Batman: Gotham Knights # 49

DC Comics
Batman: Gotham Knights # 49
By Koppy McFad
January 31, 2004 - 14:13

DC Comics
Writer(s): Scott Beatty, Geoff Johns
Penciller(s): Roger Robinson, John Floyd, Tommy Castillo, Rodney Ramos
Cover Artist(s): Kamajian

The Last Bane Story? That's what they are calling this issue. To me, it looks more like DC decided to clean house and eliminate a bunch of secondary characters they had gotten tired of using. So Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl follow Bane and King Snake to a derelict headquarters of the late villain, Kobra, to get some high-tech battery acid and attempt to give a touching finish to the saga of Bane.

It is an adequate story-- but that is all it is. It could be just another Batman tale. Beatty fails to convey a sense of importance to the story and Bane himself seems to be almost sleepwalking through this adventure.

Wasn't Bane suppose to be the biggest Bat-foe since Ra's al Ghul? Well, apparently he is being put out to pasture. And he isn't the only one. Two other known supervillains are written off as well. Sure, they could bring them back but after all this, they hardly seem worth the effort. There is no sense of closure or achievement in this story, not in the art or the writing. I guess they figured that after breaking the Bat, everything would be downhill for Bane from now on, so they gave him the pink slip instead.

There is a black-and-white backup by Johns, giving a new slant to the origin of the Scarecrow. It is a scarey tale though I'm not really sure if it fits into continuity. But it is interesting as a character profile.