DC Villains: Bane
Bane is probably one of those characters whom I believe deserves attention in the Dark Knight trilogy. I’m not discrediting the Joker’s epic performance in the Dark Knight and I think the Dark Knight Rises had a lot to live up to as the close to the Dark Knight trilogy.
The problem comes in comparing the clown prince of chaos, the Joker with the malevolent authoritarian presence, Bane. And that’s what I’ll be talking about in this character study, what makes Bane such an interesting character to look at in this film.
In comparing Batman and Bane, here are some of the obvious facts about these two:
1. Both wear masks
2. Both were trained by Ra’s Al Ghul to join the League of Shadows (but Bruce later refuses to join them)
3. Both have almost inaudible voices, Batman’s more husky and Bane’s needs subtitles
But these are the ones I found interesting:
1. Both of these characters fight for what they believe is true justice
2. Both are characters whose identities are shrouded in mystery of legend
3. Both were saved by their fathers; Bruce was saved by his father Thomas Wayne and Bane by Ra’s al Ghul (more of a father-figure).
Both are characters whose identities are shrouded in mystery of legend
Just as Gotham is Batman’s, the Pit where Bruce is thrown into belongs to Bane. The prison doctor even mentions this to Bruce, when he’s told about the child, who is supposedly Bane (but later turns out to be Talia) who escaped the Pit.
As the people of Gotham have stories about Batman, so do the prisoners have the same about Bane.
Both were saved by their fathers; Bruce was saved by his father Thomas Wayne and Bane by Ra’s al Ghul
When young Bruce in Batman Begins, falls into a well and gets attacked by bats, his father, Thomas Wayne saves him. His words are what guide Bruce, “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up”.
For Bane, Ra’s al Ghul saves him after being badly injured while helping young Talia to escape the pit. Ra’s al Ghul trains him in the League of Shadows but later excommunicates him for his extremity.
It’s the people who save these people that changed their lives.
Both of these characters fight for what they believe is true justice
This is what makes Bane the perfect counterpart to Batman. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not discrediting the Joker’s role in Batman’s Hero’s Journey in The Dark Knight.
The Joker is the plan. His role is to make the society that sees itself as moral crumble when pushed to the limit. He has control of what to do in Gotham. He’s an anarchist.
Bane believes that he’s a liberator and the saviour of Gotham City. Before looking at his corrupt means of achieving this, you might almost see a similarity of this with Bruce.
Bane’s ideologies would be viewed as a corrupted version of what true justice is. In the Dark Knight Rises, which takes place 8 years after the events of the Dark Knight, Bruce has retired as Batman and demonized the hero he once was through a lie, that he killed Harvey Dent in order for the city of Gotham to thrive against crime and corruption.
And through the Dent Act, the criminals don’t have parole and Gotham has a low record of crime. This is working, until Bane shows up, knowing fully what has been happening (after getting Commissioner Gordon’s speech about the ugly truth of Harvey Dent).
Bane believes that handing over Gotham from the corrupt to the people (the poorest in society and criminals) is serving them true justice. This is something that appears as foreshadow when Selina Kyle mentions this to Bruce Wayne. She is against the aristocratic state of Gotham.
Of course we later see that from Selina Kyle’s point of view, this is not what she wanted. Gotham being ruled by the insane, in a totalitarian way is not what true justice is.
Apart from acting as Gotham’s liberator and Messiah, he has one mission, that of fulfilling Ra’s al Ghul’s destiny, the destruction of Gotham. He follows the belief of Ra’s al Ghul, a person who isn’t motivated by morality but what he subjectively deems as right for the world. It doesn’t matter if there was some good remaining in Gotham, if the means were necessary, the city had to be destroyed.
Bane is more than just a physical threat to Batman. According to director Christopher Nolan, in a commentary on the Dark Knight Rises, he mentions that Bane is a threat to Bruce’s own philosophy.
In conclusion, Bane is an impactful villain in Bruce’s final journey as the Dark Knight. And every villain that Bruce has faced, has a certain impact in his hero’s journey, throughout the Dark Knight trilogy.
Ra’s al Ghul, in Batman Begins provides Bruce the path to cross into the League of Shadows, which he refuses.
Joker in the Dark Knight, tests Bruce’s moral code, even if the tests result to severe consequences.
As for Bane in the Dark Knight Rises, both Bane and Batman share a goal in fighting for justice, only that Bane’s vision for justice is corrupted and that he wants to fulfill Ra’s al Ghul’s destiny by destroying Gotham and Batman with it by breaking him.
The only thing that Bane did not know was that Batman is a symbol that represents the fight for justice, even though he knew Batman‘s secret identity and he broke him.
He destroyed the physical embodiment of Batman in the form of Bruce, but when Bruce returns to Gotham and lights up the Gotham bridge with the Bat symbol, he’s telling the GCPD that if you have a duty, you know what to do, it’s time to fight.
Sources:
2. Understanding Bane — The Dark Knight Rises (2012) — Character Analysis
