Review: Bane- Conquest
Quick Summary
Pros: The action is engaging and adds plenty of excitement. Bane’s incorporation of strategy alongside his physical strength is great to see. The artwork looks awesome when it comes to depicting fight scenes.
Cons: Some of the volume’s subplots feel intrusive. The story has a habit of hinting at problems that will affect the future and then never actually having these problems reappear. There are places where the artwork looks weird.
Overall: This is a unique comic book with somewhat specific appeal. The volume excels when it comes to depicting Bane in action sequences and in highlighting his attempts to take down his enemies. However, the storytelling ends up lackluster in more than a few places. Ultimately, this volume is for fans who want to see Bane’s action-packed attempt to assemble a criminal empire, not fans looking for a nuanced and well-crafted narrative.
Story
Bane: Conquest, by Chuck Dixon, is seriously exciting but falters when it comes to constructing a cohesive narrative. The volume is Bane in his most distilled format. He bursts onto every page with an engaging sense of action while simultaneously executing well-thought out tactical plans. Watching Bane work his magic and take down his enemies is simply awesome. However, the narrative here also has a number of problems. The volume’s new characters are underutilized, teases about problems in the future end up never panning out, and the majority of the book’s subplots end up feeling intrusive and distract from the main storyline. In the end, this volume is worthwhile for some thrill and excitement but is a bit disappointing when it comes to cohesive storytelling.
(spoilers start here)
Bane: Conquest‘s primary successes come from its successful generation of excitement. From the very start, Bane dramatically confronts anyone and anything in the way of his ultimate goal. He violently takes down criminal after criminal and appears to have little problem with doing so. All of this creates a narrative that is action-packed at every moment.
However, Bane’s methods are not limited to simple violence, as the supervillain is a master tactician as well. Over the course of this book, Bane launches a massive operation against several criminal organizations and is successful each and every time. This, when combined with the action, creates a unique combination of brain and brawn that works perfectly for a character like Bane.
Bane: Conquest‘s primary failures come from its problems in regards to storytelling. The volume has a tendency to interject weird subplots that ultimately feel like distractions from the main narrative. This happens with Batman’s initial cameo, Catwoman’s even less relevant cameo, and in a subplot that has Bane face off against his main enemy/newest collaborator in an odd heist game. The volume also has a problem with continuing its more interesting subplots. Bane’s lingering problems with his venom addiction and Dionysus’ ultimate plan to betray Bane are constantly mentioned yet never end up amounting to much of anything. These problems erode at the volume’s overarching narrative and prevent it from being anything more than just average.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The quality of the artwork in Bane: Conquest is similar to the quality of the story, in that it is great in some regards but disappointing in others. Graham Nolan’s work is at its best when depicting Bane in action. The venom-fueled supervillain jumps into every battle with a great level of energy. This helps make the volume’s fight scenes so engaging, which is one of the volume’s chief successes. However, Nolan’s work has a number of places where characters end up looking downright weird. There are places where minor characters are contorted in weird ways or where their facial expressions don’t really match what is happening. The artwork is generally pleasant but feels like it could be better.
Continuity
Bane: Conquest is a mostly standalone miniseries that does not continue the story from any other specific comic. Technically, the miniseries was published after Bane’s encounters with Batman across Batman Vol. 3: I am Bane (Review), however, it is more of a spiritual sequel to Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan’s work on Bane from Batman: Knightfall.