Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #494: Trogg, Zombie, and Bird

So, there I was, half-watching the so-so Kite Man adult animated series on Max, when that universe’s version of Bane is momentarily pleased to see his old gang in a prison, but that joy turns to depression when he realizes his friends are little better than brainwashed slaves to the supervillain who owns the prison.  It’s mildly complicated.  Bane ends up killing them.  But that reminded me:  Bane used to have these guys as his gang when he first appeared.

Oh, and then I learned something:  the three guys were named for 60s bands apparently.  Regardless, here’s what I could dig up on Trogg, Zombie, and Bird.

Bane, and his gang, first appeared in the special issue Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 in January of 1993 by writers Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench with artist Graham Nolan.  Bane’s thing, basically, was to be the guy to break Batman, and the idea was to create a new character to do that since the likes of Joker and Two-Face had been trying for decades in real world time and hadn’t pulled it off yet.  I assume, that is.  I assume that’s the same reason Doomsday was created, to be honest.  Regardless, Bane was to be a new Batman foe, and he didn’t work alone.  As Bane was a prisoner since birth in the brutal Peña Duro prison, he met the other three while he was there.  And when the time came to break out, he took them with him.

As it is, the three guys had specialized skills that assisted Bane in his mission to beat the Bat.  They were:

• Trogg, a short, muscular man who had taken the young Bane under his wing while in the prison.  Despite appearances, Trogg was not necessarily there for his muscle.  While he was a strong fighter, he was actually the group’s tech guy.
• Zombie, a tall, thin, pal man in a suit.  Zombie worked in the Peña Duro infirmary and had a knack for drugs.  He would administer Bane’s venom and was an expert knife thrower.
• Bird, a American criminal who had a trained falcon named Talon.  Bird was the one to tell Bane about Batman and was Bane’s primary scout in Gotham City.  Bird appears to have been the best fighter in the bunch, having fought Tim Drake’s Robin to a standstill and the one who lasted the longest against Batman himself.

Bane’s plan was a bit extensive but brilliant.  Noticing that Batman was suffering from chronic fatigue due to the fact he was not getting any rest, Bane worked with his gang to break all the inmates out of Arkham Asylum, forcing Batman to round them all up as quickly as he could.  After finally bringing the last of them in, save maybe the Joker, Bane’s gang struck, forcing Batman to take all three of them down before, as exhausted as he was going to get, he returned home to find Bane in the Batcave, and the resulting fight ended with Bane snapping Bruce’s spine.  From there, Bane easily got his three sidekicks out of prison to take over Gotham City.

Then a new Batman, the one-time Azrael, showed up and defeated Bane’s gang again.  Bane didn’t bail the guys out this time, but he wasn’t a free man much longer after that either.  And honestly, that was what looked to me like the last time Bane’s gang appeared in the comics.  It does appear that Bird would work with Bane again as someone to slow Azrael down, but for the life of me, I was sure this was the last time I saw these guys.

You know, until I was reminded that Tom King did use them briefly during his own Batman run when Bane returned to Gotham and sent the three off to bring in Jim Gordon, but Gordon managed to stop the guys with an assist from Duke “The Signal” Thomas before Bane managed to capture both of them himself.

Will Bane’s gang appear again?  Eh, maybe.