10 Comic Characters Who STOLE Batman's Identity

It can be easy to assume that big beefy Bane is all brawn and no brains.

However, Bane is one of the smartest, most devious villains to match Batman's intellect and paranoid levels of preparedness. Following the events of New 52's Death of the Family where the Joker and Batman faced off in what was assumed to be their final duel, Batman was missing and left Gotham in a huge power struggle.

Miraculously, or rather unfortunately, the Penguin managed to nab himself the title of Mayor of Gotham. His first act of business was to divide the sections by awarding them to various Bat-villains. Meanwhile, Bane had escaped from his holdings and intended to return to Gotham to exact his own desires.

In the ensuing chaos, Bane decides to try and ally himself with the Penguin, only for Cobblepot's to tell him the other villains won't support the luchador because they don't fear him like Batman.

So Bane does the next rational thing, and puts together his own hulking Bane-Bat suit. As he pummels his way through Scarecrow's forces, Bane finally becomes the ultimate power in all of Gotham city.

That is, until the real Batman shows up, reminding us once again that stealing Batman's identity is a big no-no. Thankfully, Bane finds himself once again locked up for this, and not with the others at the bottom of one of Gotham's rivers.