The Dark Knight Rises Villain Redesign Art Makes Me Wish Bane Had 1 Major Change To Make Him More Comics-Accurate

A piece of artwork that has redesigned The Dark Knight Rises' main villain has made me wish for a single major change that would have made him more DC comics-accurate. The Dark Knight Rises was the third installment of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, a franchise that set a high bar for subsequent Batman movies to clear. The arch-villain of the third film was Bane, portrayed by frequent Nolan collaborator Tom Hardy, who brought an immense level of gravitas to the role that significantly redeemed Bane's cinematic legacy after Batman & Robin.

Still, Hardy's Bane might have been improved upon if his mask was a little more comics-accurate, as Reddit user u/jdtaylor97 has depicted in a piece of fan art.

The art depicts Bane as he fights Batman beneath the Wayne Enterprises armory, only the artist has edited in a full black mask with white details and red eyes, making Tom Hardy's Bane look even more menacing. This is no mean feat, as The Dark Knight Rises possibly omitted a comics-accurate mask for many reasons.

Why Bane's Mask In The Dark Knight Rises Looks So Different To The Comics

Christopher Nolan Wanted Bane To Look More Militaristic

Tom Hardy's Bane in The Dark Knight Rises is a hulking figure that wears civilian clothes (with an iconic sheepskin jacket), a bald head, and his signature mask that siphons pain-relieving gas into his mouth and lungs at all times. The mask adds a lot to Bane's menacing presence as it makes him look less human, following in the footsteps of his villainous predecessors in The Dark Knight trilogy. It also helps to create what has become one of the most iconic villain voices in the superhero genre, with an infinitely inimitable tone.

Yet Bane's menacing mask bears only a slight resemblance to his full attire in DC Comics. As the art above depicts, Bane typically wears a full-face covering reminiscent of a Mexican Lucha Libre mask. This is indicative of Bane's original Latin American heritage, which is possibly one reason why the British Tom Hardy was not kitted out in the mask. Christopher Nolan also stated that they wanted The Dark Knight Rises' Bane to exude a militaristic quality, leaning into a look more befitting of a mercenary.

Furthermore, while Tom Hardy now has a reputation for being masked-up in Christopher Nolan's movies, fully covering his face with a mask would have severely hampered his expressiveness. Instead, audiences could see the passion in Hardy's upper face while his mouth was covered, with which Hardy did an excellent job. While the above artwork certainly makes me wish for a more comics-accurate Bane, that is probably best left to the DCU's version of the character rather than Nolan's more gritty and grounded version in The Dark Knight Rises.