Bane v.s Deathstroke

[ArlEammon]

I have never seen this happen in a comic's strip. One is intelligent, an expert warrior and super strong, and the other is the same. Both are master strategists and tacticians, however. It makes me think that Deathstroke may have a leg up on Bane, since he uses swords and other weapons far better than Bane, but Bane is just so insanely strong.

[Professor Gnoll]

I have never seen this happen in a comic's strip. One is intelligent, an expert warrior and super strong, and the other is the same. Both are master strategists and tacticians, however. It makes me think that Deathstroke may have a leg up on Bane, since he uses swords and other weapons far better than Bane, but Bane is just so insanely strong.
What sort of fight we talking here? Gladiator arena, drawn out conflict, prep time?
See, Bane really benefits from having a lot of preparation time. Where he excels is in figuring out his opponent's strengths and weaknesses and slowly wearing them down, then striking them when they're at their most vulnerable. In a straight up duel to the death, Deathstroke pretty much murders him.

[Traab]

Deathstroke. Sorry, but his utterly insane ability to plan, prepare and stratagize makes him basically an evil batman. Any fight they get into is one slade wilson has spent weeks or months preparing for, with every possible tactic planned out. He will toy with the man psychologically, physically, drive him into a blind rage, and spring his trap. Plus he has that one obvious weakness, his venom supplies. Deathstroke does not have any such obvious weakness.

[DiscipleofBob]

Well, it'd certainly be an entertaining fight.

But in the end, Bane has a glaring weakness. Bane relies on Venom through an exposed delivery system that Batman often damages to severely weaken him. Deathstroke doesn't have any such weakness. In fact, he has a healing factor and can regenerate wounds.

[Anteros]

Bane also tends to rely on the unwillingness of his enemy to just kill him. His usual combat strategy of "lumber slowly towards enemy and crush with superior physical strength" will just get him shot in the face by Deathstroke.

Unless you completely disarm both participants and put them in a small arena this fight isn't even close.

[Dienekes]

Well, it'd certainly be an entertaining fight.

But in the end, Bane has a glaring weakness. Bane relies on Venom through an exposed delivery system that Batman often damages to severely weaken him. Deathstroke doesn't have any such weakness. In fact, he has a healing factor and can regenerate wounds.

Eh before New 52, Bane was curing his venom addiction and was only taking them in pill form for when he absolutely needed a quick boost.

Without venom he was still considered an even fight for Batman. To the point that the majority of Batman/Bane fights (after Knightfall) end with both combatants walking away.

Which is similar to Deathstroke. Deathstroke has beaten Batman 3 times Batman has beaten Deathstroke 5 times. Ignoring times when they weren't fair duels (such as when Robin and Batman both teamed up and kicked the snot out of Slade).

Bane has also used missiles, gas, rifles, grenades and whatever else to win fights before. The only times he doesn't is when he is trying for an honor fight. In which he much prefers to use his hands. That I think more than anything will work for Deathstroke's advantage. Bane would probably see Deathstroke as a worthy opponent to be broken and fought with his hands. Deathstroke on the other hand would have no compunction against just shooting Bane.

So I would give it to Deathstroke, but I think it would be closer than a lot of people think.

[TeChameleon]

Yeh, if we're talking pre-nu52, comic-book Bane (it hurts my brain that Firefox now recognizes 'nu52' as a word), it would be pretty close. Cartoon Bane suffers from... basically the kiddified version of 'roid-rage, if we're being honest. And comic-book Deathstroke simply isn't as chessmaster-y as Slade from Teen Titans. He can pull off some pretty impressive plans (cf. the Judas Contract), but he's not... not... hrm. Not all that insightful, I guess I'd say, at least not usually. His plans, borderline-brilliant though they may sometimes be, tend to boil down to 'put the target in a disadvantageous position so I can kill them more easily'.

Please note that, for the record, I'm completely ignoring nu52 stuff because a) I haven't read it and b) the bits that I do know about it are what I'd consider brain-damagingly stupid.

If this ends up being 'Deathstroke and Bane get a contract on each other simultaneously' sort of situation, I think that Bane could come out the winner if (and probably only if) he was able to manoeuvre things so that he was able to dictate the terms of engagement. If Bane could find a place to lay low for a bit, I suspect that he could make dear old Slade's rather fragile sanity snap like a dried twig (seriously, if the freaking Calculator- as in, the guy that once thought it was a good idea to dress in a purple box-suit with actual giant buttons on it and then go fight Batman- thinks that you're a nutbar, your grasp on reality is rather on the loose side). Of course, if Deathstroke got to Bane before Bane could start with the mindgames in earnest, I'm pretty sure that Bane's gonna go down, if for no other reason than Slade's a walking arsenal that could make Frank Castle jealous.

[DiscipleofBob]

Yeh, if we're talking pre-nu52, comic-book Bane (it hurts my brain that Firefox now recognizes 'nu52' as a word), it would be pretty close. Cartoon Bane suffers from... basically the kiddified version of 'roid-rage, if we're being honest. And comic-book Deathstroke simply isn't as chessmaster-y as Slade from Teen Titans. He can pull off some pretty impressive plans (cf. the Judas Contract), but he's not... not... hrm. Not all that insightful, I guess I'd say, at least not usually. His plans, borderline-brilliant though they may sometimes be, tend to boil down to 'put the target in a disadvantageous position so I can kill them more easily'.

Please note that, for the record, I'm completely ignoring nu52 stuff because a) I haven't read it and b) the bits that I do know about it are what I'd consider brain-damagingly stupid.

If this ends up being 'Deathstroke and Bane get a contract on each other simultaneously' sort of situation, I think that Bane could come out the winner if (and probably only if) he was able to manoeuvre things so that he was able to dictate the terms of engagement. If Bane could find a place to lay low for a bit, I suspect that he could make dear old Slade's rather fragile sanity snap like a dried twig (seriously, if the freaking Calculator- as in, the guy that once thought it was a good idea to dress in a purple box-suit with actual giant buttons on it and then go fight Batman- thinks that you're a nutbar, your grasp on reality is rather on the loose side). Of course, if Deathstroke got to Bane before Bane could start with the mindgames in earnest, I'm pretty sure that Bane's gonna go down, if for no other reason than Slade's a walking arsenal that could make Frank Castle jealous.

I would think it'd be a fairly difficult task to break Slade psychologically. We're talking about a guy who, while fighting other members of the Justice League, stopped Kyle Rayner from using his ring by grabbing Kyle's ring hand and overpowering Kyle's will with his own. That's some serious willpower.

[Professor Gnoll]

I would think it'd be a fairly difficult task to break Slade psychologically. We're talking about a guy who, while fighting other members of the Justice League, stopped Kyle Rayner from using his ring by grabbing Kyle's ring hand and overpowering Kyle's will with his own. That's some serious willpower.
True, but it worked on Batman, who's not exactly weak-willed himself. Quite the opposite, in fact. It would take a long time though- time which Deathstroke could be using to track down and kill our favourite luchador.

[TeChameleon]

I would think it'd be a fairly difficult task to break Slade psychologically. We're talking about a guy who, while fighting other members of the Justice League, stopped Kyle Rayner from using his ring by grabbing Kyle's ring hand and overpowering Kyle's will with his own. That's some serious willpower.

Willpower, aye. Although... while I didn't hate Identity Crisis the way a lot of people seem to (kind of enjoyed it, honestly, aside from a couple of weird hiccups during the denouement)... the Deathstroke-vs.-the-League fight was easily the weakest part.

But kind of flimsy writing or not, willpower =/= sanity, as we saw illustrated rather graphically during the original Parallax mess, when Hal Jordan jumped his trolley and proceeded to dismantle the entire corps. If anything, losing his marbles (probably exacerbated by the sheer amount of head trauma (https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlanod/sets/72157594208628528/) he's suffered over the years) cranked Hal's will into overdrive- even at his best, pre-Parallax, I seriously doubt he could have murdered both Corps and Guardians wholesale.

Canonically, Slade's grip on sanity is kind of loose. As I said, even the Calculator thinks he's sort of nuts, and if Bane can push Deathstroke over the edge, then they're playing on his terms, and I honestly don't think Deathstroke has much of a chance if he loses it while trying to go against a manipulator with Bane's level of skill. For reference, the Calculator somehow once thought this (http://www.fortressofbaileytude.com/baileysbatmanpodcast/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Calculator.jpg) was a good idea. (oh, and the line I'm thinking of comes from one of the early issues of Villains United, where the Calculator says, paraphrased, "While I normally enjoy listening to you teeter on the edge of sanity, Slade..."). So yeah. Bane's got a pretty good chance of making Deathstroke come unwrapped, and I'm not sure it would even take that much, necessarily- he'd just need to do it before Slade came a-knocking.

[Hyena]

While I have to agree that Slade is pretty powerful, his regeneration and martial skills do make him a powerful opponent, you all might have forgotten that Bane also has an advantage of his own - he's a big guy.

[The Troubadour]

It makes me think that Deathstroke may have a leg up on Bane, since he uses swords and other weapons far better than Bane,[...]

Bane is enough of a swordsman he nearly defeated Ra's al Ghul, who's had centuries of practice. He's also an expert marksman - notice how even in his debut storyline, "Knightfall", he was the one who fired the missile at Arkham Asylum to break out the inmates.
Honestly, Deathstroke has been subject to a lot of hype and power creep over the decades (that fight against the Justice League in "Identity Crisis"? TERRIBLE writing!), but even with we use him as he was written by Wolfman, I'd say he still takes the win (though not easily) since he is a low-level superhuman, and Bane doesn't use Venom anymore. If Bane is using Venom, I'd say he would win - he was taking AzBats head-on even with the armour -, but he does have a glaring weakness (his Venom feed is external and visible) that someone like Deathstroke would definitely try to exploit.

[Professor Gnoll]

Honestly, Deathstroke has been subject to a lot of hype and power creep over the decades.
Absolute truth. Deathstroke has gone from 'Masterful and dangerous, but still human' to 'Can take on the entire Justice League single-handedly' without any real explanation. It's just ridiculous, and makes the JL look incompetent instead of making Deathstroke look cool.

[HardcoreD&Dgirl]

Absolute truth. Deathstroke has gone from 'Masterful and dangerous, but still human' to 'Can take on the entire Justice League single-handedly' without any real explanation. It's just ridiculous, and makes the JL look incompetent instead of making Deathstroke look cool.

I think it's called Jobing... but it happens all the time When a character needs a boost just make him take on someone and win way above his paygrade... it doesn't work that well most times.