Batman Writer Explains Bane's Master Plan

Warning:

spoilers for Batman #71 and all preceding issues!

The Rebirth era of Batman follows one, long master plan orchestrated by one of Batman’s most iconic and imposing foes, Bane. Seventy-one issues have been released as of this writing, meaning we’re almost to the end of writer Tom King’s 100-issue run. With Bane’s plan being rather long, complex and multi-layered, we asked King himself to break it all down and explain how all the hidden clues are setting up what’s to come.

Before we get to the particulars, it’s important to understand Bane’s end goal.

“It's that ultimate Bane moment which is to lift someone above your head and crack them on your knee. That's what Bane's move is. So this is what he's done to Batman for 75 issues. The first 50 issues, he lifted Batman above his head. He got Batman to the happiest place he's ever been. He got Batman to be this close to feeling the joy he felt before he was 10 years old, before that alley. In Issue 50 through 75 he brought it down. In issue 74, which is what we're leading to now, ‘The Fall and the Fallen,’ is where the back hits the knee and you hear the crack. So [Bane] brought Batman up and then brought him down in order to break him,” King explained.

The Most Important Covers From Batman Rebirth

As Batman has pursued Bane throughout this story, we’ve heard him threaten Bane that he’ll break his back, like a pro wrestler using their opponents’ own signature move against them. However, King teased that Batman #75 will show that Batman’s solution to Bane’s plan isn’t to simply get back up and start punching him again.

“That's what every other Batman story has been for 80 years,” King said. “Those are fantastic stories but we want to do something new and something that's absolutely never been done that no one has ever seen in Batman before.”

It’s impossible to talk about this long-running Batman story without bringing up Catwoman. We watched Batman and Catwoman’s romance blossom and almost result in a wedding, only for Selina Kyle to leave Bruce Wayne at the altar. Her reason? She felt that Batman didn’t have the capacity to love her because he was too in love with his war on crime that requires him to be Batman.

“The idea of Catwoman is to say, can there be a second goal? Can there be something that Batman puts above the vow, or next to the vow? That's the question at the heart of this series. Can he still be Batman and be in love the way you're supposed to be in love?” King said.

With all that in mind, here’s King’s breakdown of the entire story so far.

I Am Gotham and I Am Suicide

“The idea is that this starts with Batman facing death. He's on that plane, he's going down and he asks his parents, ‘Is this going to be a good death?’ And he faces his own mortality. Then we find out later of course that Bane was behind that. The first two arcs, I Am Gotham and I Am Suicide, are of Batman dealing with that death and what does he find that he needs and he finds Catwoman. Because Batman needs Catwoman to defeat Bane. But Bane's manipulating that a little bit.”

"Defeating" Bane

“Then, Batman defeats Bane with a headbutt. Can Batman really defeat Bane with a headbutt? That seems a little impossible. But of course that's a clue, right? Bane's not actually defeated. He wants to be defeated. He wants to go to Arkham and be seen. Because from Arkham, he starts to run Gotham.”

The War of Jokes and Riddles

“After that, you get the War of Jokes and Riddles which is all about Batman's quest to redefine himself as something besides a criminal. He decides to redefine himself as someone who can be married to Catwoman. So it ends with an engagement. Now, he's rising. After that, you get used to what the rules of engagement are. Where Batman, he can just rise and he's getting happier as it goes on.”

For why The War of Jokes and Riddles is an instant classic Batman story, check out the video below:

The Wedding

“Then you get the pre-wedding stuff where Bane's plan starts to go into fruition. You get the Booster Gold arc, where you see a world where Batman doesn't exist. Where Bruce Wayne exists, but Batman doesn't and it's a hell world. It's horrible. Then you get the Joker arc, where Joker tells Selina that if she marries him, she's going to get that Booster world. Then you get the little Holly nudge, and then you see Bane's plan start to come together as he's risen Batman all the way up and then he comes back down.”

The Fall of Batman

“Then it goes on from there as we start to see Batman fall. He's has this anger and he tries to deal with it and Nightwing comforts him. And boom, Bane takes Nightwing out. Then we see that Batman reacts with more anger and more anger and more anger and it starts to build and build and build. Bane starts poking him. He pokes him using Penguin to provoke him to the point where he hits Gordon in the face and alienates Gordon. So now he's lost his key ally.”

Knightmares

“Then, Batman's kidnapped and he has ‘Knightmares’ which is maybe the most important arc of the whole thing. Which is where Bane hits him not in the gut but mentally in his soul, in his dreams, and brings out his greatest fear which is that the reason Catwoman left him is not for the reason Catwoman says. That's how #69 ends. It's because Catwoman sensed inside Batman that he's incapable of love. That's what ‘Knightmares’ is all about. It's him discovering that fear, his greatest fear. That he's incapable of anything but that vow.”

The Fall and The Fallen

“You come then to our current arc, which is ‘The Fall and The Fallen.’ Where all Batman has left now is his family and he has a little bit of willpower. We'll see how Bane tries to take those away before we get to #75. You get to that lowest moment.”

The Final 25 Issues

“What we're setting up in these last issues for Batman is going to have an effect on the character for a generation or more. I just can't believe what's going to happen. I was gobsmacked by it. This is the biggest story I've ever told and maybe we'll ever tell in terms of affecting how a character that is a part of our conscious exists.”

Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.