Batman #23.4: Bane – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Graham Nolan (art), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: It’s leaders like Bane that make you think twice before criticizing our president.

The Review: With DC producing scads of new characters each year, it’s not surprising that only a few manage to rise to the top.  One of the best floaters of recent years (by which I mean since I was born, some—gah!—twenty-seven years ago) is Bane, one of the only Bat-villain to have truly felled the Dark Knight.  His combination of steroid brawn and razor-sharp mind is what sets him apart, as does his status as a political icon within the DCU.

I’m sure others have done great things with Bane, but the one I always think of is the strangely Byronic man who graced the pages of Gail Simone’s Secret Six.  I’d even say that Simone’s Bane is the gold standard by which all others should be measured.  She not only delivered the perfect balance of Bane’s aforementioned qualities, she gave him a compelling voice and perspective that made him more than the sum of abilities.  You’d think a master character writer like Tomasi would get you similar results, but surprisingly, he falls quite short of the mark.