Batman writer Chuck Dixon is synonymous with Bane as his co-creator and relishes the character’s popularity. But, as pivotal as the character has become in various media outside the printed page, he was given a rest after Knightfall for a few years.
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Dixon explained why in episode #41 of Ask Chuck Dixon after he was asked what plans there were for Bane during Knightquest and Knight’s End when Azrael was running around in a leveled-up Bat-armor.
He started by saying he and Graham Nolan always had plans for Bane, beginning with the backstory of who his father was and plans Bane had for his life. Dixon compared the “epic” origin to Dr. Doom, a villain that inspired them in Bane’s creation.
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The reason he went away is, traditionally, there’s a “moratorium” after a villain is defeated. “He just sort of goes away,” Dixon said.
Bane was seen briefly after Azrael beat him, in prison and off Venom cold turkey. “He’s basically a big tub of goo in a jail cell,” said Dixon. “Venom pretty much ruined his life.”
Dixon would add Venom is one of Bane’s greatest weaknesses though it bestows on him such strength. His real weakness, according to Dixon, however, is his ego that pushes him to be an alpha male.
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“You kind of have to be an alpha male to be the kind of guy he is,” Dixon explained. “I think any alpha male has an ego. It’s what drives them. Is it a problem or is it an asset?”
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Later on, Bane would come back in Legacy – a crossover in 1996 where the Bat-Family, Catwoman, Huntress, and Azrael team up against Ra’s al Ghul and Bane to stop the virulent Apocalypse Plague.
Legacy also had a four-issue tie-in prequel, Bane of the Demon, starring the Man Who Broke the Bat. Then came Bane Conquest sometime later and his clash with “global criminal conspiracies in the DCU.”
All culminated in Bane becoming, as Dixon put it, “a global figure” and “an emperor of crime” – as well as the notoriously marketable comic book entity we know today.