Damn, that's a good question, being a HUGE Batman fan (over 1,000 comic books in my closet) I will always choose the joker as a better villain and the Nolan Saga is no different, The Joker had no evil master plan nor a desire to carry the legacy of a former leader, The Joker is just pure evil at its best, I have to admit Bane did give me a sensation that Batman WAS the underdog but after finding out it was Talia behind it all did disappoint me a bit, how he was not the child born in darkness nor the only one to ever escape the prison, props to Nolan for keeping the comics story intact (Ras Al Ghul does have only one daughter) but dam, Bane is nobody's pawn, remember "Knightfall"

Actually he might be.

The prison wasn't exactly dark was it. It was hollow & lit all the time to give people "hope" of escaping.

I remember seeing the prison & thinking...HEYYY this is not a "dark" place like Bane said he was born in. That kinda gave me a hint towards maybe he wasn't the child...but I never connected the dots till Tallia revealed herself.

Bane may still have been born in the dark in some other place, he never said HE was the one who escaped the prison remember. All he said was that he was "born" in the darkness and that claim may still be true. This is just another thing which makes me feel Nolans storytelling is excellent.  

And no I don't think he said "dark" as a metaphor...I think he was being quite literal as there was darkness while they were fighting at the time & he beat Batman by finding him in the dark. 

I don't think Nolan would rehash villains. I would've expected a cameo like Scarecrow got in TDK (and TDKR too) for sure as Nolan stated due to Ledgers death he wants to not even go near mentioning Joker....which means he would've done the opposite had Ledger been alive. 

I like how in TDKR they don't even mention Arkham cus Joker should be there.

Probably the Joker, just because he's more well-known and he has more of a personality

I thought Bane was terrible in the movie. I couldn't understand most of what he said and while it was cool the way that just the sight of him brought fear into whoever he was near, that's all he was, just muscle. He was very predictable, and then it later turns out he was predictable because he's really just someones lackey. He had virtually no back story save what they did for the surprise ending. And his extremely quick demise that was used just to set up some stupid Catwoman one liner just showed in my opinion how worthless his character was. The surprise villain at the end, truly could have accomplished all of it without him, just the army of goons and all their guns.

Joker on the other hand made The Dark Knight movie what it was. It revolved around him. He was charismatic and unpredictable. He stole virtually every scene he was in. And while he might not have been able to take Batman out one on one, his unpredictable nature and brutality made up for it to me.

Hell I would even go Scarecrow above Bane just because his proficiency of using fear as a weapon was way cooler than anything Bane did imho.

I see your point, but the movie sure intended for the viewers to believe that it was Bane the child that escaped, when Alfred briefed Bruce on who Bane was he mentioned that Bane "somehow" managed to escape such "hell on earth" prison, when the truth is he was released by the league of shadows, also the 2 prisoners that Bruce interacts with during captivity make it sound as if the "legendary" escaped prisoner was a boy threfore leading everyone to believe it was Bane, dont get me wrong it was an absolute brilliant move by Nolan, I was already geting disappointed when the plot was throwing towards Bane being Ras' son when Talia has been an Important character in the comics (being the mother of Bruce's son and all) But Nolan played it amazingly well, all I said is that once the truth was revealed I ended up with the impression that it was all Talia;s doing and Bane sort of took a back step on the role of the movie's villain, thats why I vote for the joker, either way I loved all three films and all villains.

This. Ledger was amazing, shame it was his last film (sort of, he half finished a film at the time of his death i believe). He was really starting to get attention again and if he didn't die, the dark knight series might have lived on too remebering that the joker didn't die at the end of TDK. (Nolan said it is the last)

am i the only one that realised bane wasn't the child before talia reveiled herself?  during the back breaking scene bane literally says "i was a grown man before i first saw the light..." which i though was a pretty clear give-a-way that bane wasn't the child that escaped.

Makes me really curious to find out the real story about Bane's past. Maybe he really didn't die completely and actually lived and they might explain this mysterious guy more in detail in the next movie.

*clicks on see poll results option*

the Joker takes it for me... I kinda realized after the movie that Bane is just a pedo..