AS THE HYPE builds around Christopher Nolan's third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, details are being drip-fed to fans about what the film will actually entail.
The latest and most exciting news is the inclusion of Bane, a villain slightly less iconic than the Joker or Penguin, but nevertheless a key enemy in the comic book series. Tom Hardy (
Inception, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
), will play the character, alongside Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.
So who is Bane? He was raised in a prison as retribution for his father’s crimes and killed his first man at eight years of age. His brains match his brawn. Like all good comic-book villains, Bane was the victim of chemical testing, primarily a steroid called “Venom” which made him super-strong.
He relocated to Gotham City for the Knightfallcomic book storyline, also busting out inmates of an asylum and ultimately breaking Batman's back. The reason he goes after Batman in the first place is because a bat haunts his dreams and he associates this with Gotham's finest. Also in the Batmancomics, Bane becomes obsessed with the idea that he shares his father – Dr Thomas Wayne – with Batman, although this turns out to be a fallacy.
So where will this character fit in Nolan’s realistic Batman universe? From the prologue that screened last week, we know that Bane hijacks a plane; in the trailer, we see him squaring up to Batman, readying for a fight. Bane is brutal, and Hardy has put on 30lbs of muscle to fill into the role.
Bane actually appeared briefly in a previous Batman film, Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin(1997) as Poison Ivy's bodyguard. No doubt Christopher Nolan will have something slightly darker and more complex in store for the new enemy.
