Bane Co-Creator Calls Absolute Batman Villain “A Terrible Abomination”

Bane co-creator Graham Nolan is, ahem, breaking his silence on that viral Absolute Bane design. When the luchador-inspired Batman villain debuted in the pages of writer Chuck Dixon and artist Nolan’s Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 in 1993 — a 64-page origin story for the back-breaking archvillain of the Knightfall storyline — Bane was in perfect physical condition even before being injected with the strength-enhancing super steroid Venom.

Big and brawny, Bane was built like a brick house, but with a physique more similar to a bodybuilder than the grotesquely exaggerated, hulking monster depicted on artist Kelley Jones’ cover for Batman #497 (the iconic Bat-breaking issue). So when Absolute Batman artist Nick Dragotta revealed his extra-burly Bane — who is even bigger than the 6’6″ tall, 275-pound Batman — Nolan called the redesign “a terrible abomination” in a viral social media post that racked up over 1.6 million views.

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“After being asked countlessly for my opinion on this version of Bane, I gave an honest answer,” Nolan wrote in a subsequent post on X. “I’ve been called everything from a ‘has been,’ to ‘bitter,’ to ‘old.’”

“Relax! It’s just my opinion,” Nolan’s post continued. “It shouldn’t affect how you feel about it. 1.6 MILLION people viewed the post and it seems that many had their own opinion. If every one of you were buying comics instead of reacting to the opinion of one guy, this business would be in better shape. I’m now issuing you all a challenge. Why get mad at me, when you can get even with me? BUY THIS BOOK! Tell your friends and get multiple copies. Prove me wrong with your wallets instead of your keyboards and give this artist a HUGE royalty pay day! Let’s get this book to 1.6 million in sales! That’ll show me.”

Depictions vary. Bane was a vein-covered brute in 1997’s Batman & Robin, and shredded but normal-sized in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises (played by Tom Hardy). In Batman: The Animated Series, Bane, with his exposed lips, even more resembled a luchador in a single appearance in the original series; in 2004’s The Batman animated series, Venom turned a regular-sized man into the hulking, red-skinned Bane. 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum also opted for the super-bulky Bane, who was depicted with an elaborate Venom-dispensing tube system rather than the simple feeding tubes embedded in Bane’s mask.

March’s Absolute Batman #6 ended with the humorless Joker — who drains babies of their blood (!!!) to treat his bleached-white skin condition — summoning Bane to Gotham. As Batman unravels the mystery of “Ark M,” one of the many “Ark” black sites funded by Joker and Black Mask, he’ll next face a cryptid-like Mister Freeze in Absolute Batman #7 before going up against Bane in June’s Absolute Batman #9.