Imprisoned from birth to serve his dead father's sentence, Bane was raised inside the horrific environments of a Santa Prisca prison. Finding solace in smuggled books and meditation, he developed incredible powers of concentration. When he was subjected to military experiments with the experimental steroid Venom, his iron-forged will helped him survive where other test subjects had died, and he managed to escape. Determined to prove his worth, he sought out Batman and broke the Dark Knight's spine after causing a breakout of which Batman took weeks to round up the escaped villains. But Batman recovered and managed to beat Bane, cutting off the precious Venom supply that transforms Bane into a superhuman.