10 Worst Things That Ever Happened To Batman

4. Getting His Back Broken - Knightfall

Bane Batman Knightfall Back
DC Comics

The most frustrating thing about Knightfall is that it always tends to be reduced to just one moment - the act of Bane breaking Batman's back. It makes sense given that it was a momentous event, but there is so much going on in that three-part journey that it seems almost like a disservice to distil it entirely into that one exchange (however good it may actually be).

Technically, Knightfall actually only denotes the beginning of the three part arc. Knightsquest and KnightsEnd come after, which depict Gotham under the 'protection' of Jean Paul Valley's Batman, and Bruce Wayne's slow and arduous recovery to reclaiming his mantle. The story takes place over the course of about six months, which should go some way in illustrating how long it took Bruce to recover from Bane's onslaught.

One element that also gets overlooked as a part of Batman's suffering in this comic is Bane's mental attacks on the Dark Knight. This was the villain's debut arc, and he leapt onto the scene by breaking Batman not just physically, but mentally. He broke everyone out of Blackgate and Arkham in a bid to essentially make the Dark Knight work himself into the ground, sensing that the opportune moment to strike would present itself when Bats had a lapse in concentration.

As far as cautionary tales go about knowing when to accept help and not overworking yourself into the ground, Knightfall is up there with the very best.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.