3. The History of Bane
Bane grew up in a hellish prison and grew into a smart and incredibly powerful man who becomes the king of the prison. Sounds pretty close to Nolan's version right? Well yes, until that history is revealed to be Talia Al Ghul's and Bane ends up being the guy who looked after her. While in prison Bane was experimented on with a drug called venom. Venom drastically increased Bane's strength, increasing his body mass and his resistance to injury. Nolan decided on a more realistic contrivance for the mask; pain killers. Apparently Bane is in agony without a constant flow of some unspecified drug. What this doesn't explain is Bane's strength. Sure, he is built like a rhino but that doesn't explain how he over powers Batman so easily. I mean, Wayne is taller and also very buff. My one thought is that the pain killer makes him generally numb, so he can punch brick walls without feeling his hands break and he can push his body beyond normal limits. In the comics Bane is the son of a revolutionary, which works well with Nolan's re-imagining of the character. However, in reality we know pretty much nothing about Bane. He was in that prison, he saved Talia's life. His legend is actually Talia's legend so the man is really a faceless force of nature. I think this is very deliberate, it makes Bane a mystery. He clearly trained with the league of shadows, probably under Talia's reign rather than Ra's Al Ghul's. Other than that, we don't know anything. Still, many of the classic Bane moments were paid tribute to. He breaks Batman, he frees a ton of prisoners (not Arkham Asylum but Blackgate Prison) and he is hard. All in all, while not the Bane from the comics, he is a worthy adaptation of a great villain.