This week's Batman and Robin #10, published today, sees Bruce and Damian Wayne finally put the boot into Man-Bat's cult and defeat the villain's latest evil scheme. What should be a moment of triumph for the dynamic duo, however, is rather undercut by the surprise return of a long-defeated enemy later in the issue.
We'll get right into all that straight after the cover below, but first a note that the issue is written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Nikola Čižmešija and Simone Di Meo, colored by Rex Lokus and Giovanna Niro, and lettered by Steve Wands.
Spoiler warning for Batman and Robin #10
The first half of the issue marks a conclusion to the first big arc that's been running throughout the comic over the last year. Batman and Robin take on and roundly defeat Man-Bat, sending his cultists fleeing too. That leaves the rest of the issue to address a few loose ends...
With Man-Bat now reverted to his human form - Dr Kirk Langstrom - Batman surmises that he has now developed a third personality, and that he will have to work with Langstrom to figure out just what that means. Elsewhere, Damian and Flatline share a tender moment together, but the latter doesn't reveal that she is being haunted by the spectral form of Ra's al Ghul ("Ra's al Ghost" as she quips at one point). She's leaving Gotham for the time being, in part to protect Damian from his grandfather.
It looks like the issue is going to bow out on a sweet moment as Bruce and Damian share a late night breakfast on the roof of the brownstone, but then the shadow of a giant bat covers them. They prepare for another Man-Bat attack but it's actually Goliath, bringing a message from Maya Ducard that a long-thought-dead old enemy still lives: Bane.
Yep, the man who broke Batman and who later murdered Alfred in front of Robin is still alive, well, and seemingly hanging out on Dinosaur Island.
This is a big surprise given that he was supposedly killed in Arkham Asylum back in 2021's Infinite Frontier #0, where he was a victim of the Joker's toxic gas. It's a final page reveal, so that's all we get for this month, but given that next month's Batman and Robin #11 is teased as being "A father and son adventure on... Dinosaur Island," it seems likely that Bruce and Damian will be seeking out their old enemy sooner rather than later.
Batman and Robin #10 is out now from DC.
Does Bane make the cut in our list of the 25 best supervillains of all time?
