Absolute Batman Found a Way to Make Bane Even Scarier

DC’s Absolute Universe revamps DC’s heroes and villains in a new reality, with the ruthless beast of muscle and brains known as Bane becoming more terrifying than ever before. DC’s Absolute Universe is a reality created by the energy of the DC multiverse’s greatest villain, the New God and ruler of the planet of Apokolips, Darkseid. With that kind of beginning to the Absolute Universe, it goes without saying that its version of all things DC is much darker and edgier, with big changes to DC’s Trinity and many other DC heroes and villains as part of establishing the new reality, which has quickly become all the rage of the comic book world.

 The quite gritty and violent Absolute version of Batman is one such example of how DC’s Absolute Universe re-imagines all of its characters from the ground up. The Dark Knight’s vast rogue’s gallery is also wildly re-imagined in the Absolute Universe, including the menacing Bane, who first confronts the Caped Crusader in Absolute Batman #9. Bane’s battle with Batman and the subsequent events of Absolute Batman #10 also make clear that this new version of Bane is the scariest version of the villain yet.

Bane Tortures Batman for Months After Capturing Him

The Dark Knight’s initial confrontation with Bane in Absolute Batman # 9 unveils the villain as an even more fearsome behemoth than in his original DC Comics origin story, and one who makes short work of Batman in their first fight. Rather than killing or crippling Batman, Bane puts the defeated Bruce Wayne through the same experimentation he himself went through in the Ark M prison, with Bruce held in captivity for months with his imprisonment rigorously enforced by Bane.

Bruce’s iron will leads him to go to extreme lengths every time he tries to escape, with Bruce resorting to such means as pulling some of his own teeth out to use as punching tools. However, Bane nonetheless thwarts Bruce’s every escape attempt and drives him to near total resignation of his defeat. It is ultimately in Bane’s taunting of Bruce by hanging his Batman suit in his cell that Bruce finally finds the will needed to don his cowl again and finally make a successful escape with the help of his fellow imprisoned friend Waylon (Absolute Batman’s version of Killer Croc). With Bruce being subject to Venom injections during his imprisonment, Batman might very well have emerged with Bane-like strength, but the situation also really shines a light on the cruelty of Absolute DC’s version of Bane.

Read Next

Batman and Catwoman Do Not Belong Together (& I Think This is a Better Romance)

Absolute DC Extrapolates on Bane “Breaking the Bat”

Bane’s introduction into DC Comics was an instant history maker, with Bane’s first battle with the Dark Knight ending with the villain breaking Batman’s back over his knee. Batman spent months recuperating from the injury, with Jean Paul-Ly a.k.a. Azrael filling in for him as Batman during that time. While Bruce eventually returned as Batman to defeat Bane in their subsequent battles, Batman never truly recovered from his defeat by Bane. Their infamous first confrontation led to Bane becoming legendary as the man who “broke the Bat”, and Absolute Batman’s version of Bane takes that idea and expands upon it in both physical and mental ways.

Bane’s defeat of Batman in their first Absolute DC fight is every bit as harrowing and brutal as their first legendary showdown, but Bane also shows a predilection for psychological torture similar to his big-screen counterpart in The Dark Knight Rises. In keeping Bruce locked up for months in Ark M prison and putting through the same cruel experiments he once went through, Bane breaks Batman’s spirit in DC’s Absolute Universe with the same terrible impact that he used to physically defeat Batman in Bane’s comic book debut. Even with Batman eventually escaping, his exposure to Venom and the potentially commensurate strength he now has with Bane’s own comes after a trip to Hell that leaves Batman forever changed, and with Batman having been involuntarily made a little bit like Bane through the Venom experimentation.

Absolute DC Ramps Up Bane’s Famous Combo of Brains & Brawn

Bane’s popularity as a Batman villain is a byproduct of his unique marriage of physical strength and genius-level intelligence. Both are assets that Batman himself has honed to perfection, but Bane’s even greater quantity of brains and brawn and his combination of the two make him a one-of-a-kind Batman villain, and indeed, a one-of-a-kind comic book villain. DC’s Absolute Universe shows a Bane with a far greater level of strength and intellect than the villain has ever known, matched with a sadism that makes his utilization of each a harrowing challenge for Batman to overcome.

In its own way, Absolute Batman has pulled off another subtle but impressive re-invention of the DC Universe in repositioning its version of Batman’s arch-nemesis not as the Joker, but arguably the mountainous monster of a man that is its version of Bane. With Absolute DC’s portrayal of Bane taking all of his physical and mental abilities to new heights, along with ramping up his viciousness to that of a ruthless master of psychological torture without a shred of remorse in him, Absolute Bane is truly the scariest version of the man who broke the Bat ever seen in comics, and one of the many character re-inventions that has made DC’s Absolute Universe into the comic book phenomenon that it is.