Throughout the opening arc of Secret Six, Bane has refused to use the Venom drug, on the grounds it's immoral, and he only does what he knows is right. That's a credo he stuck to, even as Junior pulped him by throwing bricks, after he declined to sell out his teammates*.
Bane did eventually use Venom, to save Scandal from some goombah named Komodo. it also may have driven him nuts, since he started seeing Batman everywhere**. We'll have to see how sane he is in April's issue. But where does taking Venom stand on Bane's "Only do what is right" stance?
Bane describes using it as being off the wagon, as falling, which would indicate that he thinks it's still wrong. However, he used it so that he could save the life of someone he cared about. Granted, one could argue whether Scandal "deserved" saving***, but to Bane she did, so does that change things at all? Basically, if you do something that's immoral, but do it to save the life of someone dear to you, does that, purify the act somehow, since it was done with good intentions? Or does it, if not make it a moral action, at least excuse the immorality of it?
I think Bane would consider it the latter. I get the impression using Venom is no less distasteful for him, largely because he knows what it will, or could, do to him, but helping Scandal is important enough that he's willing to end up dependent on the drug again. He's decided that her life is worth his suffering, which is rather appropriate considering the larger story about people trying to avoid paying for their sins, or trying for redemption****. Bane accepts suffering, because it will allow him to do something good, so maybe that redeems the act of taking the Venom in some way.
* Almost all of whom were prepared to forget him and move on. Of course, I imagine Bane was primarily thinking of Scandal when he refused to snitch, and she did vote to save him, so the important person cared about him.
** I was a little disappointed that the "Batmans" he saw all wore the current costume, or some derivation of it. Given that it was Jean Paul Valley that initially beat him, and sort of crushed his spirit, you'd think he'd have seen the AzBats suit somewhere in there.
*** Though that gets into the issue of who deserves to live or die, and who decides, and I'm prepared to go into that.
**** Which is, I'm sure, why it's there, it's all part of Gail Simone's plan.
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4 comments:
I think Bane, in his mind, was damning himself to save Scandal. I don't thin he will believe that he can be "redeemed" after taking the venom in that issue, so it will be interesting to see how he is presented going forward. Will he just go nuts with it, or will he become more monk-like.
Also, I do agree with you, I wish they would have had a multitude of different Batmans for Venom to see, that would have been cool.
"I was a little disappointed that the "Batmans" he saw all wore the current costume, or some derivation of it. Given that it was Jean Paul Valley that initially beat him, and sort of crushed his spirit, you'd think he'd have seen the AzBats suit somewhere in there."
Thanks for remembering!
Nice point about Azrael, he does so love to be remembered.
jason: Yeah, that'll be something to keep an eye on. Now that he's gone back to it, will he just figure "Screw it", and use it all the time, or will he try and train harder so that he won't need it?
azrael: Not a problem. You totally whupped his butt.
sallyp: Well, everyone would like to be remembered, at least a little, I think.
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