TOP FIVE PREFAB VILLAINS: NUMBER THREE «

… and we’re back. As usual, last week sort of got away from me, and my list of prefab villains got derailed. But today, we’re back, and with villain number three:

BANE

First Appearance: Batman: Vengeance of Bane # 1

“What the hell is Bane’s Deal?”

After years of outsmarting the Riddler, and kicking guys like the Joker and Two-Face square in the ass, this guy — Bane — comes along with a plan that leaves Batman in traction for a year and new guy running around Gotham who was crazier than both of them.

Bane’s story starts in a prison. Literally, the dude was born in there and forced to live out his criminal father’s life sentence. Behind bars on Santa Prisca Island, he became a military guinea pig for a highly-addictive, super-steroid called “Venom”, and as a result, gained superhuman strength.

After learning about Gotham City — the city of fear — and the Batman that rules it, Bane becomes obsessed with going there and destroying the Dark Knight and everything he stands for.

And you really gotta give it to the guy, because that’s exactly what he does. He escapes from prison, makes his way to Gotham, and breaks all the lunatics out of Arkham Asylum and sets ‘em loose on the city. Bane watches as Batman wears himself down trying to recapture all of Arkham’s escapees and to keep Gotham from going up in flames. Along the way, Bane figures out Batman is Bruce Wayne and goes to the Batcave to wait for him to come home, and when he does, well…

“Why’s Bane A Prefab Villain?”

Even though Bane made a few appearances before debuting in the bat-books, it’s pretty clear his creators, Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench, were just trying to do a little prepublication damage control. And that’s understandable, considering the potential backlash against introducing a new villain whose sole purpose was to do what Batman’s greatest rogues had failed to do in sixty years. DC pretty much just created a guy from scratch who could believably “break the bat”, but not alienate new readers interested in the big event. With Bane, new and old readers alike were on the same page and witnessing his rise to power.

And Bane did exactly what he was created to do: he posed both a physical and psychological threat to the Dark Knight Detective, and became the primary adversary for the “new” Batman who followed. His introduction shook up the status quo of the entire line of bat books, and set the stage for years of interconnected stories that kept readers hooked, and DC very happy with the numbers.

TOP FIVE PREFAB VILLAINS: NUMBER THREE

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