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Quote1 Behold... ...the ideal killing machine! I call this little number... ... Bane. Bane of Humanity! Quote2
Jason Woodrue src

Bane was a henchman of Poison Ivy.

Bane was originally a prisoner, called Antonio Diego, in the South American jail of Pena Duro, who apparently served a life sentence for murder, and was also the sole surviving volunteer for Dr. Woodrue's "Project Gilgamesh". He was selected to be the test subject for military experiments involving the drug, Venom and was Dr. Woodrue's first successful subject. Woodrue first had his hair permanently removed, and then had five holes drilled into his skull with the largest at the base of the back of his skull. He was strapped down in front of a large audience of foreign dictators, American military generals, commanders, commissars, sheiks, and terrorists to an operating table, where massive, concentrated overdoses of Venom were purposely pumped into his skull and circulatory systems. Through the Luchador-style mask that he was forced to wear - one with five tubes that were snaked into his skull - Diego was seen writhing and screaming in agony for roughly fifteen seconds before he began to change. Originally, Diego was comparatively scrawny and diminutive, but when Venom started to take effect, he turned into a hulking monster with superhuman strength, or the "ideal killing machine", in Dr. Woodrue's words.

After Dr. Pamela Isley became Poison Ivy, she took the newly christened Bane with her to Gotham City to act as her enforcer. Bane helped scare the Golums (a street gang of punks) from their hangout at the abandoned Turkish Baths, as well as assisted in freeing Mr. Freeze from Arkham Asylum and retrieving his cryogenic armor from Arkham's Criminal Property Locker.

At Freeze's hideout, the Snowy Cones Ice Cream Factory, Batman and Robin, along with Commissioner James Gordon and the GCPD, investigated the hideout for clues to Freeze's whereabouts. During the investigation, Batman and Robin discovered that Ivy was close by after they got a dose of her pheromone dust. After they followed its direction, Batman and Robin began to look for Ivy, only to be confronted and challenged by Bane, who proved more than a match for them with his ferocious strength. Ivy and Bane successfully escaped arrest and fled.

Bane eventually accompanied Freeze to Gotham Observatory, assisted him in taking control of the new telescope, and placed Freeze's icicle bombs around the area.

When Batman, Robin, and Batgirl arrived to stop them, Freeze ordered Bane to kill Batman's two young comrades while he fought the Dark Knight himself. Bane encountered Robin and Batgirl in a cave within the cliffs on which the Observatory was built, pinned them both against a wall, and attempted to strangle them to death. Robin and Batgirl kicked Bane's main supply tube, which disconnected it from the back of his head and stopped the Venom circulation to his brain in the process. That, in turn, caused Bane massive withdrawal, and quickly reverted him back to his normal self. Bane was left behind by Robin and Batgirl as they escaped, but what happened to him afterwards, was ultimately left ambiguous, as there was no evidence that he died in the fall of the Telescope Platform that occurred shortly afterwards.

Powers

  • Enhanced Strength: Bane possessed incredible strength through his injections of Venom.

Weaknesses

  • Diminished Intellect: Bane lost most of his intellect after having been experimented on, only capable of making grunts and growls as Ivy's assistant.
  • Power Limitation: Bane is powerless without his Venom, making it an easy vulnerability.


  • Like the Burtonverse Joker, the Burtonverse Bane is the first version with an official real name.

Related

Footnotes


Batman Villains 0003
DC Bullet 2024

Batman Villain(s)
This character, team or organization, has been primarily an enemy of the Batman, or the Batman Family as a whole. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Batman Villains."

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