In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman's first encounter with Bane goes rather badly.

In short, Batman gets utterly destroyed, and does no apparent damage to Bane.

Later, they meet again, and Batman manages to hold his own, and even come out ahead until Talia intervenes. Bane's skills have deteriorated so thoroughly that he spends a good second or two punching a pillar where Batman used to be.

Batman still doesn't look good, but he gets the job done.

##Is the disparity between these two performances from Batman entirely the result of the fact that he broke Bane's mask in the second fight, or is there something else going on here?

In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman's first encounter with Bane goes rather badly.

In short, Batman gets utterly destroyed, and does no apparent damage to Bane.

Later, they meet again, and Batman manages to hold his own, and even come out ahead until Talia intervenes. Bane's skills have deteriorated so thoroughly that he spends a good second or two punching a pillar where Batman used to be.

Batman still doesn't look good, but he gets the job done.

Is the disparity between these two performances from Batman entirely the result of the fact that he broke Bane's mask in the second fight, or is there something else going on here?

In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman's first encounter with Bane goes rather badly.

In short, Batman gets utterly destroyed, and does no apparent damage to Bane.

Later, they meet again, and Batman manages to hold his own, and even come out ahead until Talia intervenes. Bane's skills have deteriorated so thoroughly that he spends a good second or two punching a pillar where Batman used to be.

Batman still doesn't look good, but he gets the job done.

##Is the disparity between these two performances from Batman entirely the result of the fact that he broke Bane's mask in the second fight, or is there something else going on here?

In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman's first encounter with Bane goes rather badly.

In short, Batman gets utterly destroyed, and does no apparent damage to Bane.

Later, they meet again, and Batman manages to hold his own, and even come out ahead until Talia intervenes. Bane's skills have deteriorated so thoroughly that he spends a good second or two punching a pillar where Batman used to be.

Batman still doesn't look good, but he gets the job done.

##Is the disparity between these two performances from Batman entirely the result of the fact that he broke Bane's mask in the second fight, or is there something else going on here?