Suggestions for Bane's next appearance in the Batman comics.

[halo82]

i honestly think bane should be turned into the Venom/Lobo style anti-hero at this point to freshen up the character.. i thought they were going in this way with the JSA classified appereance but they backed away from it...

bane would make a great anti-hero...
can you imagine Brave and bold having batman teaming with bane?

[BrikHed21]

i honestly think bane should be turned into the Venom/Lobo style anti-hero at this point to freshen up the character.. i thought they were going in this way with the JSA classified appereance but they backed away from it...

bane would make a great anti-hero...
can you imagine Brave and bold having batman teaming with bane?

Bane is back in Gotham Underground right now and I believe it was issue #5 he was completely his old self.

[DWEarhart]

i honestly think bane should be turned into the Venom/Lobo style anti-hero at this point to freshen up the character.. i thought they were going in this way with the JSA classified appereance but they backed away from it...

bane would make a great anti-hero...
can you imagine Brave and bold having batman teaming with bane?

Been done. Gotham Knights. Not bad at all, in my opinion, but I prefer the criminial.

[carabas]

Does he really need a next appearance?
Bane is a very limited character, and his character design must be one of the worst in comics.
And as far as characterisation, at thos point he really does not have any reason at all to go anywhere near Gotham. All of his issues with Batman seem to be resolved ages ago.

The best use of him since KnightFall was in Checkmate, where he had worked himself up to be the sort of legitimate ruler of Sanra Prisca.

[marshal99]

i honestly think bane should be turned into the Venom/Lobo style anti-hero at this point to freshen up the character.. i thought they were going in this way with the JSA classified appereance but they backed away from it...

bane would make a great anti-hero...
can you imagine Brave and bold having batman teaming with bane?

Been done. The old second Vengeance of Bane II one shot already had bats teaming with Bane , and they became sort of "brothers" in that *ugh* gotham knights storyline.

[Choppa]

Seriously just kill him off already. He was a plot device that served his purpose, there's nothing interesting to do with him, get rid of him and move on.

[carabas]

That may be an overstatement. Having given it some thought, I think there 's plenty of stories that can be told with Bane. Pretty much none of them involve Batman in any way at all though. Bane as a Batman villain is simply played out. Let him go bother Green Arrow or Manhunter for a change.

Also, he really needs to ditch that Mexican wrestler costume. It looked silly then, and it hasn't really gotten better over time.

[Chad]

I like how he was handled in Gotham Knights. Sure, the possibility of Bane as Batman's brother was silly, but I felt that the only reason the issue was even addressed in this title was because Chuck Dixon hinted at this notion in an earlier miniseries (the one with Ra's Al Ghul I think). Scott Beatty picked up on this idea not to champion it, but to write a story that would definitively show that in no way are Bruce Wayne and Bane related. Had he not, I shudder to think of some other writer coming along, picking up Dixon's idea, and confirming their same parentage.

I do however, think it was silly to have King Snake turn out to be Bane's dad.

Anyways, what I liked about Bane in Gotham Knights was that it was acknowledged that a member of Batman's Rogue Gallery he had served his purpose. Too stuborn to be reformed; too clever to ever be successfully imprisoned; honourable enough that he could be taken at his word; Batman seemed to accept a sort of truce with him. Yes, he deserved to be imprisoned and locked away for life, but that hadn't worked in the past and was in fact what caused him to become Bane in the first place. Having him operate as a free agent who would be given the space he desired so long as he limited his activities to destroying Lazarus pits and not killing, worked well. Batman had him on sort of an invisible leash.

Of course when he showed up next it was as written by Geoff Johns. "Rrraarggghhhh I'm Bane! Must Break Backs!!! Rraarrgghhhh!"

So, Beatty's version; yes. Johns' version; absolutely not.

[rwe1138]

That may be an overstatement. Having given it some thought, I think there 's plenty of stories that can be told with Bane. Pretty much none of them involve Batman in any way at all though. Bane as a Batman villain is simply played out. Let him go bother Green Arrow or Manhunter for a change.

I agree, and that's one of the reasons I really liked his story with Hourman. He needs to mix it up with some other DCU characters. GA and Manhunter are both good choices.

[Super Buddies Forever]

I really hate how Johns just up and abandoned all characterization Bane had achieved over the years simply to return him to his back-cracking ways.

I've always thought he should be the Krycek to Batman's Mulder. A gray character who will be on your side one moment and will stab you in the back the next. He's one of the most intriguing Bat-villains simply because he's not crazy, nor is he necessarily evil. I like the idea that, after already breaking Batman, he has nothing left to prove there.

[BrikHed21]

Seriously just kill him off already. He was a plot device that served his purpose, there's nothing interesting to do with him, get rid of him and move on.

That would have been a great result of the whole Salvation Run idea - send all of the villains to a planet and as a result they thin the heard dramatically. Bane and Jason would have been good candidates to bite the bullet....

[earl]

I don't know if they have already did this in Azrael or some other title, but I would think that Bane could be someone that the Order of Saint Dumas might be interested with.

Considering Bane's place in the Bat mythos, I definitely would not just wipe him out as his back story has some interesting things that a creative writer could utilize. The costume can be fixed, heck Deadshot was an obscure Batman villain with a generic costume until Englehart and Rogers re-created him.

[nixon]

I've always thought he should be the Krycek to Batman's Mulder. A gray character who will be on your side one moment and will stab you in the back the next. He's one of the most intriguing Bat-villains simply because he's not crazy, nor is he necessarily evil. I like the idea that, after already breaking Batman, he has nothing left to prove there.

Great idea. And you mixed the X-Files & Batman together in one post, respect :)

[nepenthes]

I had a definite idea for how Bane should be evolved and I was happy to hear this idea had actually begun to present itself in the comics. It was a plotline with Bane taking down cartels in Santa Prisca and trying to stop cartel violence. I don't actually know where this story went but it's definitly the right path for the charcater, though I'd take it much MUCH further. There's potential for a very interesting long-term set-up that would further Banes parralells with Batman and elevate him to a major global force on par with Ra's Al Ghul. Unlike Ra's however Bane would have the best interests of humanity at heart; he's neither a villain nor a hero but definitly someone to be reckoned with.

Basically, Bane should be the self-proclaimed lord and dictator of Santa Prisca. He adjudicates over the various militia, political factions and cartels with an iron fist, however his primary intention is to limiti the violence and poverty that has eviscerated his homeland for so long. Of course he is no fool, he knows there will always be corruption, violence, treachery and oppression wherever humanity exists, but he also knows he at least he can limit it by being the guy calling the shots. If Bane sees the world as a prison, he does not wish ordinary, innocent, hardworking folk to suffer under it' barbaric and senseless laws of the jungle. Bane paid for his fathers sins by being raised in a prison. This is what motivates him to improve the lives of others who suffer through no fault of their own. He's what Batman would be if Bruce actually had the balls or the inclination to take Gotham by the throat and impose a total authority.

Of course, Bane being Bane he still loves power for powers sake, but his benevolence, a sense of pragmatic humanity and his codes of honour and morality seperate him from your usual Escobar breed of warlord. He has a standing truce with Bruce Wayne, however this is tested when Batman inadvertantly tips the Santa Prisca economy by derailing smuggling operations that span the globe to Gotham City (oooh, globalisation, see?).

From here Bane decides he must expand his grip beyond Santa Prisca. The world is too small for one nation to control its own destiny . Bane seizes control of all adjoining black markets and underground organisations outside of Santa Prisca and the nation becomes the defacto nerve-center of the entire South American continent, with Bane at its helm. Half of Washington crap their pants! Unlike the other rogues with their pathological gimmicks and shortsighted capers Bane actually has a nation of people under his care and an array of violent and determined factions to deal with. Batman only has one little city. You can see why Bane would continue to regard Batman with amusement and scorn.