Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight Fixes Batman & Robin’s Biggest Non-Nipple Problem

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a pastiche of Batman stories, especially those from the films. That makes it fun to view from a modern lens, as the story reinterprets famous plot points and characters and merges them together to tell one consistent story. And thanks to that freedom, Lego Batman has seen fit to correct one of the worst and most infamous Bat-crimes in all of cinematic history.

Spoilers follow.

As mentioned, Legacy of the Dark Knight remixes pieces from throughout the movies. You have wannabe crime boss Penguin from The Batman franchise who then transitions into a mayoral hopeful and animalistic creep a la Batman Returns. Most of these portrayals are taken directly from the films, and in the cases where there is only one on-screen version, that tends to be the one that wins out. Catwoman is largely a blend of Michelle Pfeiffer's Batman Returns portrayal and the more general comic book notion of her as a white-hat thief. Poison Ivy has only ever been portrayed in Batman & Robin, so Uma Thurman's version of the character essentially serves as the template here.

However, Lego Batman smartly breaks from this for its portrayal of Bane. In Batman & Robin, Bane was little more than a 'roided-up thug. (He also wears a hat.) He was dumb muscle for Poison Ivy. He barely spoke because he barely could speak. He was the Hulk from Marvel Comics, transposed into a Batman movie. And not even Smart Hulk.

For fans of the comics, this was deeply annoying. Bane is one of Batman's greatest foes, not because he's a massive muscle man--though he is that too--but because he's also a criminal mastermind and strategic genius. The comics' Knightfall arc culminated in Bane breaking the Bat's spine over his knee like a twig, but that only happened after months of planning to systematically assault and traumatize Batman, physically exhausting him into a state where he would be vulnerable enough for Bane's final blow. Bane didn't simply overpower his opponent; he studied Batman, identified a weakness, and exploited it. 

Boiling all that down to a barely-verbal mutant was a real "hey what the hell" moment for me as a kid. Even as I've grown to see Batman & Robin as self-aware camp, the treatment of Bane was a sore spot.

So I was very gratified to see that Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight corrects this error with a Knightfall chapter that very closely matches the comic arc that inspired it. Without getting into particular details, it finds a way to emulate the broad strokes of the original: an Arkham prison break to exhaust Batman and lead him into a trap that ultimately breaks his spirit and his spine. Well, a Lego version of it anyway.

This version of Bane is not a hulking brute or hired muscle. He was lurking in the background all throughout, orchestrating certain events as part of his master plan. And he's even urbane and well-spoken, with an excellent comedic performance by Matt Berry. It even reminded me a little of James Adomian's comedic portrayal of the character in the Harley Quinn animated series, which certainly felt intentional.

In many ways, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is an imitation of the movies that it pays homage to. But in this one very specific and, to me, very important way, it's an improvement.