I read Knightfall, and while he was sold as Batman's equal, he didn't strike me as such. Partly because he still has henchmen (Bats only has a henchboy) and the writers can't seem to think of a way to show his suposed intelligence, the strategies he comes up with are not that creative, the kind any one of us could have thought of and executed given the right resources (Break out every single heavy hitting rogue from Arkham, and have them wear Batman down?! Every single villain Batman has fought could have thought of that.)

Also, the writers who focus on his addiction to/dependence on Venom doesn't help either. They can show Bats as intelligent and cunning by focusing on the fact that he doesn't have any superhuman powers but can still kick all kinds of ass. Bane, on the other hand, gets slightly above-human abilities from the Venom.

When Bats explained why he has the Yellow Oval symbol even though it works as a big target, you go "oooh, that's very clever!"

When Bane pumps some venom into his system and breaks something (like Croc's hands), you don't get the same impression. How smart do you need to be to pump Strength Juice and then break stuff? Even reax can do that.