Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Bane: One Bad Day #1
loose adaption in The Dark Knight Rises. However, this new one-shot reveals the truth about what that fateful night did to the classic Batman villain who was born in darkness.
In the new Bane: One Bad Day #1 from Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter, Bane has retired from super-villainy, having become a pro wrestler instead and "breaking the Bat" every night with Gotham-themed fights. However, that all changes when Bane is made aware that the highly addictive super-steroid known as Venom is back in production. Following the reveal that Bane and Batman had ed forces in the past to eradicate all traces of the compound, Bane wastes no time traveling to the facility to finish the mission once and for all. Killing Venom's creator Dr. Randolph Porter yet barely escaping with his life, Bane ends up in the hospital where he's either met by the real Batman or a vision of the Dark Knight (it's intentionally unclear). Either way, Bane confesses to Batman that breaking his spine was nothing compared to how that night broke Bane himself (and every night since).
Breaking Batman Was Bane's Best and Worst Day
Bane freely its that he'd never felt a similar level of accomplishment after breaking the man who at that time had never been broken before. As such, he requests to face Bruce again so that he might die fighting the Dark Knight as he always should have. However, Batman denies Bane, instead challenging the former villain to find a new purpose in life before he'll agree to fight him once more.
Batman's denial does imply that he's just a vision and did indeed die fighting Grudge during the mission to destroy all Venom as Bane believed. However, it doesn't ultimately matter seeing as Bane takes Batman's challenge to heart. Rather than dying or continuing to wrestle, Bane decides to train the young man who ed him on his mission to take down Porter and destroy the last remains of the Venom compound, effectively giving Bane his very own Robin.
At any rate, this new issue certainly changes how Batman fans see the classic moment where Bane breaks the Dark Knight's spine. The idea that it psychologically broke Bane far worse than any physical injury Batman could have received is game-changing. Although the one-shot seems to be outside the main DC timeline and continuity, the concept that Bane has already peaked as a Batman villain is quite compelling nevertheless. Bane: One Bad Day #1 is on sale now from DC Comics.
