Batman: Knightfall

*Andrew NDB* · 09-04-2026, 12:14 PM

Watched it. It was pretty great, though I will say these few things as -- of course -- a big fan of the original comics and Bane:

* Bane's eyes should not be glowing red contact lenses. That's stupid. That's always been stupid when artists do that. They should be BIG RED diamonds on his mask, fabric. Empty and scary looking.

* Bane's fully-envenomed form is way, WAY too big. I know they're going for Kelley Jones, who did the covers of Knightfall but it's too much. It's not like venom is supposed to make your bones grow bigger. And now he's basically bulletproof? I don't like that at all.

* I'm good with gore but... this level? Bane ripping out spines, ala Sub-Zero? Is this necessary?

* Removing Zombie, Bird and Trogg seems like a mistake. Now Bane really has no real trusted subordinates which makes him less believable as a city-wide force to be reckoned with. It also gives him nobody else to talk to in the story who he can "talk shop" with. In the movie he is 100% in full intimidation/angry Bane mode all the time.

* The montage of Batman getting worn down could have been so much longer. Lots of shortcuts and compression there. If they had, say, managed to move the Sword of Azrael and Vengeance of Bane bits into some kind of self-contained prelude that would have been the way to go and it would have given them a lot more room here.

With Shondra, they seem to be doing something new:

Spoiler:

On the plus side, they did make SOME things work a lot better than in the comics story. For the mini Vengeance of Bane portion, Bane having the Waynes in that magazine in front of him throughout his years in Pena Duro and that really getting into his head works a lot better than him just randomly having bat dreams, as in the comic. To establish his obsession with going to Gotham. Also, when Bane throws broken Batman off that rooftop it was a pretty nice touch to have him land on the spotlight and it make the broken Batman symbol in the sky at the end. Even if they removed everything cool and memorable about Bane's speech there from the comic.

09-04-2026, 12:14 PM	#30
Andrew NDB Weed Whacker Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Auburn, WA Posts: 34,594	Watched it. It was pretty great, though I will say these few things as -- of course -- a big fan of the original comics and Bane: * Bane's eyes should not be glowing red contact lenses. That's stupid. That's always been stupid when artists do that. They should be BIG RED diamonds on his mask, fabric. Empty and scary looking. * Bane's fully-envenomed form is way, WAY too big. I know they're going for Kelley Jones, who did the covers of Knightfall but it's too much. It's not like venom is supposed to make your bones grow bigger. And now he's basically bulletproof? I don't like that at all. * I'm good with gore but... this level? Bane ripping out spines, ala Sub-Zero? Is this necessary? * Removing Zombie, Bird and Trogg seems like a mistake. Now Bane really has no real trusted subordinates which makes him less believable as a city-wide force to be reckoned with. It also gives him nobody else to talk to in the story who he can "talk shop" with. In the movie he is 100% in full intimidation/angry Bane mode all the time. * The montage of Batman getting worn down could have been so much longer. Lots of shortcuts and compression there. If they had, say, managed to move the Sword of Azrael and Vengeance of Bane bits into some kind of self-contained prelude that would have been the way to go and it would have given them a lot more room here. With Shondra, they seem to be doing something new: Spoiler: They're having her use her mutant healing powers way earlier in the saga and they're also changing the way they work. Now she seems to directly inherit at least a measure of what she's healing from who it is she's healing. For example, she heals a nasty cut on Bruce's arm when he passes out... she passes out while healing it and seems to wake up with the same bloody cut arm. So, clearly, when Bruce gets out of the wheelchair in KnightsEnd she's gonna go into one, in turn, rather than be made some kind of child-like retard which is how they did her at the end of the comics. On the plus side, they did make SOME things work a lot better than in the comics story. For the mini Vengeance of Bane portion, Bane having the Waynes in that magazine in front of him throughout his years in Pena Duro and that really getting into his head works a lot better than him just randomly having bat dreams, as in the comic. To establish his obsession with going to Gotham. Also, when Bane throws broken Batman off that rooftop it was a pretty nice touch to have him land on the spotlight and it make the broken Batman symbol in the sky at the end. Even if they removed everything cool and memorable about Bane's speech there from the comic.