In the Batman's life, pain has been a familiar and varied companion, sometimes a welcome respite from emotional hurt, sometimes a useful focal point, but rarely so severe that he is blinded by its impact. When Ra's al-Ghul stabbed him near the heart, the pain was shattering. So, too, was the moment in which his body was snapped like a twig over Bane's knee, a moment Nightwing's action deliberately resurrects. From the blood-speckled lips of the Dark Knight comes a howl of agony enough to send shivers up the spine of even a cold-blooded killer, and the taser tumbles from fingers no longer capable of holding the device.

A heartbeat later, save involuntary twitches throughout his body, the Batman lies still on the laboratory floor, as broken as the glass scattered all around them.