Bane (DC Comics)

Bane is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan, the character first appeared in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (January 1993). He is regarded as one of Batman’s most enduring enemies, part of the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery. In his comic book appearances, Bane is an international criminal with a combination of brute strength and exceptional intelligence.

Born and raised in the Peña Duro prison on the Caribbean island of Santa Prisca, where he served a life sentence for his father King Snake's revolutionary activities, Bane becomes a test subject for the super-steroid known as "Venom." After escaping from the prison, Bane travels to Gotham City, where he defeats Batman and breaks the superhero's back. This event is commonly referred to as "Breaking the Bat," and Bane is often regarded as one of the few villains to have significantly challenged Batman both physically and mentally.

The character has been adapted in various media incarnations, portrayed in film by Robert Swenson in the 1997 film Batman & Robin, and by Tom Hardy in the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises. In television, Bane was portrayed by Shane West in the Fox series Gotham. Henry Silva, Héctor Elizondo, Danny Trejo, Fred Tatasciore, JB Blanc, and others have provided Bane's voice in animation and video games. IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Bane as #34.

Co-creator Graham Nolan spoke on the character's creation, stating, "Chuck came up with the idea of an evil Doc Savage… So when I had to design the character I started with Doc Savage… I figured, if he had a costume, what would he be exposed to, living where he was living? So I gravitated towards a Mexican Luchador, and that's how that look came up."

Bane is highly intelligent; with his intellect being recognized in the Bane of the Demon storyline, where Ra's al Ghul says that Bane "has a mind equal to the greatest he has known" (though he dismisses Bane's abilities as more like the cunning of an animal rather than the cultured, trained intellect of Batman). Bane's physical strength is sufficient for him to lift 15 tons.

While imprisoned, Bane taught himself various scientific disciplines, reaching an understanding equal with leading experts in those fields. He is fluent in ten active languages, including Spanish, English, French, German, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Persian, Dari, Urdu, and Latin, as well as at least four arcane or dead languages. The Bane of the Demon storyline reveals that he has an eidetic memory. Within one year, he is able to deduce Batman's secret identity.

Bane is also known for his strategic and tactical expertise. In prison, Bane also invented his own form of calisthenics, meditation, and combat techniques. In early stories written by Chuck Dixon, Bane is depicted as a calm, centered warrior drawing strength from meditation and the spiritual energy of the Peña Duro prison. Dixon imbued Bane with almost supernatural qualities, claiming that Bane triumphed in prison fights through these abilities, whereas his opponents were driven by rage and greed. This calmness allowed Bane to view time and space differently, multiple scenes of Vengeance of Bane explore this aspect when it explains that Bane's mastery of meditation techniques "made time and space playthings to him."

Bane's use of the Venom drug enhances his physical abilities to superhuman levels, including strength and accelerated healing. In most versions of the character, Bane requires a specialized tank to control the amount of Venom injected into his body. Though Bane had sworn off using Venom in Vengeance of Bane II (1995), this continuity has sometimes been depicted differently, with some adaptations showing Bane still wearing the Venom equipment. Writer Gail Simone addressed this inconsistency in Secret Six, explaining that Bane kept the device out of habit despite his vow never to use it again. On one occasion, he uses venom to save his comrade and daughter-figure, Scandal Savage.