DC is known for their sidekicks and duos: first Batman and Robin, then the Joker and Harley Quinn—now we have Bane and his daughter, Vengeance.
Spoiler warning for The Joker #15
After finally meeting in the pages of The Joker, Bane and his cloned daughter Vengeance are shaping up to be DC’s most thrilling villainous duo yet. Bane has made his triumphant return to the DC Universe after appearing to have been killed by the Joker during an attack on Arkham. Now he’s headed back to Santa Prisca with his daughter in tow, and it ominously seems like anything is possible for this classic Batman villain and his new “sidekick” Vengeance.
In recent issues of The Joker, it was officially revealed that Bane was behind the A-Day attack in Gotham City—not the Joker as previously believed. Bane faked his own death and attempted to frame the Joker, but he revealed himself to Jim Gordon, as Gordon was already starting to put the full story together. Meanwhile, a Bane clone named Vengeance, controlled by a secret network of the rich, powerful, and evil, was sent to destroy the Joker for killing her father. Her primary mission throughout The Joker—the series which saw her first appearance in comics—has been to hunt the Joker. Now that she knows Bane is alive, the question remains: what is Vengeance’s fate?
Gordon starts to answer that question for both Batman and the reader in The Joker #15 by James Tynion IV, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Cam Smith, and Arif Prianto. First, we see Bane and Vengeance choose to walk away from the Joker, with Bane telling his daughter “You share my blood. My mind. You are not the weapon of others. You are your own weapon.” They walk off together, and Gordon later speculates that they’re in Santa Prisca, dismantling the organization that cloned and controlled Vengeance and that has certainly made more clones that could threaten the larger DCU.
DC has long been the publisher of sidekicks and duos, especially in Gotham. First there was Batman and Robin, then the Joker and Harley Quinn—now we have Bane and his daughter, Vengeance. Bane, of course, is best known for breaking Batman’s back in the 1990s. Vengeance has a much shorter history, confined to the pages of The Joker, but she too is depicted mostly as villainous. With this new righteous direction—walking off to battle a corrupt and controlling organization—Bane might have a new path in the DC Universe, one directed by the dark past of his new daughter.
While it’s uncertain where readers will see Bane crop up next, his new partnership with his cloned daughter Vengeance is an exciting direction for both characters. DC’s new villainous pair might not be so evil after all—perhaps this will be the start of Bane-as-anti-hero—or perhaps he will appear in Gotham once again with more elaborate and dangerous schemes. Fans will see the new character Vengeance soon in the pages of the upcoming Sword of Azrael. Hopefully her partnership with her father Bane will makes its own appearance, too.
Check out The Joker #15 available now from DC Comics!
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