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Bane Takes on a Different Role in New Batman Comic Storyline

What is Rebirth about? It's about going to the moment of birth and building upon that."

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Batman and Catwoman are currently in Santa Prisca in order to grab Psycho Pirate and help a friend back in Gotham. However, person in charge of this small island country is Bane. The man who broke the bat has now taken on a new role in the comics: that of a leader

The writer of the Batman comic, Tom King, is giving the Rebirth treatment to the longtime Batman villain in the current storyline "I Am Suicide," in which issue #12 of which was released on December 7. He is accompanied by artist Mikel Janin and colorist June Chung. The character's first appearance was in Batman #489, back in 1993. In the 23 years of the character's existence, he's gone through a plethora of changes, from mercenary, to kind-hearted protector, to leader of a country.

"I built a lot of stuff on what Chuck Dixon did. Dixon should get a lot of credit. I love what Gail [Simone] did on Suicide Squad, but it wasn't quite right for this story," King told GameSpot. "What is Rebirth about? It's about going to the moment of birth and building upon that. I went to Bane's moment of birth. He has this Conan the Barbarian origin where it's him against this impossible obstacle, with the flooding every night and dying every night and being reborn. What willpower must it take to do that? I would last two days in that place, and I was in the CIA. He lasts for 17 years." King was a counter-terrorism operations officer in the CIA for seven years.

"I Am Suicide" places Bane in more of a leadership role, coming out of tragedy. "Bane came out of his world and conquered his prison. He's looking for the biggest guy to take down, and that's Batman. [H]e did, and it ended up as a tragedy for Bane for 20 years, as a punching bag for Batman."

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King went onto say that Bane learned from those experiences and changed his mindset to be content as a ruler. He compared Bane to Marvel's Doctor Doom, who leads the fictional country of Latveria. However, putting the character in that new position required getting Bane off his strength-increasing drug, venom: "Bane is trying to draw into himself. He is trying to be a relatively good person. He's trying to get off drugs and rule his country."

The current storyline, "I Am Suicide," is part of a trilogy of work, starting with "I Am Gotham," and ending with "I Am Bane." King explained that the events that take place within the Batman series will spin out directly into DC's winter event, Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. "You'll see in issue #13. I got to do one of those classic [caption] boxes you saw as a kid, 'To be continued in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad!' Hugo Strange appearing in Batman #1 led to Amanda Waller which led to 'I Am Suicide' which leads to [Justice League vs. Suicide Squad] which leads to the launch of a new JLA. These things are piling on top of each other, all of which feeds into this central tree of the big event that Scott [Snyder] and Greg [Capullo] have coming up."

Batman #12 is on sale now and Justice League vs. Suicide Squad goes on sale on December 21.