Bane Broke Batman’s Back 32 Years Ago and The Dark Knight Has Never Really Recovered

32 years ago today, Bane became the first ever character to break the Batman, and he left a permanent mark on the Dark Knight. In Batman #497, chapter eleven of the “Knightfall” storyline, Bane broke into the Batcave, beat a battered and exhausted Batman to a pulp, and shattered his spine over his knee. He left the Batman a paraplegic mess on the ground of his own home, and proceeded to take over Gotham City until Jean-Paul Valley took up the Batman mantle and defeated the madman. However, Bane destroying Batman’s back didn’t just have major consequences for the next few story arcs, it also fundamentally changed how Batman operated in a way that is still felt to this day. It all started when Bane made his claim to fame.

Bane Made Batman a Darker Character

Batman flirted with being a dark character way before Bane came about. Some of the Dark Knight’s most mature and horrifying stories came before Bane broke his back, but those were the hero Batman facing dark situations. Bane forced Batman to evolve into a much darker hero, altering the very setting of Gotham to be much darker following his debut. In the most direct and obvious case, Bane brought about Jean-Paul Valley’s much grittier, lethal version of the character. Jean-Paul was the living embodiment of the over the top edge of the 1990s, wearing heavy armor and launching batshuriken from a machine gun-like launcher on his wrists. He was designed to be a near parody of the edgy antiheroes that were all the rage, and did so fantastically.

Beyond inadvertently creating the edgiest Batman variant ever, Bane also had a direct impact on the tone of the Dark Knight. Before his confrontation with Bane, Batman wore his classic blue and grey uniform, which he’d worn for decades at that point. It could easily be shrouded in darkness, but it was distinctly a lighter shade than the shadows Batman blended into. After his return post spinal-healing, Batman shifted to an all black costume, signifying a massive shift in his character. Although that’s the standard today, back then that was a massive break from the status quo. Gone was the Caped Crusader who you’d see fighting sharks as often as supervillains, now there was only the Dark Knight, the dread avenger who stalked the rooftops of Gotham and dealt with serial killers and monsters near exclusively. His confrontation with Bane forever altered Batman’s character, making him far more paranoid about his villains, and taking them far more seriously, which in turn made his entire comic much darker.

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Bane Forced Batman to Change How He Operated

Nowadays the idea of Batman constructing satellite Batcaves around Gotham City and formatting emergency weapons to deal with threats is the norm, but that wasn’t always the case. Those concepts only exist as Batman’s direct response to the “Knightfall” storyline. After coming back from his forced retirement, Batman struck back with a far more militaristic view of protecting Gotham. He became obsessed with being ready to face any and all threats that he might face, planting the first seeds of paranoia that would blossom into the endless countermeasures and plans to take down his own allies that Batman is infamous for today. Beyond just that, this is the time when Batman really started pushing away the people closest to him.

Contrary to popular belief of him being a loner, Batman has never truly operated as a one man army. For nearly his entire career, the Dark Knight was joined by his numerous Robins, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon in his quest to clean up Gotham. That all changed after Bane. Alfred quit working for Bruce because of his endless obsession, Gordon grew distrustful of Batman due to his numerous stand-ins, and all of his rogues had a renewed and intensified hatred of the Bat. While he was never the most emotionally available person, Bruce started keeping even his closest allies at arm’s reach, never letting them get as close as they had before. This was the real start of Batman’s descent towards operating well and truly on his own for the first time.

Overall, Bane’s first encounter with Batman had a shockingly deep effect on Bruce. It turned him into an all the more serious, obsessed, and dark character than he ever was before. Batman was determined to never allow this kind of failure to repeat, and has firmly cemented the aspects he developed post-Bane into the fabric of his being so well that they are considered as having always been there. Bane did break Batman, not just in body and spirit, but in leaving a scar on the Dark Knight that very, very few other villains have ever managed to score. The new Batman, for better or worse, was born as a result of Bane.