5 Reasons To Be Excited About Bane in Batman 3

So Tom Hardy will be playing Bane.  For those you of in doubt, this is a very good thing.  Not only is Bane the best choice for a villain, Tom Hardy is about as great an actor as we're going to get.  But ff you wanted a version of Bane completely loyal to the comics, you're out of luck.  Nolan's universe has no room for the Venom induced Bane that was the size of a truck.  Still, here are five reasons to be excited for Bane in the next Batman movie.

Exhibit A, Bane riding a dinosaur.  Case closed?

1. Tom Hardy
If you saw Inception, you should know about Tom Hardy.  He played the most fantastically flamboyant mind-criminal of all time, as well a complete badass.  So right there, we know we won't have the same mentally incompetent Bane from the Schumacker days.  No, this version of Bane will be just as cunning at the Dark Knight, as it should be.  And Hardy is no stranger to playing highly violent criminals.  In the movie Bronson, the actor put on some incredible bulk and was all sorts of crazy.  The result?  Someone who can combine the brutality and intelligence needed for Bane.  Sure, he won't have the Hispanic accent, but this is about as perfect a casting choice for a Batman villain we can ask for.


2.  A return of the League of Shadows?
Although they were the absent from The Dark Knight, Bane couldn't potentially bring the League of Shadows with him to Gotham.  The League was Ras Al Ghul's army of killer ninjas that Bruce Wayne manhandled in Batman Begins.  In the comics, after Bats refuses to be Ras' heir, the position is passed on to Bane.  Could we see Bane take up the legacy of Ras Al Ghul?  I doubt it, since Nolan tends to make each movie stand on its own and Ras was never even mentioned in TDK, but it's a fun thing to consider nonetheless.

3. The One Who Broke the Bat
Most of Batman's villains are little more than eccentric psychopaths.  They make for interesting characters, no question, but few can realistically take on Batman in a straight fight.  Bane is very much the exception to this rule.  Not only is Bane a match for our hero, he infamously broke Batman's back.  I don't think we'll see quite such a debilitating injury, but expect to see Batman get his shit rocked.  I'm hoping for the most brutal, bone crushing fights of the trilogy.

4.  A Dark Batman
The greatest Batman villains are the ones who act as dark reflections of Bruce's own personality in some way.  Scarecrow and Batman's use of fear, the Riddler and Batman's intellect, the Joker and being just about the polar opposite of Batman.  Nolan did a wonderful job of portraying Two-Face as the fallen White Knight to Bruce's Dark Knight.  Think of Bane as the corrupted Dark Knight.  He's someone who has been hardened by trauma, and has the exact same drive and commitment as Batman.  But while experience drove Batman towards justice, it's driven Bane towards destruction.  While Bane's exact motives are subject to change in the movie, think of him as Bruce Wayne without hope in humanity.

5. Believability.
Arguably the most important quality for Nolan's villains, the villain has to be both realistic and believable.  Ra's Al Ghul was just a man who excelled at deception, the Joker was a guy with makeup and scars, and Two-Face was a burn victim.  All of these were both possible AND believable.  I mean, the stupid junk fans come up with to justify some villains.  Killer Croc being someone with a rare skin disorder, Mr. Freeze being a scientist who invented a temperature changing beam weapon.  Yeah, neither of those are "impossible", but you don't actually see any of them in real life, do you?  All you need for Bane is a man with a mask who knows how to fight.  Now in the comics, Bane frequently uses a compound known as "Venom" to reach superhuman levels of strength and size.  Surely, this won't do.  But there is an easy solution to that one.  Just don't include the drug.  Simple enough.  He can still be a dangerous fighter without resorting to imaginary scientific breakthroughs, and the inclusion of Venom isn't important for the story.