The Knightfall storyline happened when I was a kid, so I totally fell for DC's media blitz surrounding Bane's maiming of Batman. To me, the most interesting thing about Bane is that he bested The Bat... and that's about it. The Bane I grew up with was an overgrown wrestler in a luchador mask with a perpetual case of 'roid rage... then Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises happened.
It was the partnership between Nolan, Goyer, and Tom Hardy that yielded what is, for me, probably the best portrayal of Bane ever. Hardy's Bane is a terrorist mastermind, killing thousands of innocent civilians when he bombs Gotham City and causing thousands more to suffer via an economic crisis-- things Ra's al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Joker, and Two-Face could not do in the previous Nolan films.
He was finally more than a grunting buffoon (as depicted in Schumacher's travesty Batman & Robin) or a Latin stereotype that was vaguely Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican (every cartoon ever), all at the same time...
My favorite costume from The Dark Knight Rises is the first one we see Bane wearing, just before crashing the plane. I had been wanting to make that specific version for a while, so when I saw the Roadblock figure from the GI Joe: Retaliation line, I knew I found my base. Topped off with a third party custom head, and The Man Who Broke The Bat was complete. The very definition of an LBC for me, but still perfect for the character and, like, 98% on-model.
Before creating this Bane for Gotham's Most Wanted 2, I made another version that I absolutely hated. Also inspired by Tom Hardy's Bane, but not nearly as successful, I ended up disassembling the piece and using him elsewhere...
Looking at the piece now, it's not the worst I've ever produced (that would be the customs I did at 9-10 years-old), but, at the time, I wasn't happy. In retrospect, I should have removed the straps that went over his ears and just kept the one going between the eyes, but make it a little wider. I do love the paint on the piece, though, and feel he does have that creepy, thousand yard stare...
Bane here kinda breaks my established aesthetic for Gotham's Most Wanted, but I don't really mind. I really wanted a good Tom Hardy Bane in my favorite costume, so that won out. Theoretically, in the 1940s, the outfit I used was available, so it still kinda works. Well, that's how I explain it away...
