It may not be Santa Prisca, but Gotham City as we find it at the start of Gotham’s fifth season is definitely a place where only the strong survive. It’s a place where any semblance of law and order has packed up and called it a night and the city’s crime lords reign supreme. In other words, it’s the perfect place for Bane.

Entertainment Weekly gave us our first look at the infamous villain as he’ll be appearing in the popular #DCTV series, which kicks off its final run of episodes this midseason. Played by actor Shane West (Salem, ER), he’s a fiery figure teeming with menace, who has Bane’s signature mask, but also sports a chest full of mechanics, suggesting he may be a cyborg (or is possibly wearing a steampunk-inspired suit). Still, seeing one of Batman’s most well-known adversaries standing within this post-apocalyptic influenced Gotham, it’s clear that Gotham is pulling out all the stops for its final stretch.

According to EW, Bane will first be introduced as Eduardo Dorrance, a former army friend of Jim Gordon’s who will eventually transform into the villain. Gotham Executive Producer John Stephens describes him as “very, very strong, and very angry… We made him integral to the fact of coming in as a special ops government agent.

“We pick up at the top of season five, at the conclusion of No Man’s Land, Day 365,” he continued. “Then, we cycle backwards to day 87, three months into No Man’s Land where Jim has created his green zone and wants his reunification. We’re catching up, and for the first nine episodes, we’re always catching up to that first scene we see.

For anyone who doesn’t watch Gotham and doesn’t recognize the reference, Gotham’s final season will take its inspiration from “No Man’s Land,” the iconic Batman event in which Gotham City suffered a devastating earthquake that leads the federal government to essentially abandon it. Many of the surviving citizens are evacuated before the bridges leading into and out of the city are all blown, leaving a devastated, lawless Gotham in the hands of Batman’s enemies.

Last season’s finale ended in much the same way, with the Gotham City bridges being blown. Only in this case, it was due to the machinations of Jeremiah Velaska, the even-more-psychotic twin brother of Jerome Velaska, who had been terrorizing the city in much the same way that the Joker will in a few years.

Be sure to check out the EW article for more, and keep your eye on DCComics.com for more Gotham news as it breaks.