“The Last Vengeance of Bane”
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Howard Porter
Color Artist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Steve Wands
Review by James Attias
The “One Bad Day” series is back, and who knows more about backs than… Bane! What could be worse than being born into a prison sentence? What one bad day could have shaped the man who broke the Bat? Find out in Batman: One Bad Day: Bane.
Breaking Bat
To quote me, from my last review in this series “The whole point of the line, “One Bad Day”, is that anyone could lose their mind or have their life turned upside down, just by just having one bad day. It happened to Joker, it happened to Batman, and it could happen to us all. I feel like, of late, these stories have forgotten that. So, I went into this story with that little bit of fear that it would do the same, but was pleasantly surprised by how this book approached the subject.
Anyone who’s a comic book or Batman fan knows who Bane is. He was the first villain to physically break Batman. Hand to hand, he defeated the Dark Knight and broke his back. This put the Caped Crusader out of action for a year in the nineties. His more recent action of breaking Alfred’s neck and killing the last parental figure Bruce had, in Tom King’s fantastic “City of Bane” arc cemented his place as one of Batman’s all-time greatest foes.
This story takes place in a world where Bane did break the Bat and did kill Alfred, but once again it is not Earth Prime, so anything can happen. It did happen, this takes place many years after Bane retired from villainy and returned to the Mexican Wrestling scene. Talk about your perfect heel.
Kicking The Habit
This story’s about Bane tracking down the last remnants of Venom, the super steroid that gave him his inhuman strength way back when. This isn’t the first time Bane has tried to rid the world of Venom as, over the years, he’s had an on-again-off-again battle against his addiction to the substance. Bane and Batman have both used Venom, and have both fallen victim to its addictive qualities. This story shows that it takes a lot of strength, will, and character to kick your addictions. It’s not a one-off fight, it’s a daily battle. I like how this story handled that for Bane.
Joshua Williamson, hot off the heels of Dark Crisis, writes an interesting tale in this book. It’s not the Bane story I was expecting, but once I started reading I realized that I’d already seen a lot of Bane’s youth. It makes sense to jump forward into Old(ish) Man Bane. The art’s good, I feel guilty for saying this, but I would have loved a bit more 90’s homage in the art, but alas it is what it is. The art wasn’t perfect, as on some pages the colors were a little strange, skin tones, etc. … but all in all, it’s not too bad.
Conclusion
Batman: One Bad Day: Bane is more than meets the eye, sometimes the bad day that shaped our lives can happen on our best day. I recommend briefly re-reading more of Bane’s early stories, and Batman: Venom. Then dive into this steroidal cocktail of Bane!
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment
