Batman #16 - "I Am Bane, Part One"

[laughing_tree]

"The thing with Bane is that he can defeat Batman. Unlike the Joker, unlike the Riddler, unlike Mr. Freeze, the evidence is that Bane has defeated Batman. I remember as a kid reading Bane breaking Batman’s back and throwing him off the building. I remember how shocking that was, and how everyone in my school talked about it. That was the one thing that owned the comic book conversation that year." -- Tom King

Comments

[mrstatham]

This. It's one of the reasons I tended to scoff at people declaring that Simone's use of the character as a comically stupid, socially inept would-be father to Scandal was great. It just didn't match up to what the character was, or should be. It was vaguely funny, sure, but not Bane.

But.. Yeah. I think the character is interesting when taken in directions away from Batman, and more into stuff like running Santa Prisca, as you suggest. Nudging the character more into political stuff, having him use his brain, that's pretty interesting. Having him perpetually around Batman, we know he's not going to be there long-term, and as an anti-Batman, he's not at interesting as some of them. And that's all he's going to be with stories like this. It was great the first time around - the novelisation of Knightfall is still awesome in terms of Dennis O'Neill condensing what makes Bane tick, but.. it's done. It's not interesting twenty-five years on.

[beeyo]

I think Bane is more interesting when he wears a jacket.

I'm not joking.

[caivu]

Simone's Bane wasn't stupid.

[mrstatham]

He was played for laughs and treated mostly like an idiotic, overbearing would-be father with no social skills. It wasn't Bane. But then.. Well, *Simone*; as long as people were squeeing over it or thinking *that was awesome* at the time I doubt she much cared. Besides, it's an opinion.

[caivu]

Where are you getting any of that from? That's not the Bane I read in Secret Six at all.

[strejdaking]

Wait, how is what they said above reason to dislike it?