Fans remember how Batman suffered his biggest defeat at the hands of the super strong criminal Bane in 1990s Knightfall storyline. After putting Batman through a grueling gauntlet of nonstop crimefighting that left the Dark Knight physically, mentally, and emotionally drained, Bane finally confronted Bruce Wayne in his own mansion. Taking advantage of Batman’s exhaustion, Bane managed to shatter Bruce Wayne’s back, temporarily paralyzing him and putting the crimefighter out of commission for months.
Batman’s defeat was so iconic that the scene was reimagined for Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. This version saw an older Batman taken down by Tom Hardy’s Bane who gravely injured Bruce Wayne’s spine – only for the Dark Knight to rebuild his body and return to take Bane down in the film’s climax.
Most recently, Batman went up against Bane once more in the first issue of Batman: The Adventures Continue, the comic book continuation of the famous Batman: The Animated Series. Once more, Bane attempts to break the Bat – only to find that Batman’s learned a trick or two since their last encounter.
Batman vs. Bane: A New Round
In sharp contrast to Batman’s defeat in Knightfall, Batman’s latest encounter with Bane occurs very briefly in the prologue. As Batman patrols Gotham City in search of Bane, he finds the super strong mastermind waiting for him on the roof. Swooping down, Batman immediately takes the offensive, knocking Bane down with a single blow. A moment later, however, Bane regroups and lifts Batman above his head, screaming his iconic line, “I will break you!”
Before Bane can deliver his (literal) back breaking move, however, he suddenly staggers and falls to the ground – without Batman even needing to land another blow. Turns out, the World’s Greatest Detective prepared for this fight well in advance – by secretly hitting Bane with knock out drugs half an hour ago and then backing them up with sleeping darts for the main fight. Never one to take his chances in a fight, Batman silently promises to quadruple the dose for their next encounter.
Has Batman Been Watching HISHE Videos?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLyoog562x4
It’s an amusingly short fight for a villain who once literally broke Batman. However, it should be noted that this version of Bane never succeeded in breaking the Bat. Bane first made his animated appearance in Season 2, Episode 10 of Batman: The Animated Series, in a story simply titled “Bane.” At the episode’s climax, Bane manages to grab Batman and comes dangerously close to shattering his spine – but before he can, Batman sabotages the villain’s strength-enhancing Venom device, giving Bane a massive overdose and knocking him out.
Batman’s strategy for beating Bane in Batman: The Adventure Continues #1 is also surprisingly similar to one of the alternate endings the animated web series How It Should Have Ended proposed for The Dark Knight Rises. In the HISHE episode “How The Dark Knight Rises Should Have Ended,” the writers point out that Christian Bale’s Batman could have simply hit Bane with his sleeping agent-tipped batarangs like he did to several henchmen later in the movie. Although a single dart fails to knock out Bane, the HISHE Batman simply unloads dozens of darts on his enemy, putting Bane to sleep without requiring Batman to even come close.
Regardless, the brief fight serves to show the fundamental difference between Batman and Bane. While Bane frequently relies on brute strength and heavy-handed tactics to take down his opponents, Batman regularly employs more creative and subtle strategies in taking down his foes. Bane may have broken the Bat once – but Bruce Wayne can rarely be taken down the same way twice.