Awesome / Knightfall

• Though Batman ended the night losing to Bane, It should be remembered that over the course of Knightfall (the first arc), Batman and Robin together managed to fight off or defeat 15 different super criminals — among them Mad Hatter, Zsasz, Firefly, Amygdala, Poison Ivy, Riddler, Cavalier, Cornelius Stirk, Abattoir, Scarecrow, Joker, and Killer Croc — all in only a few nights. Those are some seriously impressive heroics.
• Bruce's Shut Up, Hannibal! moment before facing Bane in Wayne Manor:
  Batman: Then while you revel in it, Bane, I'm sick of death, sick of blood, sick of the chaos and horror you've brought to Gotham — and right into my home. I've spent my life fighting your kind of madness and evil, and now that lifelong fight has brought me to death's door, my own door... I realize you may well be the single greatest source of madness and evil I've ever faced. And in that case? (puts on mask) One more time.
  • Bane, for his part, manages to undercut Bruce's speech with a one-word Badass Boast; when Bruce calls Bane "the single greatest source of madness and evil I've ever faced," Bane interjects, "Easily".
• Jean Paul Valley may have lost his mind and the right to wear the cape and cowl, but when he faced off with Bane in his new costume, his biggest moment of awesome came not from beating Bane within an inch of his life. It's when he has Bane at his mercy, the police and Robin watching on in suspense of what he will do. Then Bane finally says, "Kill me, Batman..." (he's spent the entirety of the fight refusing to acknowledge him as Batman).
  Valley: ...NO. You're broken, Bane. Blackgate Prison can hold the pieces.
• When Bruce Wayne completes his training and puts the suit back on in preparation for fighting his replacement, a swarm of bats bursts into Bane's cell.
  Bane: He has returned...
• Despite being a villain, Bane gets one massive CMOA with his well thought-out plan to break the Bat. He successfully runs Batman ragged by releasing all the inmates of Arkham Asylum at once, deduces his secret identity, and is waiting in Wayne Manor when the weary Dark Knight returns for some rest. Finally, in a single act, Bane lands a blow against Batman that has never been matched in the almost twenty years since.
  Bane: I am Bane — And I could kill you... but death would only end your agony — and silence your shame. (hoists Batman over his head) Instead, I will simply... (performs a backbreaker on Batman over one knee, crippling him◊) BREAK YOU! (throws Batman to the ground and walks away) Broken... and done.
  • Batman even gets one in the moment it happens. According to the Novelization, Bruce realized what Bane was going to do, and twisted himself enough so his spine wasn't snapped, instead damaging the vertebrae. While he was still crippled, it wasn't as severe as it could have been.
  • There's also the fact that Batman - although he was completely exhausted both physically and mentally at the time when Bane attacked him in his own manor - refused to give in and tried to put up a fight anyway, using whatever strength he had left. Too bad that (as he himself stated) what was left was not enough. Still, he remained Defiant to the End - at one point Bane grabbed him by the collar and yelled "Beg for mercy! Scream my name!" to his face. Batman's response? "Go back to hell".
  • Even better, during AzBats' first (failed) attempt at defeating Bane, he told Jean Paul that even in his debilitated state, his mentor lasted longer than him (though admittedly, he probably said that just out of spite and refusal to acknowledge Valley as Batman).
• When it appears that Bruce has been killed by a trap left by Valley, Nightwing totally goes berserk on him, hitting Valley hard enough to split his gloves open. While Valley beats him, it was a hell of a fight.
  Nightwing: You'd have to stand on top of Gotham Tower just to reach his BOOTS! You didn't best him! You MURDERED him! Now I'm gonna peel that tin suit off you and AIR YOU OUT!
  • Made even better because Dick only loses the fight once he's distracted by a civilian in danger. AzBats uses that distraction to take him down. Had that not happened, there's no telling how the rest of the fight would've gone.
• In the final confrontation between Bruce Wayne and Jean Paul Valley, Bruce proves why he truly is the Batman: a simple knock-down drag-out brawl proves inconclusive, so Bruce instead beats Jean Paul psychologically, forcing him into a psychotic break... and then, showing compassion to his defeated foe. It pretty much illustrates what makes Batman Batman. If he can't outfight someone, he'll outthink them. And to those who truly deserve mercy, he has it to give.
• Before the above defeat Batman, who was supposed to be dead for about an issue, confronts Valley in his own mansion and is poised exactly as Bane had in the issue before his broken back.
• The Prodigal storyline, featuring Dick Grayson returning to Wayne Manor as Batman and working with Tim Drake, his own successor to the Robin mantle.
• Shiva in the Novelization. When examining Bruce to train with her, she comments he's strong and agile, so she'll work with that. Bruce asks if he wasn't, she replies she'd work with what other pros he had. Bruce then asks what if he had nothing. She replies she'd kill him.

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