And Bane-O Was His Name-O
Written By: Chuck Dixon
Art By: Graham Nolan, Gregory Wright, Carlos M. Mangual
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 3, 2017
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Well, this title sure did sneak up on me. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's only that I didn't know that I'd have to be reviewing this series so soon....... and with me knowing so little about it. Yeah, we just had Bane go up against Batman in the "I Am Bane" arc of the Batman title and in that Bane went and got his ass kicked by our Dark Knight........ Well, Batman got one good lucky headbutt in and took our main character here down and whether that came off as bullshit or not, here we are....... I really have no idea where this book takes place in continuity. I tried to get a hold of Chuck Dixon earlier this week so that I could possibly find out, but he never got back to me and I'm stuck wondering whether or not if this series is just a fun callback to these creator's times in the 90's or if we actually have some kind of continuation to "I Am Bane". I guess we'll have to figure it out together. Let's take a look at, Bane Conquest.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with me being kind of confused about what's going on because we start out with a cargo ship that's headed for Gotham, but before it could make its destination, Bane with his three thugs Bird, Trogg and Zombie attack the ship, where Bane gets on board and kills everyone because they stole from him, but as the issue progresses we find out that the ship was full of weapons meant for a terrorist cell in Gotham and the whole issue becomes about who would threaten Bane's city........ which appears to be Gotham in this series and less about these people stealing anything at all. So yeah, confused at first, but this part about stealing never comes up again and the whole issue becomes about Bane trying to find out who's weapons these really are.
So Bane goes throughout Gotham, just beating the holy hell out of everyone to get the information about who these guns were supposed to go to and finally he gets a name of a guy named Chango, but before Bane could go and ask him some fist questions, we find out that he's already been arrested thanks to Batman, but that doesn't slow our main character down because this is Gotham after all and pretty soon Chango is released on bail........... with some help from Bird acting as his lawyer and the next thing Chango knows, he's tied to a chair and face to face with Bane.
In the end, Chango gives up the name Damocles and his location of Qurac, where Bane and his three amigos immediately go to get some answers about who's trying to take over his city and why. Too bad that Bane goes off half-cocked like he always does and gets ambushed by Damocles himself, who isn't much to look at when compared to Bane, but after a quick electrocution, a carefully placed karate chop that severs the venom tube from Bane's head and a kick to the face, it seems that our main character is down and at the mercy of this mysterious Damocles.
That's it for this issue of Bane: Conquest and even though I was really looking forward to this series because of how much I loved Chuck Dixon's writing on the Batman titles when I was a kid, I found this first issue a bit off in its ability to get me into the series because right off the bat I have no idea when this is going on or if it's in some kind of continuity and even besides that, Bane was just confusing as hell at the beginning about why he was attacking this cargo ship. It all came together at the end, but this jumping around to get answers makes for a quick read and one that's not that interesting at the moment and I'm also worried that newer readers won't recognize this version of Bane or his motivations in this title because of how drastically different he's become over the years. Yeah, I hope it gets better because I'd love to love this series, but as of right now it's nothing special besides for the nostalgia it brings in both the writing and the art.
Bits and Pieces:
I'm really worried that this first issue will turn a lot of people off because I found it to be a hard thing to get into, but hopefully the readers stick around because as long as Chuck and Graham haven't lost a step from their earlier days at DC Comics, this should be something totally worth getting invested in. Too bad that doesn't show right now. I loved the art and the nostalgic feels that this book gave me, but the story isn't quite there yet.
6/10
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