Warning: Spoilers ahead for Task Force Z #7
Despite his fame as a Gotham villain, DC is surprisingly teasing that its new version of Bane may become a hero. Resurrected as a zombie in DC’s Task Force Z series, Bane has become one of the new team’s most powerful assets while being led by Jason Todd’s Red Hood. However, the events of DC’s Joker have teased that Zombie Bane isn’t the original Batman villain. Keeping that in mind, it seems as though DC is taking their new Bane in a different direction.
Previous issues of Task Force Z revealed Amanda Waller approved an off-shoot team from her Suicide Squad to operate on a provisionary basis. Directed by Harvey Dent’s Two-Face, Red Hood was selected to lead the team of partially resurrected villains using controlled doses of Lazarus Pit-based medicine. Similar to the Squad, villains are promised full resurrections for their compliance on missions (rather than bombs being put in their heads and reduced sentences). Believed to have been killed during the recent attack on Arkham Asylum, Bane was brought back from the dead to join Red Hood’s team. However, DC’s Joker comic series recently suggested the corpse found in the rubble was a planted clone of Bane… with the real villain becoming involved in a global conspiracy revolving around the Clown Prince of Crime.
Despite having all of the original Bane’s memories, it seems as though this new zombie/clone Bane is looking to do things differently in Task Force Z #7 from Matthew Rosenberg, Jack Herbert, and Daniel HDR. So far, all he’s done is work for Task Force Z while also being tortured by Red Hood, seeing as how the original Bane murdered the late Alfred Pennyworth. However, when the team needs new members to fight back against Mr. Bloom and his secret plot surrounding the program the new Bane is sent to recruit Solomon Grundy, an equally strong (and more supernatural zombie) to whom Bane offers his sympathies and friendship.
Following this surprisingly kind interaction with Grundy, it’s possible that Zombie Bane could become more of a hero in the future. Should he gain a full resurrection in the days to come, this alternate Bane could be looking to distance himself from the original, choosing a lighter path. However, things aren’t looking good for Task Force Z by the issue’s end, seeing as how Mr. Freeze stole all of the Lazarus pills which resulted in KGBeast, Zsasz, Copperhead, and Bane himself becoming corpses once more.
As Task Force Z continues, it looks as though Red Hood is going to have to steal from Batman who has a store of the Lazarus resin. The Dark Knight is already against Jason Todd’s decision to lead a group of his most dangerous villains brought back from the dead, so there’s no way he’d give the resin up willingly. At any rate, the odds are strong that DC is headed towards having a heroic Bane (so long as he can be resurrected once more as Task Force Z continues.
