Bane

[The Laughing Fish]

I rewatched this episode a couple of months ago.

It's an entertaining episode, but it's nowhere near among my top ten favourites of BTAS. Having Bane as a hired mercenary to eliminate Batman while conspiring with Rupert Thorne's secretary to overthrow her boss, isn't quite as interesting as a mastermind who plots exhausting and crippling Batman, which results the volatile Bat-Azrael taking the mantle. But it still makes a watchable episode.

While we could never expect BTAS to ever adapt Knightfall - reasons being because it's way too dark and such a story would require a season long arc - the episode does take some elements from all Bane/Knightfall-related comics as faithful as possible. Bane is established as a prisoner who escaped from Santa Prisca having survived the Venom experiment, he faces off and easily defeats Killer Croc, he kidnaps Robin at some point, says "I'll break you" when confronting Batman, and nearly fulfills that devastating promise.

But of course, we can't have Batman getting maimed on a kids' TV show, so he outsmarts Bane by severing the tube that feeds him the Venom. Which oddly enough, results in these images that would still horrify young children watching it.







That imagery looks gruesome even if Batman stopped Bane from exploding to death. Even though restricted by censorship, BTAS still finds ways to be dark without being too gratuitous.

[thecolorsblend]

My memory is that Bane was the first episode to air during that run of The Adventures of Batman & Robin episodes. Wikipedia seems to tell a different story tho. So hmm.

Either way, it's a solid episode. Not necessarily top 10. But I'd probably put it somewhere in my top 30 episodes.

There are divergences from the source material as you say. But like you, I put that down to practical necessities. At least somewhat. But I think another explanation is that the BTAS crew were mostly not all that comfortable working with Post-Crisis Batman stories. Exceptions like "A Bullet For Bullock" and "Dreams In Darkness" prove the rule.

And the rule is that the number of BTAS episodes adapted from Bronze Age comic book stories FAR outnumber the adaptations of Post-Crisis stories. I put that down to most of the crew having more familiarity with the Bronze Age than anything else since that's what would've been coming out when they were younger.

So with episodes like "Bane", I sometimes wonder if the crew felt obligated to use the character on the show even tho I don't think they really understood the character or his appeal to younger comic book fans. They did well with the episode, don't get me wrong. But I can't be convinced that a better adaptation wasn't possible. A two-part "Bane" episode probably could've done more to flesh out the character rather than present him as a brute. An intelligent brute, yes. But still a brute.

I don't buy that Bane would never be somebody's hit man. His agenda is to rule Gotham City. He'd get his foot into the door by any means necessary. The comics show this trait in No Man's Land. He'll serve someone else's agenda if it serves his own agenda. So I buy that he'd come to Gotham on Thorne's dime to do Thorne's dirty work as a preamble to making his own move.

So I don't knock his portrayal in "Bane". I'm just saying there was room for improvement.

[The Laughing Fish]

I forgot to mention that my favourite moment in the episode is when Batman and Robin find the Batmobile destroyed by Bane. A very intimidating calling card right there.

I sometimes wonder if the crew obligated to use the character on the show even tho I don't think they really understood the character or his appeal to younger comic book fans.

FYI, I found this podcast dedicated to the show and there was an interview with Mitch Brian, who wrote the Bane episode and the very first episode of the show, On Leather Wings. According to Brian on 17:29, he describes the episode as a direct reaction against Bane breaking Batman in the comics, because he and Bruce Timm thought what happened in Knightfall was a "stupid" idea.

Source: https://luminarypodcasts.com/listen/justin-michael-351/batman-the-animated-podcast/64-bane-mitch-brian/cb2063c4-2ea5-4ee3-b904-c806443a24c9

Timm wanted to put Bane in the show, so reading between the lines, it appears the Bane episode might be considered to be a critique of the character itself. Brian even says Bane gets caricatured into a Mexican wrestler of sorts, as a result.

I've read some comments on other online forums speculating that Timm was never a big fan of the villain, and I'm quite convinced that's true more than ever. In the book Modern Masters #3, Timm mentions his lack of enthusiasm in using Bane again for Batman Beyond, albeit as a tired, disabled man. So with that taken into account, I'm getting the impression the crew working on BTAS/DCAU didn't care much for Bane.

Which wouldn't be surprising at all, if you ask me. As you already said, BTAS adapted lots of stories from the Bronze Age comics, many of those stories that the showrunners would've been familiar with - going so far to hire comics writers of that era to work on the show.

On the other hand, comics in the early 90s were a little too extreme to adapt on a Saturday morning cartoon, and Knightfall and Death of Superman weren't kid friendly. Even Doomsday in Justice League had to get shortchanged; IIRC, he only appeared in the Justice Lords episodes and he was lobotomised by Justice Lords Superman's heat vision. The JL show would later put its own spin on the whole Funeral of a Friend scenario by having Toyman presumably kill Superman which sparks public mourning for the Man of Steel.

I do think it's possible the DCAU creators thought the newer villains such as Bane and Doomsday were "too gimmicky" for their tastes. But even if they did appreciate them, it would be hard to portray them much more accurately when they're restricted by censorship.

I don't buy that Bane would never be somebody's hit man. His agenda is to rule Gotham City. He'd get his foot into the door by any means necessary. The comics show this trait in No Man's Land. He'll serve someone else's agenda if it serves his own agenda. So I buy that he'd come to Gotham on Thorne's dime to do Thorne's dirty work as a preamble to making his own move.

So I don't knock his portrayal in "Bane". I'm just saying there was room for improvement.

I suppose the plot involving Rupert Thorne not only shows that he is the most prominent mob boss in Gotham City, outside of anyone in Batman's rogues gallery, but it maintains the show's gangster noir appeal. It does have that pulp feeling: hired mercenary out to kill the hero, fancies the boss's right hand woman and they plan to double cross him to take over the criminal empire, blah blah blah. As far as Candice is concerned, I think this was her third appearance in the show, following the whole Two-Face saga, and unsurprisingly her last, after Batman exposed her plans to Thorne in the end.

As for improving Bane's portrayal, that's a bit hard. You can't really delve too much of his backstory because it's among one of the darkest in Batman comics: kid grows up in prison, has a near death experience and has a vision of his adult self telling him to destroy the Bat to fulfill his destiny, forged himself as a deadly weapon to survive and so on. So you're forced to work on improving the present day, while working within the parameters of censorship.

In hindsight, it's a miracle this episode is still watchable as it is.

[eledoremassis02]

Bane (much like Scarecrow) I feel really benefited in TNBA

[The Dark Knight]

Bane (much like Scarecrow) I feel really benefited in TNBA

Over The Edge is exactly how I like Bane to be, dream sequence or not.

Bane's comic origin is the best it can possibly be, so any deviation from that feels like a watered down compromise. Comic Bane had visions in jail, so finding and defeating Batman is a necessity for his own peace and sense of closure. Accepting a mob hit lessens things. But alas, once DCAU Bane takes the job and respects Batman's threat level, the quest becomes all encompassing, and he will stop at nothing. He's still enough of his own man, and no one is bossing him around.

The DCAU version honors the character's spirit of being an intimidator and strategist, so I put him in the good category.     

[The Joker]

Yes, that's a key aspect that I am glad was respected with the DCAU Bane. It's that even if he was introduced as a hired hitman/enforcer, it's factored into Bane's DCAU character that his agenda takes precedence over all. Thus making him a poor choice for a employee, or someone to team up with. Because he's simply not going to "go along with the program" if it's not meeting his own objective, and will think nothing of double crossing you once the opportune time comes. Bane's got the outer appearance of being a simple intimidating brute, but there's always that notion being alluded to that there's more going on under the surface.

My memory is that Bane was the first episode to air during that run of The Adventures of Batman & Robin episodes. Wikipedia seems to tell a different story tho. So hmm.

I have the same exact memory as well. I had been recording episodes of TAS on weekday afternoons on VHS, and recall the adverts for the "Adventures of Batman & Robin" on Saturday morning. Being that I usually didn't have a TV Guide to go off of, and I am not sure TV Guides back then even gave episode titles outside of listing "Batman" at whatever time, it was very much either setting your VCR, or tuning in to see what episode aired. My memory was "BANE" was the first episode aired. To which I thought was a pretty cool way to kick off Season 2 following all the exposure Bane had from the comic books at that point.   

[The Laughing Fish]

Bane (much like Scarecrow) I feel really benefited in TNBA

Yeah, in terms of design, I prefer TNBA's Bane, minus the dog collar. He looks much more psychotic and intimidating than his Mexican Luchador appearance in BTAS.



But for the Scarecrow, believe it or not, I still prefer the Fear of Victory look, simply because it makes for great transformations such as this.



Sometimes, it's the little details that is a bit more creepier than a look that's made for shock, such as the Hangman Scarecrow look in BTAS. But we can definitely this: both of these designs are major improvements over the original one from the Nothing to Fear episode.

[The Joker]

Because it was kinda bugging me, I've been looking up info on this particular episode to find any reason why colors and I have the memory of "Bane" being the first episode of The Adventures of Batman and Robin. Evidently, the "Bane" episode was indeed the first episode that featured the then-new "The Adventures of Batman and Robin" opening credit sequence with Shirley Walker's score (Sept 1994 and exclusively on Saturday mornings, rather than every weekday). However, season 2 episodes had already aired prior to "Bane" (starting in May 1994), but without a change in the first season's TAS opening sequence to further distinguish the cutoff from Season 1 from Season 2.

So go figure.

[thecolorsblend]

Because it was kinda bugging me, I've been looking up info on this particular episode to find any reason why colors and I have the memory of "Bane" being the first episode of The Adventures of Batman and Robin. Evidently, the "Bane" episode was indeed the first episode that featured the then-new "The Adventures of Batman and Robin" opening credit sequence with Shirley Walker's score (Sept 1994 and exclusively on Saturday mornings, rather than every weekday). However, season 2 episodes had already aired prior to "Bane" (starting in May 1994), but without a change in the first season's TAS opening sequence to further distinguish the cutoff from Season 1 from Season 2.

So go figure.

I can buy that you and I missed some episodes. We were a lot younger, it's been 25 years or whatever, it's easy for things to get fuzzy. It happens sometimes.

But I was active on a dial up BBS (remember those?) back in those days and the BTAS discussion all featured members who also believed that "Bane" was the first episode of TAOBAR. Being as it was a BBS service rather than a website, the threads are long gone with no hope of ever getting them back. But it wasn't just you and me, I promise. Either a TON of people missed out on the beginning of TAOBAR or else there may be some erroneous information on Wiki (what a shock!).

[The Joker]

The mystery continues it seems.

Being that memories are not entirely reliable, I could see, from my point of view, why I would have thought "Bane" was the start of Season 2. Especially due to that being the episode that included the new opening, and airing exclusively on Saturday mornings. The TAOBAR opening alone would have signaled the beginning of Season Two in my mind. However, I wasn't privy to the internet at that time, and definitely wasn't discussing the series in depth with others who were also watching it closely either. So that's interesting. I did have a particular magazine titled; "Cartoon Kingdom" that had a very useful Season 1 episode guide to TAS, with each of the 65 episodes having a brief synopsis. That helped of course, but I honestly don't recall noticing, say, "Sideshow" airing in May 1994, and my kid self wondering what the deal was?

Being that I went back to that episode guide quite a bit, I would think any and all unlisted episodes, would automatically stick out like a sore thumb. I can buy that there were some episodes that very rarely aired (On Leather Wings, and Christmas with the Joker being two I definitely remember being elusive to me), and thus would be "new" to me, but that still doesn't explain having no memory of having at least (according to wiki) 5 new episodes prior to the Sept 1994 "Bane" episode that initiated the Saturday mornings only airings...