Supervillain Origins: Bane

Supervillain Origins: Bane

He is the supercharged wrestler known for having broken the bat. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we will explore the comic book origins of Bane.

As with most comic book characters, there are often re-imaginings and different versions to a character’s past. We have chosen to primarily follow the storyline, which unfolded in Batman Vengeance and Batman: Knightfall.

Bane was born in the fictional Caribbean Republic of Santa Priscia. There, his father had once been a revolutionary. Having fled at the time of Bane’s birth, the corrupt government made the newborn child carry out his father’s sentence in the hellish Prison of Pena Dura, otherwise known as Hard Rock.

Growing up in the cruel penitentiary, he was given the name “Bane” by the Warden, and quickly discovered that he had to develop extraordinary strength and skills in order to survive. Spending most of his time bodybuilding, several inmates taught him how to fight, and read the books provided to him.

Having committed his first murder at eight years old, his only true friend over the years remained a Teddy Bear that he used to conceal a knife.

Eventually establishing himself as the self-proclaimed king of the prison complex, he was volunteered to become a test subject for an experimental steroid called Venom.

While no one else had ever survived, Bane developed superhuman strength. However, the side effect was a dependence on receiving the drug every 12 hours through a system of tubes connected to his brain. Failing to receive his injection, he would fall victim to excruciating pain and become weakened.

Shortly after this initial exposure to the drug, Bane escaped Pena Dura with several accomplices with a supply of the drug.

Hearing tales of the dark knight, he became convinced that Batman was in fact the demonic bat that had haunted his dreams since childhood. Plotting to kill the dark knight, he made his way to Gotham, a place where fear rules the population; just like the home he used to know.

Bane realized that a direct attack on Batman would not end well, so he opted to destroy the walls of Arkham Asylum. Allowing its deranged inmates to escape, Batman became forced to spend three agonizing months rounding them up one by one.

Bane finally confronted Batman at Wayne Manor, having carefully used the time to deduce his identity. Tired and unable to defend himself, Bane broke Batman’s back, leaving him in a paraplegic state.

Having broken the Bat, Bane became the ruler of Gotham City’s criminal underworld. However, Batman’s replacement took on the brute, severing his Venom tubes, leading him into severe withdrawal.

While locked away in Blackgate Prison, Bane plotted another escape, this time to hunt down his father, while Bruce Wayne recovered and learned to walk again.

Appearing as a one-dimensional villain in the film Batman and Robin, Bane was later chosen for a much more faithful and mature film adaptation, appearing as the primary antagonist in 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”