The first appearance of Bane
References multi-part cross-over story entitled Knightfall from various Batman comic books.
Bane's comic version wears a full-face mask, but the animated version wears a similar mask that exposes his nose and mouth.
The producers originally didn't like Bane because they felt he was a gimmick character.
When asked who could front the money to hire Bane, Alfred shows Batman a copy of the Gotham Times, including an article on Rupert Thorne. The text of the article is taken verbatim from Joseph Sheppard's visual reference book 'Realistic Figure Drawing'.