When I decided to dedicate November to designs and redesigns, there were a few in particular that mean a lot to me.

Don’t get me wrong, Ikari and Sparrow are very important to me, I put my heart into those designs as much as this one.

But this one is special.

Bane deserves more than a simple doodle of a design I made for him. He deserved a full-fledged redesign. Bane deserves more in general.

Of all my favorite characters in fiction, very few have been disrespected nearly as much as Bane. What we constantly see now is either a joke or a mindless, dumb brute who falls down defeated whenever his tube of venom is cut. It feels like the importance and impact of Bane has been all but forgotten.

Knightfall is a legendary story that still holds up today. But the importance and the meaning of it seem to have been forgotten or at least misinterpreted over time. The iconic image of Bane breaking Batman’s spine over his knee is still remembered today, as it should be. But the story itself should be given the same recognition. In it, Bane is built up as a true nemesis to Batman. It’s about how Bane overpowers and outperforms Batman on every level, not just in terms of strength. Not only is Bane much stronger, he’s a better fighter, as well as a master strategist and cunning genius-level intellect. It’s one thing to snap Batman’s back and defeat him. He can and will come back from that. It’s another thing entirely to beat him on every level, to run him ragged and then shatter his spine. It’s another thing entirely to break Batman. The second part of Knightfall juxtaposes Azrael briefly taking on the role of Batman to defeat Bane with Bruce slowly and painfully learning to walk again. Side note, Azbat is similarly misunderstood and derided for the wrong reasons. The design and characterization were purposefully excessive. It was intentionally designed and written that way to show that Azrael was completely unfitting as Batman, that Bruce was healing to come back as Batman, because he knew what it meant and how to do it right.

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises gets a bad rap, but it’s just as good as The Dark Knight. Tom Hardy is the closest thing to what Bane actually should be that we’ve had in decades, and it’s a real shame he’s so derided. Admittedly, the indeterminate accent is still a strange choice, but the actual dialogue Bane is given is perfect. Everything except the look and lack of venom is perfect Bane.

Gail Simone gave Bane shades of morality and a wonderful arc trying to give up venom in her Secret Six series.

Tom King made Bane intimidating again, made the idea of Bane coming to Gotham frightening.

All this to say that despite all the recent incarnations disrespecting and misinterpreting him, there are those who understand who and what Bane is and respect it.

Ultraverse Bane is my love letter to him, my proof that I do the same.

The man that would become Bane was born in Pena Duro, a Cuban prison meant to contain the hardest, most dangerous convicts. He was chosen as a test subject for “Project Gilgamesh,” a government project to create super-soldiers with the new “super steroid,” a chemical compound known as venom. The experiment worked too well—Bane escaped Cuba, taking the formula for venom with him, and killed everyone related to the project so that he would be the only one who knew how to manufacture it.

Bane is an Olympic-level athlete with immense strength, able to punch through solid concrete, even without venom. In fact, he tries to use it as little as possible. Yes, in the short-term, venom gives Bane a massive boost in strength and endurance, even pushing his pain threshold to ridiculous levels. However, like any performance-enhancing drug, his body can only handle so much. After a certain limit is reached, his body will not be able to maintain the level of activity that it’s forced to endure, causing irreparable damage. Not just his muscles, but his tendons, ligaments, bones and even organs will suffer as a result. On top of all that, due to his years of usage, Bane’s body has developed a natural tolerance for the drug, requiring higher and higher dosages to reach the same level of performance each time. Bane adapts to the venom without realizing it, the prolonged exposure causing his body to permanently mutate, his blood now has venom-like properties, giving him advanced regeneration and strength. Think of it like the Kaio-ken technique, while Bane is already a Super Saiyan. Mixing the two is powerful, but permanently damages the body in a way that his advance regeneration cannot heal. It will make him much stronger, but after it wears off, he will be weaker than he was before. Using venom overclocks his system, the consequences of using it become more drastic as time goes on and usage increases. Every time he uses it, it could be the last time.

One of the lesser, but still important, side effects of venom is prolonged use causing Bane’s memory to deteriorate, akin to Alzheimer’s. In a moment of weakness, Bane tells somebody, or maybe just himself, that he’s forgotten his own name. Batman goes digging deeper than he ever has before attempting to find out who Bane is/was, and still finds nothing. He never finds out who Bane is other than what he told him when they first met. “I am Bane” isn’t just his badass catchphrase, it’s also a little tragic. There is nothing he has except Bane.

Like with his characterization, I went back to Bane’s roots for his design. I even brought back his arm and chest hair. I made his belt the device that distributes the venom, since he usually wears a belt with a big red circle on the buckle that never does anything. It’s better than another wrist device, I suppose. The mask was another important aspect. The element of Bane wearing a luchador-inspired mask is very important to his design.

I was working on this design when my college roommate asked me if I wanted to join him as he watched AEW’s All Out 2021 event. I should clarify that I’ve never watched wrestling before, I didn’t grow up with it. But by the end, even as a complete outsider with no context, I was cheering right along with him. I asked for his input on this design, adding some wrestler elements back to Bane outside of his mask.

My design for Bane is mostly heavily influenced by Jeff Matsuda’s design for the character, as seen in the animated show The Batman from 2004. I love Bane having a pre- and post-venom enhancement forms, with his outfit stretching and contracting against his growing muscles. I think his second form is a little too stylized, though, as much as I love Matsuda’s designs. The top-heavy design, red skin, yellow eyes and sort of zipper teeth end up making Bane look like Fourarms from the original Ben 10. This isn’t to say that Matsuda’s designs aren’t absolutely incredible, they heavily influenced me, as did the show they come from. That show is to Batman what Transformers: Animated is to Transformers, a criminally under-appreciated animated show that wasn’t afraid to radically change the status quo of the franchise. Both changed and introduced concepts in ways that haven’t been seen before or even since.

Bane is a character who frustrates me because he deserves better. I hope I’ve been able to express why I love the character, why he’s important and why he should be respected. If I was edgier or less funny, I’d say make Bane great again.

So instead I’ll say remember why Bane is remembered.

Be sure to let me know what you think! This character redesign was almost cathartic for me, I really enjoyed making it, and I hope that you enjoy it too. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback!