Bane is like scarecrow where he has one iconic ability that gets in the way of a lot of his adaptations. He’s very strong so people often overlook his smarts and make him some form of dumb brute. Similar to how hard it is for writers to not write a scarecrow story not entirely about the protagonist’s own fears.
Another issue I see with bane in adaptations is that he relies a lot more heavily on venom to be an actual threat. He’s the same dude that was able to go toe to toe with killer croc without venom in knightfall
I think that’s why my favorite version of Bane is from Young Justice (not just because they got Danny Trejo to play him) but he actually stops using the venom at a point and shows his intellect early on like he starts talking to one of his henchmen in Spanish to prevent the hero’s from finding out his plan and uses his own way to throw off a telepath.
A great adaptation of Bane and was in Arkham Origins, Bane's not only a giant, being 7'5, and weighing over 1000+ pounds, but also extremely smart, able to find out Batman's identity just from their voices being similar, and then destroying the Batcave, nearly killing Alfred! And destroying it without even using Venom!
Not for nothing, but back in the days of the early Punk rock and Metal scene, it was common to wear a spiked collar and/or spiked wrists bands so the cops couldn't grab you. Bane wears similar gear for a similar reason, to make it harder for Batman to grab onto him.
@@DavidMartinez-ce3lpBro you're talking about a series in which the main character is a grown man running around in a bat costume complete with spandex tights and bat underwear.
I still keep thinking of Bane's fate in Batman Beyond. I thought it was tragic to see what he'd been reduced to. No dramatic return or compelling conclusion to his story. Just a man.
Yeah but it is effective since it shows how much of a toll the drug took on his body. Also since Bruce can see what Terry sees whilst in the batsuit he was also probably shocked as well and I like to think he managed to find someone to take care of him at the end since he is wealthy and he might have had the formula for making venom on his computer. At least that's my headcanon
Helps that, in case one watches the show in production order (which works better, considering the appearances of Cerestone to Big Time's arc and how Maxine Gibson evolves from a scrappy to a decent companion for Terry), he's also the very first villain of the old Rogues Gallery whom the new Batman first encounters.
Bane is one of the coolest Batman villains as he isn’t just some big dumb brute, he is a very very skilled fighter and is extremely intelligent basically only giving him one big weakness which is his addiction to the venom
Bane was always a favorite villain of mine, he had both brawn and brains, something I feel like a lot of adaptations tend to forget, leaving him as only the muscle. That, and his crazy upbringing for serving his father's sentence is, while obviously, a little over the top, is still interesting, as you said the political nature of why he was put in that situation adds depth to Bane. And I like lucha inspired characters like him and King from Tekken.
I remember reading this one comic titled Batman the Dark Knight where when he fought Bane said the Venom made him smarter. I eventually read Knightfall was like whoever wrote Batman the Dark Knight comic didn't know Bane. He's already smart. That comic just wasn't very good now that I think about it. I was just happy to read something about Batman😂 The girl in the Bunny costume was hit though.
I remember having hope that The Dark Knight Rises Bane would rectify all of it and make Bane the terrifyingly clever brawler he originally was... but we all know how that went. Now all we have is a combination of the Juiced Brute and the Silly Muffled Voice.
@@GenericProtagonist118 what really hurts him there was the last minute twist that he wasn't the big bad ad instead following the orders of someone else. That and the fact that he dies in a really sudden and anticlimactic way.
As a big fan of Lucha Libre, I really enjoyed this episode a lot. It was obvious that the creators did their homework (or someone was a fellow fan), and they threw in a lot of Easter Eggs for folks like me. The full-face mask with exposed nose and mouth is very traditional in lucha libre, and it's basically to help the wrestler breathe. Bane's mask design is fairly similar to old school luchador Blue Demon. The suit and mask combination is a big trope in lucha libre, and BTAS Bane plays the high-living lifestyle well. But the big hint is in the fights. There are all sorts of moves taken straight from lucha libre throughout the battle, from Mil Mascaras' diving crossbody to Hurracan Ramirez' signature Hurracanrana. At 5:23, for instance, we see Bane use a big swing to throw Batman against the boat railings (which inexplicably bend like the cables in a wrestling ring!), and then meet him with a standing clothesline when he bounces back.
@@weathersama604 Bane's my favorite Batman villain, and I love smart Bane, but I think even more important than Bane being smart is Bane being menacing. When he walks onto the screen, the audience should feel that he's a serious threat - a cut above the average villain. I think the Animated Series Bane achieves that.
My thoughts on Bane's second costume is that he'd gotten out of prison before "Over the Edge" and designed a new outfit (since he'd been unmasked before and felt that he could no longer wear his old one), which is why he wears it in Babs' nightmare.
Looking back with both Bane and the Riddler you can kind of tell based on how little they appear that the show runners didn’t want to use them. Bane, in my opinion is one of the few, if not only, times not following the comic took away from the character. Bane’s childhood and origin is part of what makes the character so compelling. But with the regulations in place there wasn’t much they could adapt from his comic book origin. I feel like this along with “Batman and Robin” and later “The Batman” animated show perpetuated the misconception that Bane is incapable of being physical threat without his venom. I feel like maybe if the DCAU Bane was explored in further episodes I would have different opinions. They could’ve expanded on his desire to rule Gotham and his addiction to venom. But they pretty much ignored him after that episode. I’m also not the biggest fan of having the mouth and eyes exposed. Makes him less intimidating. Still better than “The Batman” Bane. Who looked like a Ben 10 villain. MILES better than “Batman and Robin” Bane.
Batman The Brave and the Bold *also* misused Bane as a purely physical threat; I'm pretty sure that the only onscreen Bane that's even close to his comic counterpart is Tom Hardy's version. And yeah, his design in The Batman was heinous. There were some great redesigns, but that was not one of them.
Also, I'd like to clarify that Timm and Dini have admitted that they underused the Riddler because they just couldn't come up with good stories for him. I believe the term used was "Joker-lite".
@@nicholasfarrell5981Which is understandable, Riddler is done best when he's outsmarting the audience too but it's hard to do that while keeping people interested or making a coherent plot.
At least The Batman Bane had a personality, it was basic but still better than Brave in the Bold. Then you got Harley Quinn and a part of me kinda longs for the dumb brute from Batman and Robin. At least Young Justice showed him SOME respect
My favorite version to date is still the Mystery of the Batwoman. Not a super great movie or anything like that, but the ending fight scene still gives me chills. I'm mixed on The Batman design in that I can see both how it could work well and why it wasn't the best. I think Bane's biggest problem in the show was the nerfing though, which was also a problem for big muscle villains in BTAS and its follow up.
I had no idea the BTAS writers were against Bane being included; I always assumed the differences from the comics was a think-of-the-children censorship thing.
Well that and there was already a lot of story to tell along with Bane not really fitting the art deco style of the show but I thought they did it because why not
Well as indicated in a lot of other episodes, the accessibility of the shows compared to the comics have restrictions for a reason. It's not so much "think of the children" censorship because the TV producers think everyone's overly sensitive. it's because as you could randomly watch TV and see a show at any moment, rather than deliberately going out of your way to buy a comic, a TV show depicting elements that are harrowing would have a strong negative influence on the audience. I for one don't like the idea of him being a genocide victim yet still growing to be evil and spiteful. It feels really insensitive, like it's his fault he was born in a prison and the writers wanted to break him down as much as possible. BTAS made the right call in culling that out. Neither I, nor my parents would've liked the show if it tried to use suffering genocide as an excuse for villainy.
@@MarioMastar reasons are not always excuses. Every villain has their reasons, their motivations, but they don't often excuse their actions; hence they are villains in the first place. A sympathetic villain is still a villain and I'm glad not every villain is unsympathetic and irredeemably evil because that's unrealistic. World is full of terrible people who do and promote bad things yet have reasons (good or bad) to think they're doing good or are owed whatever they're trying to obtain/achieve.
Unfortunately, BtaS' Bane always felt lacking to me. It still feels to me that they took one look at him, wrote him off as a wrestler and probably didn't have a very high opinion of wrestling (though, this video points out they really just didn't have a high opinion of Bane). With how great Bane and the writing of BtaS are, Bane could have ROCKED a movie like Phantasm or Sub-Zero...Though, obviously not those specific movies, heh heh. I'm also aware that BtaS didn't get to choose when they made movies, but it would have been cool if WB had the foresight to say Bane needed a movie but still let Phantasm and Sub-Zero happen...a dream that makes me delusional enough to be on the opposite of Fear Toxin, heh heh.
Funnily enough Batman and Mr. Freeze: Subzero was originally written to be Bane movie before they switched the villain to Mr. Freeze halfway through production.
@Elfenlied8675309 No way, really!? Part of me is disappointed Bane almost had a shot but lost it, but the other part of me feels Sub-Zero is too good to lose and that continuing to do good work with Freeze was wiser than trying to fix Bane.
@@seantaylor424 I believe you can sort of see the left over elements from the Bane script, or parts of them. Like Freeze's base being a secluded oil rig in the middle of the ocean, doesn't really make sense for Freeze but in the context of it originally being a Bane movie it makes a lot more sense. The oil rig is very similar to the island prison Bane was born and raised inside of, so of course he would make it his base. I'm sure I could think of more if I had a fresh watch of the movie lol.
Actually there's a ton of nods to 'wrestling', just not amercian wrestling. A bunch of his, and batmans, fight moves are based on lucha libre during the episode. As well, banes outfit, and the suit mask combo, are all very directly tipped/inspired from it as well. As one comment mentions above, at one point batman is tossed into boatrailings, and the bend like a wrestling rings ropes so batman can bounce back and be clotheslined.
You know, even though the writers of this series were against the usage of Bane and ultimately didn't have him clash with Batman more than maybe twice outside of the tie-in comics (Bane, Mystery of the Batwoman), I think it's rather neat that Batman's opinion of him goes from "Is this the best you can do, Rupert?" in BTAS to "He was a worthy opponent." in Beyond.
He had a very calm and classy voice, while at the same time I could believe he was this hulking brute that could go all Street Fighter II on the Batmobile.
@@SerumLake Fun fact: Before BTAS, Henry Silva and John Vernon (the voice of Rupert Thorne) also co starred in the 1983 American-German exploitation film “Chained Heat”.
I don't think the creators were consciously aiming for "BDSM outfit" for Bane, design-wise, though it kinda looks that way. The goal for TNBA vs BTAS was simplify the artwork and to generally make the villains look a little more menacing. There's not a whole lot to say that's why he turned out the way he did, just that I don't require any better reason to explain it, which means I don't need to invent one. I mean it might be as you say that he was imagined that way out of some … yeah … but there's no more basis for that than anything else, and so I choose to stick with the simpler explanation. No need to invent one where some male writers chose to invent that a female lead in a children's show would "subconsciously choose to make it that way", with the full connotations of "her wanting it" (or being implied to) that suggests, even if years later a certain trash Twilight fanfic would be hastily wallpapered over and become enough of a bestseller to inspire sequels, a movie that could never be good, or anything else. I do like that some later incarnations of Bane such as Young Justice's have taken some effort to make him more than a roid raging butcher. Bane is nothing if not intelligent. Evil, sure, but intelligently evil. That makes him far more dangerous.
They simplified the character design so the different animation studios could be more consistent. Zoomers are prudes, so of course a video on yt is gonna make fun of bdsm if they can. and I think bdsm is gross, but to each their own I suppose
There need to be adaptations of Bane where beating him's not as easy as cutting the Venom tube. Or when he stops using it like after his first defeat in the comics. Less "he's hopelessly addicted to it" versions.
I think we do need a version that successfully combines the venom reliance with his intelligence. Bane is one of Batman's most intelligent villains with an incredible eidentic (photographic) memory and can speak several languages. Most versions ignore this in favour of making him a big brute only. The one time he's presented as smarter is for the Nolan movies but that version removed the venom aspect entirely and made him sound really doofy. What makes him scary is the fact he's strong AND smart so you can't easily just brute force a win nor try to outwit him as easily as some other villans. The venom aspect becomes a key flaw because for as smart and strong as he is, his addiction to it is crippling if not managed correctly.
And the screaming of Bane when he overdosed on Venom, kinda reminds me of Rambo from First Blood when they were about to dry-shave him and when he screams loudly as his PTSD kicked in from his experience in Vietnam when he was tortured by the troops as a POW.
As someone else pointed out, the spiked collar and wrists actually make sense. They make it harder, or downright dangerous, to grapple him. As for the mask redesign, your guess is as good as mine. I liked his old mask, and as far as I know, Lucha doesn't really allow for changing your mask. You ARE the mask, after all, so seeing him change his mask is baffling to say the least.
I remember watching the episode with Bane and being terrified when he captures Robin . Even in his fight with Batman he no-sells most of Batman's offence , to the point where Batman has to take a more tactical approach to combat - including using a well placed grabling gun to the chest as well as a well timed batarang to Bane's Venom feed. Then I listened to the audio version of Batman Knightfall and Bane became one of my favourite villains when I realised what his achievements were. As far as adapting characters from the comic books goes I wouldn't say Bane had the worst treatment in the animated series - granted yes he's watered down in so much as his achievements , but by the same token he's still a formidable threat in the animated series and is only narrowly defeated at the end of the episode . In an interview Graham Nolan ( one of the original creators of Bane )had said he really liked the animated iterations of the character - including Batman The Animated Series , he absolutely hates the Tom Hardy version . I will say this : for people who really weren't keen on the character , Alan Burnett and the rest of the team did at least work somewhere in the middle with the character and still made him formidable - even if it was reluctantly , the same could not be said about Hugo Strange.
Bane also appeared in Superman TAS where he teamed up with Mad Hatter and Riddler. Then there's Batman Beyond which actually gave the character a fair conclusion all things considered. :3
I'm surprised there's no mention of his fate in Batman Beyond. A lifetime of Venom abuse left him an emaciated shell on life support. He needs the drug to even keep his heart going now.
There are elements of the redesign I like. I think the way the made his figure and muscle looks much more imposing and I like the red eyes. But yea it’s hard to understand what they were thinking with the bdsm stuff
@@SerumLake you can see that in the ending of his first episode with how pathetic they make him look at the end. Which is a shame cause I like the characterization of this Bane for the most part
@@shorewallYeah, Scarecrow looked great, Killer Croc got upgraded too. The rest were....MEH (Except Harley and Harvey since they basically look the same). The one i'm conflicted about is Clayface since he didn't look bad but....he looks too "rocky" and not really clay-like.
I really liked the adaptation I found of Bane in No Man's Land (assuming I can trust the audio rendition I had to listen to as I can't read print); during the "interview" Mercy Graves has with him, we see her contempt for how much of a "brute in fine clothing" she thinks of him, while Bane displays great forethought in the ambush he sets up for Bats, none of which uses the blasted Venom tank. Just good ol' munitions and booby-traps. And the best part was when Joker is continually trying to draw out Bats from his exile to get help and confronts what he thinks is Bats near the end only to actually come face to face with Bane. After the whole incident, Bats visits Bane's "trailer" (can't recall where he set up in Lex's personal camp) and has probably the most civilized conversation I've ever seen between a "strongman" type and a masked vigilante regarding his presence. It's kinda fascinating in a very bizarre way, and the Luchador influences really makes sense to me now that Serum's mentioned it.
I can forgive the show for it's portrayal of Bane and certain other villains. Not everything is gonna be a home run, and even if the showrunners were on board with the "breaking of the bat," the show would have struggled to get that past the censors I think. That said, I love his luchadore presentation.
A great Batman villian must always be a darker version of him in some way. That's why Bane and The Joker are his biggest adversaries (or at least SHOULD be)
… Or, was Barbara was so sick that it sparked a brief but powerful moment of premonition upon Bane’s actual return? Lol, IDK - actually I didn’t even realize that continuity error until you pointed it out. Though it’s definitely more hilarious to think that she manifested his costume change into existence 😂
Honestly I still liked the episode. I love Henry Silva's performance as Bane and I wish the comic follow up to this episode was animated. It shows what happened to Bane and how he decided to make it up to Batman... By killing Thorne in front of Bruce XD
As a lucha libre fan I loved the tribute to El Santo and Blue Demon movies. When Bane appears in the three piece suit and mask, Most old wrestling fans fondly remember the days of Mr Wrestling #2 and Mils Mascaras. Even being brought in to Gotham to handle Batman...it's soo old school Wrestling. Still gushing
I got a better reason as to why Batgirl would have seen Bane in such an outfit. Checking in on him while he's locked up. Batman and robin walk down the others locked up and normally we see Two face, Harley, Joker, Poison Ivy in their cells some times in full costume. So what if Mad Hatter tried to do a favor to Bane in return for protection while jailed and made him an outfit, and Batgirl simply saw it on one of the check ins.
Even though Bane wasn't a character they were particularly fond of the idea of having in BTAS, despite that they still ended up including him and while they didn't do a terrible job by any means and Henry Silva was perfect casting for the character, at the end of the day he really was just a far cry from what he was in the comics in terms of lore and threat level and he barely ever appeared in the show. They also leaned a bit too much into the Luchador aesthetic of the character which I thought made him look a bit less intimidating. With Bane, while I wasn't really a fan of either of his designs in the shows I prefer his outfit from the neck down (minus the spikes) from TNBA but I think the mask looks a bit better in BTAS but I still don't think it looks great there either. In general I'm not a fan of Bane's mask having holes for his mouth and nose because Bane's actual mask from the comics is just so striking and iconic.
I recently learned the origin behind Bane's BTAS mask design and will have to share it one day. I'm thinking of doing a Short about it, seeing as it isn't a very long story.
@@SerumLake The only instances I remember actually liking Bane's mask with holes for his mouth was in the animated film Justice League Doom where the mask resembles a skull and has black lips and also in Arkham Origins where the mask looks a bit more handmade. Still though the original mask remains the superior one.
It's wild how Dini does some villains so well, and others so poorly. I love his Two-Face, and his is probably my favorite Clayface too. And he basically reinvented Mr. Freeze. But man, his Bane was such a waste. Didn't care for his Penguin, either.
@@SerumLake It *DIDN'T* only appear in her hallucination! It was also Bane's costume in a crossover episode where he got beat up by Superman. Obviously, Barbara was already familiar with Bane's new costume by that point through something that happened offscreen. Heck, even Tim Drake could recognize Bane without his mask on!
Not alot you can so with a masked wrestler whose gimmick is that he uses super steroids to muscle his way through Batman I guess. Honestly more henchman material than a master mind.
It is a little bit disappointing that across BTAS and even Superman the Animated Series where he makes an appearance, Bane only fought Batman one time.
Knightfall was one of the best batman stories. Azrael was a purposefully terrible batman, The writers wanted to show how great batman was, by showing how terrible he could be. Batman defeats Azrael without any gadgets too!
Of all the mega bat family crossovers from the 90s, I think I preferred No Man’s Land. But they were very different beasts! Have you read any of the more recent Azrael comics? The latest Sword of Azrael mini series was quite good.
Well the redesigns for the new Batman adventures were... Mixed, I think in a lot of cases the assumption weird to make is that they've always looked like that. They aren't in-universe redesigns to their outfits
I loved Batman the Animated series but how Bane was handled is my one issue with it. I loved Knightfall so I have a bit of a biase but still. I wouldn't have needed him to break Batman's back but i wished they did more with him and highlighted what made him such an interesting character. TAS didn't give him his guile or the interesting backstory that served to make him a dark reflection Batman.
By far my favorite bat villain. Thank you for your video it was great and informative. I never watched the season 3 episode and I did in middle of this video.
The first confrontation in the animated show I think would have happened in the comics. The only reason Bane beat Batman in the comic is because Bruce was completely exhausted and barely able to stand. In the show Batman is fresh and in peak health.
I agree, comic Bruce was in no condition to fight him in that state, if he was able to prepare as this one, the whole situation would've been way different.
9:30 ok but actually the idea of bane hearing about her nightmare down the grape vine somehow and going "fuck it i dont have a better idea" is very funny, even if probably too ridiculous.
I haven't watched the Animated Series, so I might be wrong, but it does feel a bit weird for Batman to just leave Bane to possibly be murdered by Rupert Thorne rather than like handed into the police?
Yeah that’s a good one. I really liked the scene where Superman (dressed as Batman) kicks the Penguin’s desk to intimidate him and completely destroys it.
One thing I actually did like about this bane was how soft spoken he was. Even in the episode from Superman the Animated Series where he fills in for Batman in Bruce's absence. Still makes me think that they did at least quite like Bane as a character sometimes. But just didn't wanna make an entire crossover saga involved about Knightfall (as amazing as that would've been). Since unfortunately some later adaptations have him as an almost drugged up mexican wrestler henchmen, complete with the theatrics & incredibly loudspoken voice.
Missed the satisfying moment that Bane straight up crushes "Batman" with a giant stone, only to get his ass beat because it was actually Superman in the Batman costume. Also the weirdness of Thorn re-hiring Bane in Curse of the Batwoman (or at least not objecting to Penguin hiring him)
I guess I could’ve changed the script to include it, but I didn’t think it added much to Bane’s character. Same with Mystery of the Batwoman (that film had a few other things in it that really didn’t fit with the established continuity, but that’s a subject for another time!)
I do remember thinking when Batman struck Bane's venom pump that is was like picking up a giant hornet or centipede that you thought was dead only to have it whip around and nail you faster than you can blink.
Didn't realize that Bane came out after BTAS. They handled him well and like some other changes made in the New Adventures, his was a questionable one.
I remember me watching this episode back in the days when it primed. I was really anxious in the scene where Bane is about to breake Batman...but I actually liked the outcome in here: in reality I thought this was what Batman would actually do, so to me the animation was more faithfull to the character than the comic itself.
and yes, I also remmeber how disapointed I was at the end when Batman unmasks Bane in Rupert Thorne's office: I was like "damm...they made Bane just a whatever dude.." 😂
The simplest explanation of Bane's new costume appearing in Barbara Gordon's dream is that she had already seen him wearing it (or was at least aware of it). Bane suggests in the episode that he has not seen Batman since his first appearance, but since that's just a dream we don't actually know that they *didn't* have a subsequent encounter prior to the episode.
Comic bane is one of my favorite bad guys, his stature and intelligence makes him perfect for a boss leader and the add on of venom is the cherry on top to add the comic book flair. Tom kings I AM BANE has my favorite version of the character with him being a force of nature that no one can stop.
Bane in BTAS is like Venom in Spider-Man 3: a new threat from the 90s who becomes so popular so quickly that the writers end up disliking him compared to the classic villains.
I wish more adaptations of Bane will remember that he's not just a brute, he's a genius who's already strong, and has Venom to boost that strength even further. Bane was able to break the Bat by learning who he was, using everybody he fought in the past to distract and weaken him, and ambush him and clean him up where he feels the safest. Bane is a threat to Batman, because not only can he well exceed Bruce's strength, but he can also match his intellect.
The closest we got to the comic version of Bane in TAS is the episode where Barbara Gordon was all coked out and imagined that Bane killed both Batman and her father. It was still a pretty good fight though, both combat-wise and drama-wise. Bane even calls Batman ''Mr. Wayne''.
Really, I can't recommend No Man's Land enough in general. It shows some really interesting sides to many of the more and less well known faces of both sides of Gotham, the baddies and the good guys, as well as the poor normies trapped between 'em.
They did Bane mostly right in Rises, but even then, him being a League of Shadows member who doesn't get *extremely* 'roided up with Venom feels a bit like a misstep for me. Same with Batman: Arkham Origins Bane, who lost his mojo as the years went on in the Arkhamverse chronologically.
I think the issue with Bane is his original appearance in the comics with breaking Batman's back can't really happen in the BTAS without it being a five episode deal... which they might not have been able to do.
I think bane has the potential to be one of if not the greatest Batman villain, going with simple juiced up brute is always the worst approach to him. I find his origin story very fascinating and inspiring despite the path he went down, and Batman being his nightmare as a child can definitely be worked into something greater with further exploration
I loved Knightfall. It was an epic debut for Bane, a harsh turning point and struggle in Batman's story, and there are so many great Batman quotes from it, such as: "If we can't find the devil himself, his prodigeny are legion enough." "All men have limits. They learn what they are and they learn not to exceed them. I ignore mine." "Isolate the pain. Lock it away. Put it in a little box in the corner of your mind." That being said, I was disappointed with Bane's very underwhelming BTAS adaptation, although I agree with the reasons you stated for them not making him more prominent. I much prefer "I was DAMNED to my role. Damned before my first cries of life.", to him just being a lifer who got experimented on and then became an assassin for hire. A prime example of the manga being better than the anime, if you know what I mean.
I love BTAS. The creators are amazing. But I completely disagree with them about Bane. I really liked the knightfall storyline and I think he's one of the better "recent" villains created. Joker is the polar opposite of batman, Bane is his dark mirror image. I feel like what they did to him in BTAS was a missed opportunity and didn't really work.
I personally think BTAS made the right call in culling out a lot of the overly sympathetic backstory. Sometimes "less is more" and one of the issues I have with some of the comic stories is they tell what is ultimately a sympathetic story for the villain, but use that as a springboard to explain why he's a mad and dangerous criminal, and I REALLY dislike the idea of making him a genocide victim and still making him ultimately evil. It's almost like writing a Jewish person who escaped the Concentration camp as a major villain who deserves no sympathy and makes me seriously question the writers' intent on going that route. Having him just be some unnamed prisoner who was experimented on and ultimately went mad but is mostly doing his attacks for a paycheck gets rid of all the heavy, IRL implications and lets us focus on the character concept himself, making him a lot more enjoyable to watch or read about. Just like BTAS had a lot of rules about protraying certain figures in a negative light, silly as it sounds, some of those rules exist for a good reason, as in the end, the dark Vigilante, Batman is going to be the hero in the end, even if others question his morals or agenda, and so ultimately, the villains kind of have to be "unsympathetic" to better explain why Batman doesn't want to hurt them, only bring them to justice. (especially when his kindness is able to redeem some of them like Harley Quinn, for good even). Ultimately there's a right and wrong way to tell a story, and yeah I can see why BTAS didn't like how DC handled Bane's origin.
Bane is like scarecrow where he has one iconic ability that gets in the way of a lot of his adaptations. He’s very strong so people often overlook his smarts and make him some form of dumb brute. Similar to how hard it is for writers to not write a scarecrow story not entirely about the protagonist’s own fears.
Another issue I see with bane in adaptations is that he relies a lot more heavily on venom to be an actual threat. He’s the same dude that was able to go toe to toe with killer croc without venom in knightfall
I think that’s why my favorite version of Bane is from Young Justice (not just because they got Danny Trejo to play him) but he actually stops using the venom at a point and shows his intellect early on like he starts talking to one of his henchmen in Spanish to prevent the hero’s from finding out his plan and uses his own way to throw off a telepath.
@@michaelnally2841Best version is in Arkham Origins.
A great adaptation of Bane and was in Arkham Origins, Bane's not only a giant, being 7'5, and weighing over 1000+ pounds, but also extremely smart, able to find out Batman's identity just from their voices being similar, and then destroying the Batcave, nearly killing Alfred! And destroying it without even using Venom!
I thought the last season of batman had an interesting change of scarecrow from making people afraid to making them have no inhibitions or fear.
Not for nothing, but back in the days of the early Punk rock and Metal scene, it was common to wear a spiked collar and/or spiked wrists bands so the cops couldn't grab you. Bane wears similar gear for a similar reason, to make it harder for Batman to grab onto him.
That’s a great observation!
So THAT is why.
@still looks ridiculous lol
@@DavidMartinez-ce3lp Ridiculous but effective!
@@DavidMartinez-ce3lpBro you're talking about a series in which the main character is a grown man running around in a bat costume complete with spandex tights and bat underwear.
Surprisingly, the show "young justice" had a really good adaptation of Bane, he's incredibly smart and not just a brute.
Yes, one of my favorite adaptations
I still keep thinking of Bane's fate in Batman Beyond. I thought it was tragic to see what he'd been reduced to. No dramatic return or compelling conclusion to his story. Just a man.
Yeah but it is effective since it shows how much of a toll the drug took on his body. Also since Bruce can see what Terry sees whilst in the batsuit he was also probably shocked as well and I like to think he managed to find someone to take care of him at the end since he is wealthy and he might have had the formula for making venom on his computer. At least that's my headcanon
I would go with poetic justice rather than tragic, in that he was a murderous crimelord/wannabe dictator
Helps that, in case one watches the show in production order (which works better, considering the appearances of Cerestone to Big Time's arc and how Maxine Gibson evolves from a scrappy to a decent companion for Terry), he's also the very first villain of the old Rogues Gallery whom the new Batman first encounters.
Damn bro penguin from the 92 Batman film said that too haha. Another great film, one of the only greatest batman films of all time.
Not even a man, he's just a vegetable.
I don't know if you heard but unfortunately comic book and Spider-Man legend John Romita just passed away. R.I.P.
I had heard, yes. Thankfully he had a long life and his passing was peaceful.
May he RIP
OH NO FOR REAL. Resr in peace.
What!? Goddamn, RIP, John Romita.
@@SerumLakehow do we know it's a peacefully passing?
I love Bane and think it's adorable that he's kept his teddy bear, Osito.
Ostio was and is Bane's only friend.
Bears are the best, and Bane understands this.
Bane is one of the coolest Batman villains as he isn’t just some big dumb brute, he is a very very skilled fighter and is extremely intelligent basically only giving him one big weakness which is his addiction to the venom
Bane was always a favorite villain of mine, he had both brawn and brains, something I feel like a lot of adaptations tend to forget, leaving him as only the muscle. That, and his crazy upbringing for serving his father's sentence is, while obviously, a little over the top, is still interesting, as you said the political nature of why he was put in that situation adds depth to Bane. And I like lucha inspired characters like him and King from Tekken.
I remember reading this one comic titled Batman the Dark Knight where when he fought Bane said the Venom made him smarter. I eventually read Knightfall was like whoever wrote Batman the Dark Knight comic didn't know Bane. He's already smart. That comic just wasn't very good now that I think about it. I was just happy to read something about Batman😂 The girl in the Bunny costume was hit though.
Then you'll love Batman Arkham Origins.
I remember having hope that The Dark Knight Rises Bane would rectify all of it and make Bane the terrifyingly clever brawler he originally was... but we all know how that went.
Now all we have is a combination of the Juiced Brute and the Silly Muffled Voice.
@@GenericProtagonist118 what really hurts him there was the last minute twist that he wasn't the big bad ad instead following the orders of someone else. That and the fact that he dies in a really sudden and anticlimactic way.
As a big fan of Lucha Libre, I really enjoyed this episode a lot. It was obvious that the creators did their homework (or someone was a fellow fan), and they threw in a lot of Easter Eggs for folks like me. The full-face mask with exposed nose and mouth is very traditional in lucha libre, and it's basically to help the wrestler breathe. Bane's mask design is fairly similar to old school luchador Blue Demon.
The suit and mask combination is a big trope in lucha libre, and BTAS Bane plays the high-living lifestyle well.
But the big hint is in the fights. There are all sorts of moves taken straight from lucha libre throughout the battle, from Mil Mascaras' diving crossbody to Hurracan Ramirez' signature Hurracanrana. At 5:23, for instance, we see Bane use a big swing to throw Batman against the boat railings (which inexplicably bend like the cables in a wrestling ring!), and then meet him with a standing clothesline when he bounces back.
I also thought it was weird how the rails seemingly turned into ring ropes, but it looks cool so I can’t question it!
That would explain the Latin accent in his early appearances.
This really makes me want to rewatch Nacho Libre for some reason. Criminal how that movie has a lower IMDb score than expected.
Bane’s co-creator, Chuck Dixon applauds BTAS as being an authentic interpretation of the character, despite all the obvious changes.
That makes Zero sense. Bane is smart, sophisticated, he is strong enough to beat killer croc without Venom.
@@weathersama604 What part of "DESPITE ALL THE OBVIOUS CHANGES" did you not understand?
@@weathersama604 Bane's my favorite Batman villain, and I love smart Bane, but I think even more important than Bane being smart is Bane being menacing. When he walks onto the screen, the audience should feel that he's a serious threat - a cut above the average villain. I think the Animated Series Bane achieves that.
Bane is like Hush; he will never be better than he was in his debut. Knightfall was amazing. Still, when written well he is a pretty good character.
My thoughts on Bane's second costume is that he'd gotten out of prison before "Over the Edge" and designed a new outfit (since he'd been unmasked before and felt that he could no longer wear his old one), which is why he wears it in Babs' nightmare.
Looking back with both Bane and the Riddler you can kind of tell based on how little they appear that the show runners didn’t want to use them.
Bane, in my opinion is one of the few, if not only, times not following the comic took away from the character. Bane’s childhood and origin is part of what makes the character so compelling. But with the regulations in place there wasn’t much they could adapt from his comic book origin.
I feel like this along with “Batman and Robin” and later “The Batman” animated show perpetuated the misconception that Bane is incapable of being physical threat without his venom.
I feel like maybe if the DCAU Bane was explored in further episodes I would have different opinions.
They could’ve expanded on his desire to rule Gotham and his addiction to venom. But they pretty much ignored him after that episode.
I’m also not the biggest fan of having the mouth and eyes exposed. Makes him less intimidating.
Still better than “The Batman” Bane. Who looked like a Ben 10 villain.
MILES better than “Batman and Robin” Bane.
Batman The Brave and the Bold *also* misused Bane as a purely physical threat; I'm pretty sure that the only onscreen Bane that's even close to his comic counterpart is Tom Hardy's version.
And yeah, his design in The Batman was heinous. There were some great redesigns, but that was not one of them.
Also, I'd like to clarify that Timm and Dini have admitted that they underused the Riddler because they just couldn't come up with good stories for him. I believe the term used was "Joker-lite".
@@nicholasfarrell5981Which is understandable, Riddler is done best when he's outsmarting the audience too but it's hard to do that while keeping people interested or making a coherent plot.
At least The Batman Bane had a personality, it was basic but still better than Brave in the Bold. Then you got Harley Quinn and a part of me kinda longs for the dumb brute from Batman and Robin.
At least Young Justice showed him SOME respect
My favorite version to date is still the Mystery of the Batwoman. Not a super great movie or anything like that, but the ending fight scene still gives me chills.
I'm mixed on The Batman design in that I can see both how it could work well and why it wasn't the best. I think Bane's biggest problem in the show was the nerfing though, which was also a problem for big muscle villains in BTAS and its follow up.
I had no idea the BTAS writers were against Bane being included; I always assumed the differences from the comics was a think-of-the-children censorship thing.
Well that and there was already a lot of story to tell along with Bane not really fitting the art deco style of the show but I thought they did it because why not
Well as indicated in a lot of other episodes, the accessibility of the shows compared to the comics have restrictions for a reason. It's not so much "think of the children" censorship because the TV producers think everyone's overly sensitive. it's because as you could randomly watch TV and see a show at any moment, rather than deliberately going out of your way to buy a comic, a TV show depicting elements that are harrowing would have a strong negative influence on the audience. I for one don't like the idea of him being a genocide victim yet still growing to be evil and spiteful. It feels really insensitive, like it's his fault he was born in a prison and the writers wanted to break him down as much as possible. BTAS made the right call in culling that out. Neither I, nor my parents would've liked the show if it tried to use suffering genocide as an excuse for villainy.
@@MarioMastar reasons are not always excuses. Every villain has their reasons, their motivations, but they don't often excuse their actions; hence they are villains in the first place.
A sympathetic villain is still a villain and I'm glad not every villain is unsympathetic and irredeemably evil because that's unrealistic. World is full of terrible people who do and promote bad things yet have reasons (good or bad) to think they're doing good or are owed whatever they're trying to obtain/achieve.
Unfortunately, BtaS' Bane always felt lacking to me. It still feels to me that they took one look at him, wrote him off as a wrestler and probably didn't have a very high opinion of wrestling (though, this video points out they really just didn't have a high opinion of Bane). With how great Bane and the writing of BtaS are, Bane could have ROCKED a movie like Phantasm or Sub-Zero...Though, obviously not those specific movies, heh heh.
I'm also aware that BtaS didn't get to choose when they made movies, but it would have been cool if WB had the foresight to say Bane needed a movie but still let Phantasm and Sub-Zero happen...a dream that makes me delusional enough to be on the opposite of Fear Toxin, heh heh.
Funnily enough Batman and Mr. Freeze: Subzero was originally written to be Bane movie before they switched the villain to Mr. Freeze halfway through production.
@Elfenlied8675309 No way, really!? Part of me is disappointed Bane almost had a shot but lost it, but the other part of me feels Sub-Zero is too good to lose and that continuing to do good work with Freeze was wiser than trying to fix Bane.
@@seantaylor424 I believe you can sort of see the left over elements from the Bane script, or parts of them. Like Freeze's base being a secluded oil rig in the middle of the ocean, doesn't really make sense for Freeze but in the context of it originally being a Bane movie it makes a lot more sense. The oil rig is very similar to the island prison Bane was born and raised inside of, so of course he would make it his base.
I'm sure I could think of more if I had a fresh watch of the movie lol.
@@Elfenlied8675309 I'm gonna have to look up this Bane movie concept now!
Actually there's a ton of nods to 'wrestling', just not amercian wrestling. A bunch of his, and batmans, fight moves are based on lucha libre during the episode. As well, banes outfit, and the suit mask combo, are all very directly tipped/inspired from it as well. As one comment mentions above, at one point batman is tossed into boatrailings, and the bend like a wrestling rings ropes so batman can bounce back and be clotheslined.
Actually, now that I see how Bane was "unwanted" it would explain a lot of the jokes in Harley Quinn at Bane's expense.
Ironically, the show did make the guy strangely popular again.
@@michaelandreipalon359 pretty much the only funny part of that god forsaken show
You know, even though the writers of this series were against the usage of Bane and ultimately didn't have him clash with Batman more than maybe twice outside of the tie-in comics (Bane, Mystery of the Batwoman), I think it's rather neat that Batman's opinion of him goes from "Is this the best you can do, Rupert?" in BTAS to "He was a worthy opponent." in Beyond.
Bane has the whole ass Megamind backstory😂
W Angie pfp
Henry Silva was such a great choice to voice Bane
He had a very calm and classy voice, while at the same time I could believe he was this hulking brute that could go all Street Fighter II on the Batmobile.
@@SerumLake Don't forget about Danny Trejo's too.
@@usamazahid3882Carlos Alazraqui also did great in JL Doom.
@@SerumLake
Fun fact: Before BTAS, Henry Silva and John Vernon (the voice of Rupert Thorne) also co starred in the 1983 American-German exploitation film “Chained Heat”.
I don't think the creators were consciously aiming for "BDSM outfit" for Bane, design-wise, though it kinda looks that way. The goal for TNBA vs BTAS was simplify the artwork and to generally make the villains look a little more menacing. There's not a whole lot to say that's why he turned out the way he did, just that I don't require any better reason to explain it, which means I don't need to invent one.
I mean it might be as you say that he was imagined that way out of some … yeah … but there's no more basis for that than anything else, and so I choose to stick with the simpler explanation. No need to invent one where some male writers chose to invent that a female lead in a children's show would "subconsciously choose to make it that way", with the full connotations of "her wanting it" (or being implied to) that suggests, even if years later a certain trash Twilight fanfic would be hastily wallpapered over and become enough of a bestseller to inspire sequels, a movie that could never be good, or anything else.
I do like that some later incarnations of Bane such as Young Justice's have taken some effort to make him more than a roid raging butcher. Bane is nothing if not intelligent. Evil, sure, but intelligently evil. That makes him far more dangerous.
The redsigns in TNBA were terrible. Probably aside from Scarecrow, I think most got worse.
They simplified the character design so the different animation studios could be more consistent. Zoomers are prudes, so of course a video on yt is gonna make fun of bdsm if they can. and I think bdsm is gross, but to each their own I suppose
It would’ve been a crime if Bane never appeared in BTAS. I’m glad they forced them to put him in the show.
There need to be adaptations of Bane where beating him's not as easy as cutting the Venom tube. Or when he stops using it like after his first defeat in the comics. Less "he's hopelessly addicted to it" versions.
I think we do need a version that successfully combines the venom reliance with his intelligence. Bane is one of Batman's most intelligent villains with an incredible eidentic (photographic) memory and can speak several languages. Most versions ignore this in favour of making him a big brute only. The one time he's presented as smarter is for the Nolan movies but that version removed the venom aspect entirely and made him sound really doofy.
What makes him scary is the fact he's strong AND smart so you can't easily just brute force a win nor try to outwit him as easily as some other villans. The venom aspect becomes a key flaw because for as smart and strong as he is, his addiction to it is crippling if not managed correctly.
Poor Bane really got the short end of the stick when it comes to adaptations, even in the DCAU.
The animated series Harley Quinn takes the 'conversation' concerning Bane to yet another... and humorous turn. Thank you Alan Tudyk...
@@FireRising86first series was good. Then it got terrible yes.
And the screaming of Bane when he overdosed on Venom, kinda reminds me of Rambo from First Blood when they were about to dry-shave him and when he screams loudly as his PTSD kicked in from his experience in Vietnam when he was tortured by the troops as a POW.
As someone else pointed out, the spiked collar and wrists actually make sense. They make it harder, or downright dangerous, to grapple him. As for the mask redesign, your guess is as good as mine. I liked his old mask, and as far as I know, Lucha doesn't really allow for changing your mask. You ARE the mask, after all, so seeing him change his mask is baffling to say the least.
I remember watching the episode with Bane and being terrified when he captures Robin . Even in his fight with Batman he no-sells most of Batman's offence , to the point where Batman has to take a more tactical approach to combat - including using a well placed grabling gun to the chest as well as a well timed batarang to Bane's Venom feed. Then I listened to the audio version of Batman Knightfall and Bane became one of my favourite villains when I realised what his achievements were.
As far as adapting characters from the comic books goes I wouldn't say Bane had the worst treatment in the animated series - granted yes he's watered down in so much as his achievements , but by the same token he's still a formidable threat in the animated series and is only narrowly defeated at the end of the episode . In an interview Graham Nolan ( one of the original creators of Bane )had said he really liked the animated iterations of the character - including Batman The Animated Series , he absolutely hates the Tom Hardy version . I will say this : for people who really weren't keen on the character , Alan Burnett and the rest of the team did at least work somewhere in the middle with the character and still made him formidable - even if it was reluctantly , the same could not be said about Hugo Strange.
Bane also appeared in Superman TAS where he teamed up with Mad Hatter and Riddler. Then there's Batman Beyond which actually gave the character a fair conclusion all things considered. :3
Yeah, my boy showed up and got defeated by Superman... it was pretty obvious the writers weren't Bane fans.
I always figured that Timm took one look at him and said 'he's just a meathead, no way can he be smart.'
I'm surprised there's no mention of his fate in Batman Beyond. A lifetime of Venom abuse left him an emaciated shell on life support. He needs the drug to even keep his heart going now.
There are elements of the redesign I like. I think the way the made his figure and muscle looks much more imposing and I like the red eyes. But yea it’s hard to understand what they were thinking with the bdsm stuff
The impression I get is that they didn't like him very much! :D
@@SerumLake you can see that in the ending of his first episode with how pathetic they make him look at the end. Which is a shame cause I like the characterization of this Bane for the most part
TNBA redesigns were a downgrade for most characters, except for probably Scarecrow.
@@shorewallYeah, Scarecrow looked great, Killer Croc got upgraded too.
The rest were....MEH (Except Harley and Harvey since they basically look the same).
The one i'm conflicted about is Clayface since he didn't look bad but....he looks too "rocky" and not really clay-like.
I really liked the adaptation I found of Bane in No Man's Land (assuming I can trust the audio rendition I had to listen to as I can't read print); during the "interview" Mercy Graves has with him, we see her contempt for how much of a "brute in fine clothing" she thinks of him, while Bane displays great forethought in the ambush he sets up for Bats, none of which uses the blasted Venom tank. Just good ol' munitions and booby-traps. And the best part was when Joker is continually trying to draw out Bats from his exile to get help and confronts what he thinks is Bats near the end only to actually come face to face with Bane. After the whole incident, Bats visits Bane's "trailer" (can't recall where he set up in Lex's personal camp) and has probably the most civilized conversation I've ever seen between a "strongman" type and a masked vigilante regarding his presence. It's kinda fascinating in a very bizarre way, and the Luchador influences really makes sense to me now that Serum's mentioned it.
I can forgive the show for it's portrayal of Bane and certain other villains. Not everything is gonna be a home run, and even if the showrunners were on board with the "breaking of the bat," the show would have struggled to get that past the censors I think. That said, I love his luchadore presentation.
I thought it was so fun when superman dresses up as batman to fight bane. soo satisfying.
A great Batman villian must always be a darker version of him in some way. That's why Bane and The Joker are his biggest adversaries (or at least SHOULD be)
… Or, was Barbara was so sick that it sparked a brief but powerful moment of premonition upon Bane’s actual return? Lol, IDK - actually I didn’t even realize that continuity error until you pointed it out. Though it’s definitely more hilarious to think that she manifested his costume change into existence 😂
This is series was so good. I loved this episode. It shows how Batman can overcome some very substantial challenges.
Honestly I still liked the episode. I love Henry Silva's performance as Bane and I wish the comic follow up to this episode was animated. It shows what happened to Bane and how he decided to make it up to Batman... By killing Thorne in front of Bruce XD
I wish they had made Bane a bigger and smarter threat. I get why they half-assed it. Will you ever touch on the Superman series?
Probably not the same extent, but I will talk a bit about Superman every now and then.
Bane was essentially evil Doc Savage
I’m embarrassed to say that I completely missed that comparison, and it’s so obvious now that it has been pointed out to me 😂
As a lucha libre fan I loved the tribute to El Santo and Blue Demon movies. When Bane appears in the three piece suit and mask, Most old wrestling fans fondly remember the days of Mr Wrestling #2 and Mils Mascaras. Even being brought in to Gotham to handle Batman...it's soo old school Wrestling. Still gushing
I got a better reason as to why Batgirl would have seen Bane in such an outfit. Checking in on him while he's locked up. Batman and robin walk down the others locked up and normally we see Two face, Harley, Joker, Poison Ivy in their cells some times in full costume. So what if Mad Hatter tried to do a favor to Bane in return for protection while jailed and made him an outfit, and Batgirl simply saw it on one of the check ins.
Despite the writers' dislike for the character this show is a big part of why Bane is my second-favourite Batman villain (after Poison Ivy).
Even though Bane wasn't a character they were particularly fond of the idea of having in BTAS, despite that they still ended up including him and while they didn't do a terrible job by any means and Henry Silva was perfect casting for the character, at the end of the day he really was just a far cry from what he was in the comics in terms of lore and threat level and he barely ever appeared in the show. They also leaned a bit too much into the Luchador aesthetic of the character which I thought made him look a bit less intimidating. With Bane, while I wasn't really a fan of either of his designs in the shows I prefer his outfit from the neck down (minus the spikes) from TNBA but I think the mask looks a bit better in BTAS but I still don't think it looks great there either. In general I'm not a fan of Bane's mask having holes for his mouth and nose because Bane's actual mask from the comics is just so striking and iconic.
I recently learned the origin behind Bane's BTAS mask design and will have to share it one day. I'm thinking of doing a Short about it, seeing as it isn't a very long story.
@@SerumLake The only instances I remember actually liking Bane's mask with holes for his mouth was in the animated film Justice League Doom where the mask resembles a skull and has black lips and also in Arkham Origins where the mask looks a bit more handmade. Still though the original mask remains the superior one.
@@The_Phantasm Yeah, Doom Bane looked so badass, that's probably his best animated depiction.
I love Bane's redesign! Especially his conversation with The Riddler & Mad Hatter.
“No one cared who I was ‘til I put on the mask…”
It's wild how Dini does some villains so well, and others so poorly. I love his Two-Face, and his is probably my favorite Clayface too. And he basically reinvented Mr. Freeze. But man, his Bane was such a waste. Didn't care for his Penguin, either.
Actually, I have heard that Luchadors ARE allowed to potentially remove their masks when they are on a commercial flight.
Ok I think that the redesign choices could be explained as Barbra not knowing about wrestling mask and assumed he was bdms themed
But why does Bane keep wearing it if the costume only appeared in her hallucination? This is driving me crazy! 😂
@@SerumLake It *DIDN'T* only appear in her hallucination! It was also Bane's costume in a crossover episode where he got beat up by Superman. Obviously, Barbara was already familiar with Bane's new costume by that point through something that happened offscreen. Heck, even Tim Drake could recognize Bane without his mask on!
"I will BREAK YOU!" .... "Toys, you try to fight me with pathetic little toys?"
Honestly, I feel that Bane deserves better and that he is severely underutilized.
Not alot you can so with a masked wrestler whose gimmick is that he uses super steroids to muscle his way through Batman I guess. Honestly more henchman material than a master mind.
@@sonicgen20but he is a mastermind, people often forget that. and adaptations make him a Henchman too often,
They should’ve done a 2 or 3 part episode for Bane similar to The Demons Quest for Ra’s and Talia.
I believe it was Bruce Timm who admitted Bane ended up looking like "a leather Daddy"
It is a little bit disappointing that across BTAS and even Superman the Animated Series where he makes an appearance, Bane only fought Batman one time.
Knightfall was one of the best batman stories. Azrael was a purposefully terrible batman, The writers wanted to show how great batman was, by showing how terrible he could be. Batman defeats Azrael without any gadgets too!
Of all the mega bat family crossovers from the 90s, I think I preferred No Man’s Land. But they were very different beasts!
Have you read any of the more recent Azrael comics? The latest Sword of Azrael mini series was quite good.
Well the redesigns for the new Batman adventures were... Mixed, I think in a lot of cases the assumption weird to make is that they've always looked like that. They aren't in-universe redesigns to their outfits
Probably.
I loved Batman the Animated series but how Bane was handled is my one issue with it. I loved Knightfall so I have a bit of a biase but still. I wouldn't have needed him to break Batman's back but i wished they did more with him and highlighted what made him such an interesting character. TAS didn't give him his guile or the interesting backstory that served to make him a dark reflection Batman.
By far my favorite bat villain. Thank you for your video it was great and informative. I never watched the season 3 episode and I did in middle of this video.
The first confrontation in the animated show I think would have happened in the comics. The only reason Bane beat Batman in the comic is because Bruce was completely exhausted and barely able to stand. In the show Batman is fresh and in peak health.
I agree, comic Bruce was in no condition to fight him in that state, if he was able to prepare as this one, the whole situation would've been way different.
9:30 ok but actually the idea of bane hearing about her nightmare down the grape vine somehow and going "fuck it i dont have a better idea" is very funny, even if probably too ridiculous.
I haven't watched the Animated Series, so I might be wrong, but it does feel a bit weird for Batman to just leave Bane to possibly be murdered by Rupert Thorne rather than like handed into the police?
I'm going to be honest and say that the BTAS Bane without his mask is cursed
I loved the Superman TAS episode Knight Time where Superman disguises himself as Batman. He beats the living shit out of Bane!
Yeah that’s a good one. I really liked the scene where Superman (dressed as Batman) kicks the Penguin’s desk to intimidate him and completely destroys it.
One thing I actually did like about this bane was how soft spoken he was. Even in the episode from Superman the Animated Series where he fills in for Batman in Bruce's absence. Still makes me think that they did at least quite like Bane as a character sometimes. But just didn't wanna make an entire crossover saga involved about Knightfall (as amazing as that would've been). Since unfortunately some later adaptations have him as an almost drugged up mexican wrestler henchmen, complete with the theatrics & incredibly loudspoken voice.
I can remember like it was yesterday turning on the TV as a kid and getting jumpscared by Bane overdosing in 4K
I always thought Bane was so hot in tas. His strength, intelligence, and accent really did it for me bad 😩
Bane looks very similar to blue demon, even when he wears a suit.
I’m glad you noticed the reference . It was very intentional!
I'm gonna be honest abd say that I love the Luchador influences given to Bane.
Missed the satisfying moment that Bane straight up crushes "Batman" with a giant stone, only to get his ass beat because it was actually Superman in the Batman costume. Also the weirdness of Thorn re-hiring Bane in Curse of the Batwoman (or at least not objecting to Penguin hiring him)
I guess I could’ve changed the script to include it, but I didn’t think it added much to Bane’s character. Same with Mystery of the Batwoman (that film had a few other things in it that really didn’t fit with the established continuity, but that’s a subject for another time!)
You'd think that Thorne would have had the weakened Bane killed after finding out he was plotting against him with Candace.
Although his short appearance, Bane from BTAS, continues to be my all time favorite.
I do remember thinking when Batman struck Bane's venom pump that is was like picking up a giant hornet or centipede that you thought was dead only to have it whip around and nail you faster than you can blink.
Didn't realize that Bane came out after BTAS. They handled him well and like some other changes made in the New Adventures, his was a questionable one.
I remember me watching this episode back in the days when it primed. I was really anxious in the scene where Bane is about to breake Batman...but I actually liked the outcome in here: in reality I thought this was what Batman would actually do, so to me the animation was more faithfull to the character than the comic itself.
and yes, I also remmeber how disapointed I was at the end when Batman unmasks Bane in Rupert Thorne's office: I was like "damm...they made Bane just a whatever dude.." 😂
The simplest explanation of Bane's new costume appearing in Barbara Gordon's dream is that she had already seen him wearing it (or was at least aware of it). Bane suggests in the episode that he has not seen Batman since his first appearance, but since that's just a dream we don't actually know that they *didn't* have a subsequent encounter prior to the episode.
Silva rocked it.
Bane was a great episode. How it played off the comics was fun. BTAS Batman was a bad ass
Comic bane is one of my favorite bad guys, his stature and intelligence makes him perfect for a boss leader and the add on of venom is the cherry on top to add the comic book flair. Tom kings I AM BANE has my favorite version of the character with him being a force of nature that no one can stop.
8:57 _Distant sounds of Watchtower Database migraines rising_
I prefer Mexican-eqsue Lucha Bane from BTAS over the comic's version. I'm Mexican though so I guess I have a bias?
I kind of want to see Bruce Timm's take on Azrael's Batknight.
He also appeared in Batman Beyond
Bane was also in the new batman adventures episode where Superman came to stand in while Brainiac had Bruce hostage.
Bane in BTAS is like Venom in Spider-Man 3: a new threat from the 90s who becomes so popular so quickly that the writers end up disliking him compared to the classic villains.
His second redesign is weird, but the voice actor they got for him was amazing.
Bane needs a Two Part-er, i really Hope with Two Episode we can see Bane Break the Bat and Batman Recovers and Rise to Victory.
I wish more adaptations of Bane will remember that he's not just a brute, he's a genius who's already strong, and has Venom to boost that strength even further. Bane was able to break the Bat by learning who he was, using everybody he fought in the past to distract and weaken him, and ambush him and clean him up where he feels the safest.
Bane is a threat to Batman, because not only can he well exceed Bruce's strength, but he can also match his intellect.
The closest we got to the comic version of Bane in TAS is the episode where Barbara Gordon was all coked out and imagined that Bane killed both Batman and her father. It was still a pretty good fight though, both combat-wise and drama-wise. Bane even calls Batman ''Mr. Wayne''.
Oh wow, I thought Bane had made more appearances in his original outfit.
9:15 “¿EDDSS? ¡Qué teoría tan fascinante tienes!
im guessing that Barbara likely seen Bane's new outfit before, thats why in her head, bane wears his new outfit
His fistfight with Superman was quite enjoyable though.
Great video
Really, I can't recommend No Man's Land enough in general. It shows some really interesting sides to many of the more and less well known faces of both sides of Gotham, the baddies and the good guys, as well as the poor normies trapped between 'em.
Its sad that they didnt really like knightfall bane is one of my favorite batman villains
Bane only had a few good comic book stories. I never saw him in any animated stuff, they DID do him right in the Dark Knight movie, though !
Check out Justice League: Doom if you haven’t already. Bane isn’t the main villain, but he’s done very well in that animated film.
They did Bane mostly right in Rises, but even then, him being a League of Shadows member who doesn't get *extremely* 'roided up with Venom feels a bit like a misstep for me.
Same with Batman: Arkham Origins Bane, who lost his mojo as the years went on in the Arkhamverse chronologically.
I think the issue with Bane is his original appearance in the comics with breaking Batman's back can't really happen in the BTAS without it being a five episode deal... which they might not have been able to do.
I think bane has the potential to be one of if not the greatest Batman villain, going with simple juiced up brute is always the worst approach to him.
I find his origin story very fascinating and inspiring despite the path he went down, and Batman being his nightmare as a child can definitely be worked into something greater with further exploration
I loved Knightfall. It was an epic debut for Bane, a harsh turning point and struggle in Batman's story, and there are so many great Batman quotes from it, such as: "If we can't find the devil himself, his prodigeny are legion enough." "All men have limits. They learn what they are and they learn not to exceed them. I ignore mine." "Isolate the pain. Lock it away. Put it in a little box in the corner of your mind."
That being said, I was disappointed with Bane's very underwhelming BTAS adaptation, although I agree with the reasons you stated for them not making him more prominent. I much prefer "I was DAMNED to my role. Damned before my first cries of life.", to him just being a lifer who got experimented on and then became an assassin for hire. A prime example of the manga being better than the anime, if you know what I mean.
I love BTAS. The creators are amazing. But I completely disagree with them about Bane. I really liked the knightfall storyline and I think he's one of the better "recent" villains created. Joker is the polar opposite of batman, Bane is his dark mirror image. I feel like what they did to him in BTAS was a missed opportunity and didn't really work.
I personally think BTAS made the right call in culling out a lot of the overly sympathetic backstory. Sometimes "less is more" and one of the issues I have with some of the comic stories is they tell what is ultimately a sympathetic story for the villain, but use that as a springboard to explain why he's a mad and dangerous criminal, and I REALLY dislike the idea of making him a genocide victim and still making him ultimately evil. It's almost like writing a Jewish person who escaped the Concentration camp as a major villain who deserves no sympathy and makes me seriously question the writers' intent on going that route.
Having him just be some unnamed prisoner who was experimented on and ultimately went mad but is mostly doing his attacks for a paycheck gets rid of all the heavy, IRL implications and lets us focus on the character concept himself, making him a lot more enjoyable to watch or read about. Just like BTAS had a lot of rules about protraying certain figures in a negative light, silly as it sounds, some of those rules exist for a good reason, as in the end, the dark Vigilante, Batman is going to be the hero in the end, even if others question his morals or agenda, and so ultimately, the villains kind of have to be "unsympathetic" to better explain why Batman doesn't want to hurt them, only bring them to justice. (especially when his kindness is able to redeem some of them like Harley Quinn, for good even).
Ultimately there's a right and wrong way to tell a story, and yeah I can see why BTAS didn't like how DC handled Bane's origin.