The Unwanted Villain: Bane | Batman The Animated Series

usually I make videos about how the seminal Batman the Animated Series adapted comic book villains by taking all the best bits from their appearances and abandoning all of the convoluted stuff in some cases they even abandoned pretty much everything that had been pre-established about the character and went for an entirely new take hello Mr Freeze today I'm going to shine the spotlight on a rare case of a brand new character from the comics being used in the show let's talk about Bane as I'm sure you all know Batman the Animated Series started airing in September of 1992. however Bane did not make his first comic book appearance until 1993. Bane was introduced as the newest biggest villain and he would go on to break Batman's back during the legendary lengthy crossover story Nightfall in an attempt at creating Synergy between the wildly successful Batman the Animated Series and the comic books it was suggested by DC Executives that Bane be added to the already impressive roster of villains as we know from my penguin video Bruce Tim and his gang of Merry animators would cooperate with executive demands but perhaps did so begrudgingly according to Mitch Bryan the writer of Bane's introductory episode The imaginatively titled Bane this request was not met with a lot of enthusiasm Bane had broken Batman's back in the books right so he smashed him over his leg and broken his back and neither Bruce nor I was particularly enamored of that idea we thought it was pretty stupid so um our Bane episode is a direct reaction against that so why didn't they care for Bane well let's start off by taking a look at his comic book Origins Bain was designed specifically to be the antagonist behind the Blockbuster multi-pot crossover event in the Batman comics Nightfall at the time the comic book industry was chasing sales by having a huge crossover event almost every year and as a young reader at the time even I felt a bit fatigued so I could only imagine how long time readers must have felt so right off the bat LOL I could see why there might be some reluctance to use this character Bane was introduced in the Vengeance of Bane special it's a story where we learn of a Caribbean Island Santa prisca which is going through some serious political upheaval the leader of a failed Revolution flees the country and in his absence his pregnant wife an unborn child are tried and convicted to life in the country's worst prison Pena Duro essentially hell on Earth and it's here that Bane is Born the son of the revolutionary leader that had fled and he grows up surrounded by villainy at a young age his mother becomes ill and dies leaving him all alone as you might imagine a young boy left unsupervised in a Maximum Security Prison is perhaps not a good idea following a scuffle Bane was left with a severe head injury which put him in a coma there he was greeted by a vision of his future self who told him that he would become a great man but first he needed to overcome his fears his fears were presented to him in the form of a giant bat upon waking from his coma Bane savagely murders the person responsible for his injury and is thrown into solitary confinement for over a decade in this cell Bane learns to survive on his own overcoming adversity every single day and night upon his release he learns that he's become something of a myth in Pena Juro a figure that is inspired both awe and fear he dedicates his time to improving his body and his mind learning as much as he can about a variety of subjects Inc including information about the Batman of Gotham City Bane is presented to us as a parallel to Batman while they have their similarities they're both orphans that dedicate themselves to reaching Peak physical and mental conditioning in response to the cruel hand that life has dealt them however they are opposites Bruce Wayne was raised by a wealthy loving family and although he suffers a great loss he takes that negativity and uses it for good Bane meanwhile was raised in absolute poverty devoid of love and affection and uses his negative experience to empower himself and dominate any who might challenge him both are legends in their own right but while Batman earns his reputation through theatricality and intimidation Bane's reputation is earned through brutality and murder while Batman had his Bat family supporting him Bane's support came from his fellow inmates bird zombie and trog Bane would eventually go on to escape from the inescapable prison after signing up to become a test subject for the experimental steroid Venom in an elaborate scheme that involves slowing his heartbeat to a near stop make taking the guards think that he had died during the experiments Bane and his followers took the prison Warden hostage and made their escape setting their sights on Gotham in a calculating move Bane would break every member of Batman's Rogues Gallery out of Arkham in an effort to exhaust Batman before confronting him at his home and breaking his back that brings us to 1994 when DC Comics Executives asked that Bane be introduced to be tests their version of the character has a far more streamlined origin he's a prisoner that was experimented on during project Gilgamesh an effort to create a living weapon which rather predictably goes wrong Bane uses his Newfound strength to escape prison and becomes an assassin For Hire Bane's motivation for taking on the Batman is he's being paid to by Rupert Thorne in terms of his character design he's quite faithful to the comic book although his mask exposes his nose and mouth which allows him to be more expressive they also lean quite heavily into Mexican wrestling which also explains his plan to take Batman's mask in Lucha Libre taking a wrestler's mask is a huge sign of disrespect at first it may seem a little comical that Bane arrives in Gotham still wearing his mask just how did he get through passport control but this plays into the Luchador tradition of never being seen in public without their mask all of the references to dreams and Destiny are gone his status is an orphaned political prisoner is never mentioned and his followers bird zombie and trog are nowhere to be seen this version of Bane is heavily stripped back compared to the comic book version as for the episode itself it's very heavy on the action Bane disrupts Killer Croc's attempt at stealing a safe giving us a demonstration of his physical superiority at this point in time Killer Croc was probably Batman's biggest physical threat so to see Bane dismantle him within seconds is quite shocking after a little investigation it becomes clear to Batman that the only person who could afford Baines fees is Rupert Thorne Bane kidnaps Robin and taunts Batman this results in their final confrontation in which Batman eventually gets the better of Bane by forcing him to overdose on Venom a subplot about Bane conspiring to overthrow Rupert Thorne is to light and Batman leaves Bane at the mercy of Thorne going back to Mitch Bryan's interview on Batman the Animated podcast he states that yeah and this Bane episode was a kind of reaction to what was happening in the comics and that's really also really fun like the the fact that we could be having conversations with you know alternate realities in the DC Universe that's pretty cool that's a very exciting idea you know they used to think about movies in the old days movies would have conversations with each other right I mean uh High Noon gets made and what does Howard Hawks say he says that guy's not a professional going around asking for help and Howard Hawks makes Rio Bravo and so suddenly you have these two movies in conversation with each other it is what it is right and and everybody's free to to to to take issue with it or to love it and so we took issue with it which was fun and I have to say I really like this take just because they didn't care for Nightfall that didn't mean they would trash it instead they took the basic concept and did their version of it an action heavy visually impressive episode it may not be deep or profound but it is enjoyable Bane makes a second appearance in the tie-in comic books Batman and Robin Adventures number 12. this issue picks up almost immediately where Bane left off after being beaten senseless and left for dead by Rupert Thorne's henchman Bane recovers and weans himself off of Venom he kidnaps Rupert Thorne and attempts to kill him as a peace offering to Batman of course Batman is not down with that we don't see Bane again until the new Batman adventures over the edge if you've not seen this episode I am about to spoil the big twists so skip ahead to the next chapter if you don't want it spoiled still here okay so an over the edge Bane is roped in to bring down Batman by Commissioner Gordon after Batgirl is killed by the Scarecrow Gordon had unleashed the full power of the gcpd on Batman but he still evaded capture so Gordon decides to bring in some muscle enter Bane except she looks quite a bit different than he used to gone is the Luchador outfit instead he's wearing a black leather BDSM outfit complete with spiked collar and cuffs and he's back on the Venom I think this tells us a lot about what the creative team thought about bahin upon meeting Batman he States I'm pleased you remember me this indicates that some time has passed since he last met Batman this might even be the first time that he's been out of prison since the original episode aired assuming the comics aren't Canon if that is the case then this is the first time that he's been out and about in his bondage outfit so here comes the spoiler at the end of the episode it is revealed that this entire story has been Barbara Gordon's fear toxin induced nightmare none of it happened so why does Bane continue to wear this outfit if Barbara dreamed it up I'm sure there are lots of possible explanations but I've always found humor in the idea that Barbara's subconscious thought of Bane as being a BDSM Enthusiast and somehow she was able to manifest it and Bane rolled with it so in summary while it is true that the BTS writers probably wouldn't have introduced Bane if they had the choice they still took the same approach to his character they looked at what had gone on in the comics Stripped Away all the unnecessary stuff and focused on the good points their episode Bane was a response to the big crossover comic book storylines like Nightfall and they created a high action Blockbuster episode that while light on character motivations and storytelling is quite enjoyable although I'm still struggling to get my head around the new Batman adventures redesign [Music]

Channel: Serum Lake

Views: 102,475

Keywords: Bane, Batman, cartoon, animation, anime, animated, series, new, adventures, robin, over the edge, costume, redesign, venom, vengeance, TNBA, BTAS, Knightfall, origin, change, design, bruce timm, mitch brian, dc, comics, dcau, Knight Time, superman

Id: 52cfIMQZMa8

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2023