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TDKR Character Bios Revealed (Spoiler Safe Post)

by Susana Polo | 2:45 pm, June 7th, 2012


Tricky sleuths, and by that I mean folks who’ve gotten their hands on the twelve dollar hardcover art book The Dark Knight Rises: The Secret Files Scrapbook, have uncovered character bios for Catwoman and Bane, shedding a bit more light on the personalities of these two members of the Rogues Gallery who are being reimagined for the conclusion of Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy. The Catwoman one is more about her personality than her role in the plot, but we’ll put it behind the jump anyway just in case:

Selina Kyle is a world-class cat burglar and mistress of disguise. She’s cunning and devious, but has a deep sense of honor. As Catwoman, she targets Gotham’s wealthiest. Her weapons usually include infrared goggles, bladed high-heel boots, and a belt filled with lock picks.

I like the addition of honor (and perhaps implied Robin-Hooded fairness?) to her character description. Often Catwoman is introduced as a character who has roughly the same goals (or at least the same targets) as Batman, but who is more chaotic in her methods and personality and therefore in his way. Which is fine, in the larger Batman universe where there are a plurality of women in the Bat-family and the Rogues Gallery, and where the Batman/Catwoman relationship can be slowly nurtured, featured, and made into a dance of equals over multiple Catwoman-featuring stories. In a single movie of a trilogy where Catwoman is the first female villain and only female superhero/costumed villain to appear, I’d rather she was a bit more lionized as a character instead of portrayed as a nuisance or a vigilante less good at her job than Batman is. The description of her as having a strong sense of honor underlying her moves her closer to Batman’s side of the order/chaos fence, a dichotomy at the heart of Nolan’s trilogy.

Purely personally, I have a lot of faith in Christopher Nolan’s ability to show only what he wants to show, so I don’t worry too much about spoilers for his movies showing up in odd places. I am by no means all people, however, so the minor plot spoilers of this Bane bio will be behind our patented spoiler hiding technology. (Spared no expense.)

Little is known about Bane. He was born in prison and trained in the darkest forms of deception by the League of Shadows, but rumor has it he was cast out due to his extreme behavior. Bane is a ferocious hand-to-hand fighter who is willing to do anything in order to take down his opponents. Bane is in peak physical shape, but he must wear a breathing apparatus that feeds him with pain relieving gas due to an old injury. He’s never been photographed without his mask and only a handful of people have seen his face. While his true motives remain a mystery, he appears to be building an army of followers in the dark tunnels underneath Gotham in order to create his own League of Shadows.

Minor additional thought: A male character being described by his background and affect on the plot, and a female character being described by their background and appearance? Where have I seen this trend before…

(via Blastr.)

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  • http://www.justplainsomething.com JustPlainSomething

    I guess we can give them minor points for describing his breathing apparatus, but yeah, anything about his actual costume would have been better. At least Catwoman’s description was more about the tools at her disposal than anything.

  • http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977888401 Sabreman

    Well. This puts a dent in my Bane=Ra’s theory. Not an insurmountable dent: his ‘background’ could be part of the “darkest deception” he’s practicing. (That description is suspicious because one thing Bane has never been known for is sneaky deceptions.)

    Edited to add: um, spoiler? I guess?

  • http://profiles.google.com/fluffywarthog1029 m h

    Is Bane just the cats-paws for Ra’s Al-Ghul? Does he just want to “break the Bat?” I’ve seen a ton of points from Knightfall so far (military-grade weaponry, jailbreaking every psychopath in Gotham, using a civil breakdown to tire out the Caped Crusader, and then challenging him in the Batcave mono-e-mono), but why is he doing this?

    It looks like Bane’s using a 99%-style movement to give public and numerical support to his army of mercenaries, but why? There doesn’t appear to be an endgame or reason for this, unless Gotham’s political and income disparity has gotten far more dystopic than America’s has ever been. The promo posters clearly draw on woodcuts and paintings of 18th and 19th century revolutionary events, but trying to parallel contemporary-esque American social inequality with the state of European peasants and workers at the implied point in history is like comparing apples to rancid, poisoned oranges.

  • http://twitter.com/coreyregalado Corey Regalado

    To be fair, Catwoman’s description was about her tools, not, like her bust size or anything; Bane is also described in appearance (maybe more so, since he’s said to be in peak physical shape); and Bane is the Big Bad, so his role in the story is more important and obvious.

  • http://ladymercury-10.livejournal.com/ Maiasaura

    In what way are they describing Catwoman in terms of appearance and ignoring Bane’s appearance?  They talk about Catwoman’s boots and some of her tools/costume particulars, but not what she herself looks like.  They mention Bane’s face, his mask, and his physical shape, so I would say they’re pretty even handed here….

  • anchorage scatter

    The Catwoman one is more about her personality than her role in the plot, but we’ll put it behind the jump anyway just in case:

    http://fatburnerreviewed.com/
     

  • http://twitter.com/Super_Widget Joanna

    Pfft!  That’s nothing!  My sister-in-law’s dog’s cousin’s owner became a millionaire overnight by clicking on MY name.  Click my name to be a millionaire!  100% guarantee! =D

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MNZYJ25TA3DDRQMA6YQH7CJ7XE ryana

    Bane = Ra’s? What a horrible, and wrong, theory. Have you seen the previous two Christopher Nolan movies? Ra’s dies in the first….just sayin’

  • Hector Guitron

    WHERE’S HER WHIP? HER CLAWS?

  • http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977888401 Sabreman

    One of Ra’s’ primary defining characteristics in the comics is coming back to life thanks to a special weird chemical; and Bane talks and sounds and acts a lot like Ra’s from the first movie while being evidently kept alive by a weird chemical. Just sayin’.

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