Review: Batman: One Bad Day: Bane hardcover (DC Comics)

Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter’s Batman: One Bad Day: Bane still does not quite live up to my (subjective, arbitrary) standards for what a “One Bad Day” story should be, but it is one of the better books of this series. If still not at the level of Batman: One Bad Day: Riddler, it edges out Penguin for second place.

There’s no shortage of challenges here. Insofar as the “One Bad Day” titles, in the tradition of Batman: The Killing Joke, are meant to be origin-ish stories, Bane’s past has been well mined through Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan’s classic “Vengeance of Bane” specials. Equally, while many of the “One Bad Day” books have referenced modern continuity often to their detriment, Williamson likely can’t help it in Bane; that Bane killed Alfred Pennyworth is too significant to ignore, even though that’ll surely be reversed in a decade’s time. Too, Williamson has the unenviable task of writing Bane and Batman’s first major encounter since City of Bane.