Bane First Appearance: Vengeance of Bane #1 (1993) Value

Bane first appeared in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1, cover-dated January 1993, created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Graham Nolan (Wikipedia). Dixon wanted a villain like "an evil Doc Savage", and Nolan based the look partly on Mexican lucha libre wrestlers. The one-shot tells his origin: born in Peña Duro prison on the Caribbean island of Santa Prisca, he serves the life sentence of his father and becomes a test subject for Venom, an experimental steroid.

PriceCharting values for the first printing (listed as Batman: Vengeance of Bane Special #1, 1993), based on recorded sales, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Ungraded: $94.00
• CGC 4.0: $62.98
• CGC 6.0: $65.71
• CGC 8.0: $87.19
• CGC 9.2: $150.00
• CGC 9.8: $423.90

Recent CGC 9.8 sales were $465 (August 27, 2026), $650 (September 10, 2026) and $375 for a white-page first print (September 20, 2026). The book was reprinted: PriceCharting lists the second printing at $25 ungraded and $40.61 in CGC 6.0. Confirm the printing before you compare prices.

In Batman #497 (July 1993), part of the Knightfall storyline, Bane ambushes Batman at Wayne Manor and breaks his back, leaving him paraplegic (Wikipedia). It is Bane's best-known issue but not his first appearance. PriceCharting values, retrieved September 25, 2026: $10.23 ungraded, $44 in CGC 8.0, $57 in CGC 9.2, $98.75 in CGC 9.8 and $310.70 in CGC 10. It costs less than Vengeance of Bane #1 in every grade listed.

Bane's father is Edmund Dorrance, the mercenary known as King Snake, who escaped Santa Prisca's courts and left his son to serve his sentence; Bane learns this in the "Veritas Liberat" storyline (Wikipedia). Ra's al Ghul is not his father: Bane worked with Ra's for a time, using the alias Ubu during a plague attack on Gotham, and Ra's withheld what he knew about Bane's father. Growing up on Santa Prisca, Bane became fluent in several languages, including English, Spanish and Portuguese. He has genius-level intellect and an eidetic memory, and Venom raises his strength but creates an addiction that needs a dose every 12 hours. IGN ranked him 34th on its list of the top 100 comic book villains.

• Robert Swenson played Bane in Batman & Robin (1997).
• Tom Hardy played him in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
• Shane West played the character in Fox's Gotham.

Credits from Wikipedia.

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the title, issue number, date and publisher; reprints and facsimiles say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode that did not exist in the cover year means a later edition.
• Paper: decades-old newsprint tans at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and replaced covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service such as CGC or CBCS can detect them.
• Printing: Vengeance of Bane #1 exists in first, second and third printings (PriceCharting); check the indicia before paying first-print money.

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. The indicia photo is the one that separates a first printing from the later printings. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo, and there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market.