Batman Overview: Knightfall

This is the one. The introduction of Bane. The man who broke the bat. When Christopher Nolan announced that Bane would be the villain in The Dark Knight Rises fans had some ideas about what would happen. Given that Nolan has really taken adaptation and storytelling to a different level in The Dark Knight ensuring that Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes won’t be returning, he took us for a ride and exceeded expectations, subverting what we had come to know as superhero storytelling. In The Dark Knight, the hero is turned villain in the eyes of the public, he loses the girl, and the villain wins. Nolan has also given plenty of indication that The Dark Knight Rises brings the story full circle, and who better than the seminal man who broke the bat to feature in his grand finale: Bane.

A master of body and mind, Bane’s plan is simple. He knows his enemy the Batman well. He’s grown older, tired. Bane is young, idealistic, a perfect machine with a brain and mind to destroy the Bat. He releases all the maximum security inmates of Arkham Asylum; the rogues gallery is unleashed upon Gotham. The Joker, Two-Face, even one-note villains like The Film Freak get special attention from Batman. It’s Batman’s obligation to keep these criminals behind bars that pushes him to his limits. Robin (Tim Drake at this point) sees the strains that Bruce is undergoing at this time, but Bruce doesn’t heed any advice and continues to pursue while Bane watches, perched like a hawk until the moment arises. When Batman is at his most broken, and Bane his keenest, he meets Bruce at his home and forces him into a challenge. Bane doesn’t want to prove his strength to Batman, he simply wants to break him…and he does. While Bruce is broken–not dead, of course–Bane’s released inmates wreak havoc on Gotham and Bane, satisfied with a job well done, goes back to live in luxury.

“Knightfall” is the first part of an epic that refocuses Bruce Wayne as Batman. Bane wasn’t counting on the types of allies Bruce had, and one of those allies, Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael, dons the cape and cowl as Batman in Bruce’s stead. Valley is powerful, trained in the same tactics that made Bruce as well as trained by The Order of St. Dumas, and he is an easy match for Bane. And while violent battles ensue Tim Drake notices something about Valley; he lacks restraint. He is all violent energy, and once he’s taken the mantle of the Bat from Bruce he develops it into his own mechanical hybrid of Bat and Azrael. Valley defeats Bane through his immense violence over time but he bends rules that Bruce would never touch–Bruce even ordered Valley no to seek out Bane to begin with. Drake becomes less a partner and more observer to the mayhem caused by Azrael as he becomes singleminded and driven by violence due in large part to the training from The Order of St. Dumas. In the end, Bruce must overcome what Bane had done to him and retake the mantle of the Bat, forcing Valley to remain in Gotham as Azrael.

There is a lot more in “Knightfall” that makes it one of the better stories in DC’s Batman canon, and I’m only touching on the bare plot points here because any fan of Batman should read it. It’s a great intro to the character of Bane, a great representation of how Batman works with his allies–contrary to Nolan’s films, eventually Batman comes to work with a vast number of allies all over Gotham–and it’s great to see some high and low profile villains come out and play.

The most important take-away is how powerful Bane is as a villain, and how perfect an adversary he is for Batman. He is highly intelligent, he takes physical and mental care of himself, he is humble, modest, and worst of all for Batman, patient. He allows criminals to drive Batman to a breaking point and is never eager to rip Batman apart with his own hands. His patience is the mark of a man who enjoys watching his unknowing puppets on the stage. Gotham became his and not one person, not even Batman, had any clue. It’s the bizarre quirks of his henchmen–a hawk used to spy on Batman and Robin–that caught Robin’s attention at first, but Batman was too focused on putting the inmates back in Arkham that he missed his city becoming a puppet. Bane’s clarity is something that Batman lacked.

In stories past “Knightfall” Bane has developed into a villain with tragic personality traits, and his reliance on “Venom,” a chemical that enhances his strength, is his one weakness. That weakness takes the form of an addiction and drastically alters his motivations. Batman’s encounter with Bane in the video game Arkham City, for instance, has Batman and Bane scouring the city for barrels of Titan–a stand-in for “Venom”–but after they’ve all been destroyed Batman discovers that Bane has secretly hoarded a stash for himself. The temporary truce is abandoned and Batman locks Bane up so he can’t abuse the formula. It’s an interesting weakness for Bane, but it makes sense of his strength and Bane can be seen as a machine like any other, it needs oil to function properly.

Overall, if you find Bane interesting in The Dark Knight Rises, or if you want to see what all the Batman fans are talking about you’ll want to check out “Knightfall.” It isn’t perfect, depending on which collections you get, or if you find all the single issues, some of the third act storytelling with Valley once Bane is defeated is choppy at best, but it is definitely worth the read.

Bits and Bats

• In later stories Bane also has ties to The League of Assassins led by Talia Al Ghul. Will Bane have ties with Nolan’s stand in, The League of Shadows, in The Dark Knight Rises? Rumours abound!
• More rumours!  Nolan initially stated “Knightfall” strongly influenced Rises so there were rumours that Batman/Bruce Wayne will die/Be Broken and in his stead, like Jean-Paul Valley, someone would take up the mantle of the Bat. We’ll find out this weekend how true these may be, but given that Rises looks to be influenced as much by “Knightfall” as it does “Dark Knight Returns” and “No Man’s Land” it’s hard to say. I will say, however, that I’m very fond of how Nolan can blend comic book narratives into their own story, drawing from sources but adapting his own.
• To me, this describes how epic Bane is. A sub-plot in the middle of the “Knightfall” series has Joker and Scarecrow lighting Gotham City on fire. The whole city. Two of Batman’s established villains burn the city and it’s a sub-plot, because without Bane releasing them, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity, and Joker and Scarecrow don’t even know to thank him.

That’s it for my Batman coverage. There is certainly much more that I could cover, but before The Dark Knight Rises I invite you to look over these and reflect on the great characters and stories we’ve been given from many authours over the years. We are privileged to be given the works of Christopher Nolan and I have no doubts that Rises will deliver.

Batman Overview: Batman and Robin

Joel Shumacher has on two occasions apologized to fans for Batman and Robin. Listen closely, though, and you’ll hear an apology that the film wasn’t what the fans wanted. On the DVD commentary and in the special features interviews for the film Schumacher makes a point that he went along with the direction the producers at WB had decided upon, and Schumacher admits that among the producers he heard the word “toyetteque” tossed around a few times. Batman and Robin was a film designed to sell toys to kids and it shows, but Schumacher makes no apologies for the quality of the film and the direction he took, and why should he?

Fans and critics were in an uproar over the paper thin plot, one dimensional heroes and villains the the drawn out action sequences. Like Batman Forever, the new and final instalment in the franchise was all style and no substance, but though this was clearly not the direction that Batman fans wanted the film to go, it was in no way inconsistent with the way the character had been represented in the past. Batman and Robin was a modernized update of the 1960s series with Adam West and Burt Ward, and if the “Holy Rusted Metal, Batman” line from Batman Forever didn’t clue you in to Schumacher’s fondness for incorporating kitsch and camp into his films then you were simply blind.

As a narrative film, for what it is Batman and Robin has a decently thought out story. Freeze and Ivy team up together but their goals are ultimately at odds. Ivy wants to bring forth a new era for Mother Nature while Freeze wants to save his wife, Nora, from an as of yet incurable disease. Ivy convinces Freeze to turn Gotham to ice so that life can cease to exist, allowing her plants to reign supreme, but unbeknownst to Freeze she kills Nora in the process, giving him further motive against Batman and the citizens of Gotham. Taken on its own, many other parts of the narrative work, while some clearly don’t; it’s too much of a coincidence that Alfred and Nora suffer the same extremely rare condition, but it’s certainly convenient for our narrative.

If Batman and Robin wasn’t so intent on that garish style the narrative wouldn’t have been so comedic, but with its roots clearly showing in 60s camp and 50s noir (Uma Thurman relishes the chance to be a femme fatale) the film isn’t concerned with anything except being a shiny excuse to sell toys, and Schumacher was in on it. Batman as an enterprise at the time wasn’t ready for the kind of film Christopher Nolan eventually gave us. As I’ve looked back on the previous films in the franchise it’s clear that the style and tone of the comics took front and centre, the stories from the comics rarely translated from page to screen. Was this a condition of Warners or a condition of the time?

The film was certainly lighthearted. It’s villains plain and Commissioner Gordon at his worst as a supporting character. His opening line reads like a plot description: “There’s a new villain in town, Mr. Freeze. He’s frozen Gotham Museum.” It’s beyond wooden, Gordon’s function is to simply advance the plot and give us brief details. As much as we like to admire Burton’s films, they’re no different and there is little character depth in his films.

All in all, I can’t blame Schumacher for the way Batman and Robin turned out because Burton and the producers at Warner Brothers had set the frame for the film to adhere to. Burton’s films weren’t as thin and vapid as Batman and Robin, but they certainly had elements that allowed it to happen. Spoiled fanboys were upset that someone else had a campy interpretation of their favourite Dark Knight, but the 60s had also set the precedent for that interpretation. Fanboys were angry, but Batman is a larger institution that extends beyond them and Batman and Robin is a constant reminder of that.

Bits and Bats

• We get to see Bane on screen. The character initially was created in 1993 by Graham Nolan in the “Knightfall” saga. Shumacher’s Bane? Not the same thing. It was great to sell toys, but to this day I have no idea why they reduced Bane to a barely intelligent brute. The Dark Knight Rises looks to set this right.
• Rumour has it that if you run into Clooney and have an original ticket for Batman and Robin, he’s been known to give you your money back.
• Clooney aside, Batman and Robin killed the careers of its stars. Think about it, how much Chris O’Donnell, Alicia Silverstone, Uma Thurman or Arnold (on screen) have we seen since?
• The origin and narrative of Victor Freeze borrows heavily from the animated series, which is surprising from a film that goes its own way with other characters. Unfortunately it still reduces Freeze to a catchphrase spouting maniacal villain instead of the tortured, desperate character he could have been.
• A certain exchange seems like it’s from The Naked Gun: Robin: “I need a sign.”/Ivy: “Slippery when wet!” Akiva Goldsman you are a genius!
• Even Warner’s took a dig at B&R later on (notice the type of shop shown at the top of the frame):

Next: I promised the comics of Loeb and Sale, and that’s what’s up next.