The Ogre’s gauntlet · Superhuman
Yujiro Hanma vs Bane
The man who broke the Bat meets the man who makes Venom look like water.
Tale of the tape
| Baki | Universe | DC |
|---|---|---|
| Superhuman | Tier | Superhuman |
| Raw, terrifying strength and a back muscle that forms a demon’s face | Strength | Venom-fuelled strength and a tactical mind |
| Arrogance: he toys with every opponent | Weakness | Cut the Venom tubes and the giant shrinks |
| 13–11–1 | Record on Versus | 0–5 |
The Arena
Bane had heard of a man in another world who needed no drug to be monstrously strong, a man born with a body that broke every rule. He did not believe it. When Yujiro Hanma walked into the prison where Bane was born, past the guards and the bars, Bane began to believe.
“They say you broke the Batman,” Yujiro said, looking at the Venom tubes running into Bane’s mask. Bane nodded proudly. “His back, over my knee.” Yujiro grinned. “And you needed that,” he said, tapping one of the tubes, “to do it.” Bane’s eyes narrowed behind his mask. “Venom is a tool. My mind is my weapon.”
Yujiro laughed. “Then let us see your mind.”
Round One
Bane attacked with perfect technique, a master of a dozen martial arts, studying Yujiro as he fought, the way he had studied Batman for months. He landed a combination that would have broken any man. Yujiro took it, laughed, and hit back. Bane flew across the prison courtyard and through a wall.
He came back pumping Venom into his veins, his muscles swelling to twice their size. Now he was stronger than any normal man had ever been. He hit Yujiro with everything he had, and the Ogre slid back a few metres, nodding appreciatively. “Better,” he said.
Bane stared. He had pumped enough Venom to lift a car. The man had moved two metres.
The Turn
Bane turned the Venom dial to maximum, pumping more of the drug into his body than he ever had, his muscles bulging grotesquely, his veins standing out like ropes. He roared and charged, and this time he hit Yujiro hard enough to crack the prison courtyard beneath them.
Yujiro took the blow, his body skidding back across the cracked stone, and for a moment the demon face on his back twisted. Then he straightened, rolled his shoulders, and grinned. “You built that strength from a chemical,” he said. “I was born with mine.”
Bane, for the first time in his life, felt the cold certainty that his plan had failed.
The Finish
Yujiro caught Bane’s next punch, held it, and with his other hand, grabbed the Venom tube running from Bane’s mask and tore it out. The drug sprayed across the courtyard. Bane’s muscles began to shrink immediately, the chemical strength draining away, and he staggered, suddenly an ordinary man again in front of the Ogre.
Yujiro lifted him off the ground with one hand and held him there, looking into his eyes. Then he set him down gently, almost kindly, and put a hand on his shoulder. “You broke the Batman with a drug,” he said. “I respect your mind. But your strength was never yours.”
He walked out of the prison. Bane stood in the courtyard, breathing hard, staring at the broken Venom tube in the dust. For the first time since he was a child in that prison, he felt small. He did not touch Venom again for a year.
The verdict
Yujiro Hanma wins
Bane is a brilliant tactician and Venom makes him monstrously strong, but Yujiro’s natural strength exceeds even maximum Venom, and tearing out the tube strips away Bane’s borrowed power.
- Natural strengthYujiro is stronger than Bane at full Venom.
- The Venom tubeTearing it out ends Bane’s strength instantly.
- DurabilityBane’s strongest blow barely moves him.
How the rematch could go differently: A Bane who studied Yujiro for months, as he did Batman, would still have to find a weakness the Ogre may not have.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between Yujiro Hanma and Bane?
Yujiro Hanma wins. Bane is a brilliant tactician and Venom makes him monstrously strong, but Yujiro’s natural strength exceeds even maximum Venom, and tearing out the tube strips away Bane’s borrowed power.