Bane (Batman: The Animated Series)

Bruce Timm hasn't been shy about not particularly caring for the character of Bane, but I don't especially think he has to say it aloud. This design kind of speaks volumes. Bane looks like he's about to win the high school wrestling tournament, making his papa, famed luchador El Santo, proud. If I'm being fair, it's not utterly awful, but it's definitely not a good design. It has a pajama quality to it all. Even the BTAS aesthetic, the unique style, doesn't quite live up to itself here. He's less muscular and more burly. This show managed to completely change so many characters for the better moving forward, both in comics and on screen. It was so foundational, so groundbreaking...and yet, for poor Bane here, it really did none of that. He's one of the few, maybe the only, of the BTAS adaptations that ...wasn't all that great. Nothing offensively bad, just generic and forgettable. That could have something to do with him being a very new character at the time of his animated debut, though, and that's why he wasn't used much. But in combo with his design, it's just mediocrity incarnate.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div>The figure reflects what's on screen well, though, but as is always the case with these reissues, they're dated, particularly in the articulation department. He's very nice to have for the BTAS line-up, though.&nbsp;</div>