Hey gang, going to have to keep this short and sweet, but I don’t think it’ll take too long to do this review! “I Am Bane” finally gave us some context as to what was the “grand plan” for this season, and quite sadly, the team decided to go full “Dark Knight Rises”, and that’s not exactly a good thing.
The different between this season of Gotham and Dark Knight Rises was that we saw the struggle in the city on a grander scale, the gang wars, the fight for supplies, etc. It made it different. But then, here, not only did we get the literal rise of Bane (who even says “Rise” himself, which is a reference to the film), we find out this whole scheme of keeping Gotham apart from the mainland in terms of reunification was because of an Al Ghul!
But not Ra’s, nor Talia…but Nyssa Al Ghul. I REALLY hate this. Truly, I do. Because when the Arrowverse brought forth Nyssa (played by the AMAZING Katrina Law), she was a very unknown character. Before her live-action debut by Law, she had only appeared in about 17 comics in all of DC history. So why bring her to Gotham when she’s going to be dead more than likely in two episodes? Plus, it really fulfills viewers fears that this is an imitation of Dark Knight Rises. Where Talia did the manipulating behind the scenes while Bane was the powerhouse scaring everyone into submission all to bring Gotham to its knees as punishment for what Bruce did to Ra’s. That’s almost literally what’s going on here!
Granted, it makes sense that one of Ra’s children came to avenge him, but here? Now? In the final season? Not cool. It could’ve been done so many different ways. It could’ve been a NEW villain. But instead, we get this, and really diminishes things.
Thankfully, Bane’s arrival was very powerful, and he made a clear impact on Gotham with his presence. To be honest, i couldn’t understand what he was saying at times…but when he cut loose, you could feel it. And poor Alfred, am I right?
Also thankfully, the Leslie/Barbara/Penguin/Riddler storyline was all but perfect. With the only exception being the “hearr-to-heart” that Leslie and Barbara had…twice…while on the run from Bane. there is no way he didn’t catch up to them before then.
Finally, I love the twist with the general and the bombing run on Gotham. My only question is that if all of Gotham is getting bombed right now…how is it going to last two more episodes? Oh…AND WHY ARE THE LAST TWO EPISODES STARTING A MONTH FROM NOW?!?!!?
In the end, “I Am Bane” brought a key Batman villain to the fold in a fun way, and a lesser known one in a not so fun way. With two episodes remaining, things better click quick.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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