous guy without that junk. :huh:
 
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He was relevant enough for me to...

...throw a goddamn Batmobile at him in Arkham Asylum!! Goddammit that was awesome!!
 
Bane is a very interesting character & when the time comes he will be in another awesome storyline, I'm sure.
 

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