10 Things DC Comics Wants You To Forget About Bane

4. That He Owns A Beloved Teddy Bear

During Bane's time in the hellish prison called Peña Dura, he had only one friend. Well, two friends. First of all there was the kindly, elderly Jesuit priest who gave him the classical education that enabled him to become a master strategist and one of Batman's few intellectual rivals, a man that the great Ra's al Ghul says "has a mind equal to the greatest he has known". So that makes him pretty smart. He was a nice old dude, and played a big part in making Bane into the man he is today, but the villain ended up killing him regardless. Which left him with just one friend - no, not a fellow behemoth or super genius. A teddy bear. Osito - Spanish for "little bear" - was Bane's constant companion for his time in jail, probably helped by the fact that he was an inanimate object and therefore couldn't be murdered in cold blood. Osito was considered his only true friend, to the degree that the bear has come as an accessory with Bane action figures and actually had a cameo appearance in the Batman & Robin film. Oh also he has a removable head which reveals the knife concealed inside, which Bane totally uses to shank fools during his time under lock and key. Which is a pretty goofy little accessory to give to a big, scary villain like Bane. Even when you account for the fact that he hid a friggin' shiv inside it in order to defend himself, the image of one of Batman's most formidable foes carting around a plush toy is pretty amusing. Which is probably why Osito is now relegated to being a hidden item in the Arkham Asylum game rather than getting a starring role alongside his erstwhile pal. We're angling for a Bane & Osito team up book - styled after C-Bear and Jamal - at some point, though.