SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Batman #50 by Tom King, Mikel Janín, June Chung, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Trish Mulvihill, Becky Cloonan, Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson, Frank Miller, Alex Sinclair, Lee Bermejo, Neal Adams, Hi-Fi, Tony S. Daniel, Tomeu Morey, Amanda Conner, Paul Mounts, Rafael Albuquerque, Andy Kubert, Tom Sale, Jose Villarrubia, Paul Pope, Mitch Gerads, Clay Mann, Jordie Bellaire, Ty Templeton, Keiren Smith, Joëlle Jones, David Finch, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Greg Capullo, FCO Plascencia, Lee Weeks and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.


As one of the most iconic superheroes in the history of comic books, Batman has a long track record of absolute classic stories to his name and as a result, creators often want to revisit the worlds of those stories for a sequel, whether a direct follow-up or something that carries on the spirit of the original story.

Whether it's creators returning to their own work like Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale on The Long Halloween’s follow-up Dark Victory and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns trilogy, or the next generation of creators building off what came before such as how Scott Snyder, Jock and Francesco Fracavilla’s “The Black Mirror” is in many ways a follow-up to “Batman: Year One”, the allure of the sequel is hard to deny.

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One of the most overlooked classic Batman stories is the early-nineties classic “Knightfall,” which gave the world Bane, the masked manipulator who tore through Batman like he was nothing and broke him over his knee. “Knightfall” is often lumped in with stories like “The Death of Superman” or “Emerald Twilight” as comics with shock value for shock value’s sake and little else, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only is "Knightfall" one Batman’s most iconic stories, it introduced a new kind of enemy for The Caped Crusader and a new kind of story; one where he fails.

This week’s Batman #50 reveals that in many ways, Tom King’s epic run on the titular Batman series is a spiritual sequel to “Knightfall” only this time Bane is smarter and more ruthless than ever.

The Knight’s Fall

When you think of "Knightfall," you probably think of the iconic panel of Bane bringing Batman down across his knee, breaking his back and leaving The Dark Knight truly humbled and defeated, and it’s a great moment for sure. However, "Knightfall" is so much more than that one moment, and the context of how both Bane and Batman both got to that scene is so important to understanding how it happened and the importance of it in the larger scheme of the Batman stories of the early-nineties.

Bane was created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Graham Nolan, first appearing in 1993’s The Vengeance of Bane #1 by Dixon and Nolan. The Vengeance of Bane established everything about the character that we now know as so iconic; he was born on the South American island Santa Prisca, to a mother imprisoned in the brutal Peña Duro prison facility. His mother died when he was six years old, leaving him alone with the world’s most hardened criminals, eventually becoming the most feared of them all.

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Subjected to the dangerous Venom trials, he faked his own death to escape the prison and set out to establish his name and legacy in the world at large just has he had done in the prison which stole his childhood and adolescence. It ends with a present day sequence of Bane eyeing up Batman and deciding he isn’t ready yet, but he will be back to break the Bat as soon as he is.

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That’s the key to Bane; how many supervillains have the presence of mind to look at a superhero and say “Yeah, I’m not ready for him yet.” Bane may be defined visually as a hulking mass of muscles upon muscles, but his true defining characteristic is his tactical ability, which is the true reason he was able to defeat Batman.

"Knightfall" was never just a fight in the Batcave between the two enemies; it started with Bane busting open Arkham Asylum and freeing every one of Batman’s rogues onto the streets of Gotham City. Batman was forced to endure a gauntlet of his most dangerous enemies, getting more beat-up and more sleep-deprived with every new challenge. It was only then that Bane made his move, recognising he still could take on a rested and healthy Batman; Bane was able to break Batman, but only because it wasn’t a level playing field.

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The Broken Bat

Now, Bane is back, and everything seems rather familiar if you take a step back and look at the big picture. Once again, Bane knows that he can’t go toe-to-toe with Batman and defeat him; he tried in last year’s “I Am Bane” arc and once again got his butt kicked. Every time that Bane goes up against a rested and healthy Batman, Bane loses but there was always that one time in which Bane won, and he has to know he could do it again. This time, instead of pitting Batman through a physical gauntlet against his most dangerous enemies, he’s working towards breaking down Batman emotionally and sabotaging his wedding with Catwoman with the help of Holly Robinson is just the start.

Just like with "Knightfall" Bane knows that he can’t break the Bat alone and has recruited a ragtag cabal of heroes, villains and x-factors to thoroughly break Batman forever. Allied with not just the likes of The Joker, The Riddler and Hugo Strange but also Skeets, Gotham Girl and Flashpoint Batman, Bane has set himself up as the dark puppet master behind everything bad that’s happened to Batman over the last two years and if he gets his way, everything bad that’ll happen to Batman over the next two years, also.

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What Comes Next?

Bane’s plan seems to be working, too. A quick look at upcoming solicitations show that Bruce Wayne is stepping away from the Batman cape and cowl for at least a brief period and allowing Dick Grayson to once again step into the role.

Dick first served as Batman in the aftermath of the "Knightfall" Saga, once Bruce had returned and defeated his initial replacement Jean-Paul Valley; Jean-Paul is doing a lot better now, but he’s off in space with Cyborg’s Justice League team and Batman probably realises that Dick is the best choice anyway, allowing the former Robin and current Nightwing to once again fulfill his destiny as Batman’s successor.

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That just leaves us with one final question, which is what does Bane have planned for Batman next? With his odd allies stretching beyond the expected Batman rogues gallery and including an alternate-timeline version of his father, Bane’s scope is bigger than it ever has been and with Batman #50, Tom King and company have truly cemented the masked man from Santa Prisca as Batman’s one true greatest enemy. Tom King has described his Batman story as a one-hundred issue epic, meaning we’re only at the halfway point but at least now we know the true through-line of King’s plans and know to pay attention to every little thing that happens to Batman, because it might turn out that Bane was the one behind it all along.

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