Batman One Bad Day-Bane: “The Last Vengeance of Bane”

Bane is having a “bad day” when he learns that Venom is being produced again. He makes it his mission to eliminate venom from the world for good this time. Will Venom truly ever cease to exist?

Creative Team

Joshua Williamson (Writer), Howard Porter (Artist/Cover), Tomeu Morey (Colorist/Cover),
Steve Wands (Letterer)

Dave Wielgosz (Editor), Jessica Berbey (Assistant Editor), Ben Abernathy (Group Editor),
Darran Robinson (Designer), Marie Javins (Editor-in-Chief)

Publisher: DC Comics

“The Last Vengeance of Bane”

Batman One Bad Day-Bane by Joshua Williamson takes you down a road of recognizing your faults and atoning for them. This story has two timelines that you follow. The first is a current-day Bane who is older and just trying to get by as a professional wrestler. The second is in the past when Bane is on a mission to collect all the venom produced and destroy it.

Let’s begin with the current timeline story. As mentioned, Bane is much older now and is making a living as a popular professional wrestler without the use of venom. Bane has not used venom in many years. After a wrestling match where Bane reenacts his iconic “back-breaking” fight with Batman, Bane heads home to get some peace. There is an intruder at his home trying to sell a vile of venom to Bane. The two men strike up a deal, where the intruder takes Bane to where the venom is being produced.

Upon arrival at the plant, Bane and the intruder are kidnapped and taken inside. This is where you are introduced to an old, familiar face—Dr. Porter (creator of Venom). Bane and Dr. Porter engage in a beautiful sequence of dialogue, bringing to life a new chemistry for the venom drug. A fight starts and it’s not long till Dr. Porter has Bane in the air… And breaks his back as Bane did to Batman. By some miracle, Bane gets up and rigs the entire plant to blow!

I know you must be curious about the secondary timeline of this story, so here goes. Years before Bane gives up the venom toxin, he makes it his mission to track down all venom and destroy it. But there is someone else who is on that same mission… Batman. These two foes agree to partner up to rid the world of venom. As you can imagine, this makes for some intense dialogue along with some powerful fighting.

Batman and Bane work seamlessly together. This isn’t their first rodeo together, but it is with them being on the same side. The two men finally discover who is behind the production of venom, Grudge. He (Grudge) is completely indulged with venom, and whoever he touches instantly becomes infected. Fighting commences, and Batman is subdued by Grudge, leaving him (Batman) infected. The only way this mission is successful is if Bane sets off an E.M.P. to destroy the entire facility…. including Batman. Bane detonates the E.M.P.

The conclusion of this story shows old man Bane in a hospital room recovering from the blast that eliminated the most recent venom factory. When in the shadows appears Bruce Wayne (Batman). It is in these panels that we see a side of Bane that I myself was not expecting. Bane breaks down and apologizes to Bruce for the man that he was. For breaking Batman…

Artwork

The art by Howard Porter is so well done. The amount of detail in the characters alone is monumental, especially being able to decipher between old age and younger age. This being a Bane story, the art is just as strong and rough as the character himself. This absolutely helps in the telling of Joshua Williamson‘s story.

My Thoughts

This story by Joshua Williamson had me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire read. The dialogue between Bane and Batman as a team is so perfect. And the raw emotion from Bane at the conclusion makes you feel so sympathetic towards him. This story is part of an eight-book series, Batman One Bad Day, which is a collection of stories about Batman’s rogues who normally do not get as much attention as they deserve. A beautiful story that Batman fans will appreciate, so go pick up a copy of this emotional breakdown of Bane.

Grade:9.5/10

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