I Am Bane is a punch in the gut no holds barred Batman story. I love the grittiness of this storyline. Definitely not for kids.

Batman, Volume 3: I Am Bane by Tom King is amazing. Not in the geeky teenage arachnid boy kind of way but in the grown ass man with a midlife crisis but has a family to protect and suddenly finds himself facing the only man that has ever broken him kind of way. Oh and by the way, the only man that has ever broken him is pissed. This is Batman vs Bane, the rematch. The real one.

After the events on Bane's island stronghold of Santa Prisca, Batman has returned home. His mission, as it has been for sometime is to find a way to save the new superhero, Gotham Girl and not let her suffer the same fate as her brother. But to do so, Batman had to take a team of criminals, including Catwoman, into Santa Prisca and bring out the only man who might be able to save Gotham Girl. To do he had to face Bane and defeat him on his homecourt.

Now Batman has returned to Gotham, but he knows his actions would not go unpunished. Bane is coming to Gotham, to destroy Batman and everyone he loves. To protect his family, Batman must face Bane and break him, once and for all.

"...No? No?! Do you know who I am?! Do you think you can come to my home and take my life from me?! You think you can run away?! You think you can hide behind this miserable city?! You think you can say no to me?! Do you know who I am?! I am not a joke. I am not a riddle! I am not a bird or a cat or a penguin! I am not a scarecrow or a plant or a puppet! I am not your broken friend! I am not your regretful teacher! I am not a child's fairytale! I am not some circus act here to amuse and frighten you! I am not another one of your madmen howling at the moon! And I...am not some rich boy playing dress up! I AM BANE!..."

Now I must steal a line, or in my innocence, simply quote a line from that great film, that perfect example of modern art in film; Dirty Dancing. "...when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong..." and Tom King I was so freakin' wrong about you. Granted (here is where I insert my weak ass excuse) after the tour de force of a run on Batman comics that was the Snyder and Capullo team, and after another DC reboot, I was sure this was doomed for failure. Then in the first few issues you introduce two new characters into the world of Batman, the Gotham twins that hearkened back to the days of sadness of Saturday morning watching the Super Friends and those two mauve colored costume geeks that were part of what should have been the Justice League. Then came the iconic Batman the animated series and the world become right again and my love for the caped crusader was returned to its true level of coolness. Then came Snyder and seriously, can you blame me? Then came Rebirth and no more Snyder and then Gotham's version of the Wonder Twins and I was contemplating never buying a Batman comic book again for at least a year or two.

"...When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong..."

Batman's I Am Bane is a well written, insightful and courageous take on the psyche of the caped crusader. But more than that, it really kicks ass!!

**Please note: This review is scheduled to go up on the publication date as per the publisher's request when I received the ARC. It will go up on the sites listed below.**

In a volume where the opposite of some of the events in Batman: I Am Suicide occur, Bane has to run a gauntlet of enemies to get to Batman. Where this didn't work well for me in the that volume, in this one it worked just fine!

I adored the tongue in cheek of the opening scenes in the restaurant BATBURGER! between Batman and the Robins. "Do you want to Joker up your fries?" The restaurant even had Batsuits in special cases.

I also thought the comparison panels between Bruce and Bane and all the similarities that made them who they both became were brilliant.


Ace the Bat-Hound has his own brief little story-mostly involving the unflappable Alfred training him while Bruce then reaps the benefits and complains about his Christmas present.

Lastly though, OMG with Catwoman! What will happen as we progress further down that road? Will it ever really take place? (I'm trying to talk about it, without spoiling it.) I am not familiar enough with the Batman series to know, and I'm not sure that people who are familiar with it would know for sure either, but that was most definitely a surprising event.

Overall, this has been my favorite volume of the Batman Rebirth series by Tom King. I'm so glad I stuck with it and I'm very much looking forward to the next volume!

*I received an e-ARC of this volume from DC Comics via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

Batman Volume 3: I Am Bane finishes the Bane plotline (shouldn’t be too surprising there), as well as including a couple of one-shot stories (more on them later). There’s a gap, issues 21 and 22 are not included (presumably they’re in another collection), which also somewhat explains some of the new faces and characters.
Warnings first: There are two scenes that show animal death and/or violence. The first one is somewhat subtle – you see a hawk eating something, but it’s a close up shot so if you don’t think about it too much you’ll be ok (I made the mistake of thinking about it too much). The second one comes up during one of the one-shots. It’s the start of it, but you’ll know it’s coming when you see Ace appear on the issue cover (Ace being Batman’s dog, on the off chance you didn’t know that). Anybody that knows Ace’s background won’t really be surprised by this though.
I wasn’t sure how the Bane plotline would get wrapped up – but I needn’t have been concerned. King did a pretty wonderful job of tying up all the loose ends. The countdown of five days (the amount of time Psycho Pirate needed to heal Gotham Girl) in each issue was pretty brilliant, all things considered. The final showdown involving many of the Arkham inmates was pretty clever – though I’ll admit being a fan of more than one of them I would have liked to see them doing more. But that’s just me being greedy, as per usual.
Included along with the main plot were a few one shots, the quality of which varied pretty heavily (unsurprisingly). The first one had a Swamp Thing Batman team up, and I’ve got to say, it was probably my favorite of this volume (ok, second favorite, Ace always gets number one in my mind). I won’t give it all away, but I will say that it was very well done and entirely worth reading.
I liked the Catwoman one shot less – and before you worry about any bias, Catwoman is one of my favorite villains (she makes it into my top five list at least). It just felt out of place. I think perhaps if there had been more context in either direction it would have felt more at home, so to speak. I enjoyed the conversation between Batman and Gotham Girl – her insight into Batman’s dilemma was a rare sight, and I’m sure greatly appreciated by him.
There are a few pages dedicated to Ace and his story as well – which I love so much. It looks like rather than changing Ace’s story (see Batman Beyond for the full of it) King choose to supplement it, explaining how Ace actually came home and ended up being a part of the bat family. Obviously being a huge of Ace, so I’m biased in his favor (unless his story is completely mishandled).
I had been worried that I wasn’t going to enjoy the Batman Rebirth plot, but so far it’s kept my interest. I can’t wait for Batman Volume 4: the War of Jokes and Riddles to release!

This is by far one of the best Comic I read this year, from every possible point of view!

I enjoyed the short stories more than the main story. But overall, the art was fantastic.

A refreshing visit to the battle to end all battles. Bane is as undefeatable as before and Batman just as stubborn. An epic fight with the stakes raised higher than before!

Following his daring raid on Bane’s island home of Santa Prisca, Batman has taken the Psycho Pirate back to restore Gotham Girl’s shattered mind. But with Bane hot on his heels, will Batman be able to keep him occupied for five days - or will Bane break the Bat once and for all?

After two solid Batman books, I was worried that this would be the one where Tom King drops the ball (it happens to everyone eventually); thankfully, I worried in vain as I Am Bane is yet another brilliant Batman volume!

This one’s a pretty intense read - there’s a countdown timer with one issue per day, so it’s five issues for the arc - and I was surprised that things escalated as quickly as they did (that final page of the first chapter!). Before that though is an excellent scene between Batman and the Robins in a fast food joint called “Batburger”! I liked the change of scenery from the usual Wayne Manor/Batcave setting.

The banter between Dick, Jason and Damian was unexpectedly funny (Damian making fun of Jason’s receding hairline!) though I don’t know how they can all be solemn over Tim Drake’s recent “death” when, in a postmodern way, they were joking about their own “deaths” moments earlier - maybe King’s just being ironic?

The storyline is an inversion of Knightfall - instead of Batman having to go through a gauntlet of enemies to get to Bane, Bane must go through the gauntlet to get to Batman - and it’s a gripping read. I really enjoyed it, King writes it so well - the dialogue is suitably hard, the action is relentless and the story flows so smoothly.

I’m not surprised though that King went for the classic Bane storyline because the character is quite limited in what you do with him, even if King tried - and he did - to flesh him out more. And even though a certain level of stupidity has to be accepted when reading superhero comics, the overall story still undeniably felt a bit simplistic and silly. The finale is also a bit abrupt.

Still, that’s not to say that it lacks substance. King does a fine job in showing us just why Gotham Girl is so important to Batman, particularly in the epilogue where the two characters have an introspective and thoughtful talk about what it means to be a superhero. The theme of identity that’s been a part of all three books (the subtitle of all three being “I Am…”) comes together nicely as we see both Batman and Bane contrasted as two men who’ve led hard lives, striving for inner peace/happiness.

Their motivations not only make sense but Batman’s also segues beautifully into THAT unexpected scene with Catwoman - Batman taking the conclusion of his chat with Gotham Girl to heart. That said, I don’t think it’ll stick, particularly if DC are consistent with their stance for their characters on this sort of thing in the past. Not to mention the subtitle of that chapter: “Every Epilogue is a Prelude” - King’s got something up his sleeve for these two and I’m not convinced it’ll be as straightforward as all that.

I was delighted to see Ace the Bat-Hound make his Rebirth debut with an excellent origin. I also enjoyed noticing the little details King sprinkled throughout: naming parts of Arkham Asylum “Morrison Hall” and “McKean Clock Tower” (Grant Morrison and Dave McKean created the classic, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth), and “Nolan Alley”. David Finch draws yet more superb pages too - his work on this Batman is the best I’ve seen his art.

The Batman/Swamp Thing team-up, The Brave and the Mold (heh), was a bit dull. Appropriately though, for a comic dedicated to Swampy’s co-creator Bernie Wrightson who recently died, the story is about Alec’s parentage.

If you’ve enjoyed Tom King’s Batman run as much as I have, I Am Bane won’t let you down - this title remains the jewel in DC’s Rebirth crown. It’s also the best Bane book I’ve ever read (though that’s not saying much!). I really enjoyed it - Tom King’s Batman continues to impress and thoroughly entertain.

This was a very solid Batman book. The art was good, the story compelling and true to the characters. It took some unexpected turns, particularly in the epilogue. All and all, a great read. There was an especially strong issue early on in the book that showed Batman and Bane's lives in parallel that made for a really powerful character piece. I was very impressed by it.
The biggest reason this is only getting 4 stars from me instead of 5 is an issue with denouement, specifically a distinct lack of it. Issues ended with explosive moments, but then it was difficult to string together what happened afterward. This was especially hard to follow with the end of this I Am Bane arc-- we have some great denouement with Batman, Gotham Girl, and Catwoman, but we don't know what ended up really happening with Bane, which left me a little frustrated as a reader.

In this beautifully drawn new graphic novel, Tom King brings back Bane who is determined to seek his revenge on not only Batman but on everybody he cares about, from Alfred to Catwoman. Nobody is safe. In a brutal fight Batman must overcome not only Bane but himself if he is to survive. An excellent story that shows off the true ferocity of both Batman and Bane.

The art has been great in these volumes so far. The story? Not so much. Everything has been building to some sort of epic fight between Bane and Batman in this volume and nothing much really happens. Tom King's run has been pretty disappointing so far.