I was focusing on the part of her death when she knew she was going to die for sure. She didn’t die screaming or whining, she was quite calm. Dignified, even.

Yes, I think they both could. As far as I know, the more comics-based Penguin was less crazy guy and more high-class villain. After all the stuff that went down in TDK, I could see some of Gotham’s organized crime wanting to team up with someone more like them and less like Joker.

In my travels around the internets, I saw someone mention this idea: If Batman inspired villains to dress up and become “super villains”, what if the Joker inspired crazy men to act even crazier? With the Joker in jail, I could see the Riddler stepping up to try to take his place. Riddler has certain personality traits that could be expanded to make the character darker, like his OCD:

The Riddler’s criminal modus operandi is so deeply ingrained into his personality that he is virtually powerless to stop himself from acting it out. He cannot simply kill his opponents when he has the upper hand; he has to put them in a deathtrap to see if he can devise a life and death intellectual challenge that the hero cannot solve and escape. However, unlike many of Batman’s themed enemies, Riddler’s compulsion is quite flexible, allowing him to commit any crime as long as he can describe it in a riddle or puzzle. (That’s basicly from Wikipedia)

The more I think about it, the more I’d like to see Riddler in the next film. I’m glad I don’t get to decide these things, I have too many choices.

DC does not have a lack of strong female leads and I’m surprised they aren’t in the movies yet. Batgirl jumps to mind… She’s the adopted daughter (and niece) of Gordon and I could see he getting written into the movies easily, but I think the writers will “play it safe” and use Robin before they use her.

May I also point out that Poison Ivy does not control plants. While she does use plants a lot (for their toxins and such) and probably loves them more than most (all?) humans, she is basically a super-gardener and eco-terrorist. I think I’d like to see a serious Poison Ivy played by Nicole Kidman.

Also on my “next movie” list would be Harely Quinn. Her and the Joker’s relationship is overly complicated and interesting. The only downside to this is that I don’t want to risk anyone else playing the Joker after Heath in this movie “universe”.

Talia al Ghul would also make a good character in the next movie. Perhaps trying to avenge her father’s “death”? But, like the comics, it could be a “test” to see if Bruce is cut out to marry her… But given the tension between al Ghul and Bruce at the end of the last movie, that might not work.

As I said above, the third movie may get one of the four Robins in there. They could do Dick’s story (who eventually grew up and became Nightwing), but that was the one done in the last series of movies. Jason Todd, the second (angry) Robin might work, or Tim Drake, the current Robin, who has a detective state of mind.

Or, sticking with the talk about the movies needing GURL POWER, they could use Stephanie, who was the daughter of a bad guy and has an interesting story behind why she became Robin, but I’m not sure how they could get that into the film.**

DC and Marvel have gotten some really good female leads over the years and Hush is a good example of that so GO READ IT! Not to mention it is just a really good story.

Okay that is enough of me being a nerd for now.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Brown

I want to read a Batman graphic novel, but there are so many! Thanks for the suggestion.

I wonder if Christopher Nolan is going to off The Joker in his Batman world. And I wonder how many more Batman movies he is going to make. I am hoping for at least one more.

Could the Riddler and the Penguin guy exist in Nolan’s real to life Batman world?

On the drive home after the movie, me and Mandy had the same conversation about Christian Bale’s Batman voice, being all deep and raspy. Yeah, it’s for the purpose of hiding his identity AND intimidating criminals and playing on their fear. But a tactic like that should only work for someone of Mickey Rourke or Ron Perlman’s physicality and stature. Bale’s rendition sounds like he’s trying to be Patty and Selma Simpson. Mmmnnnnggggggh.

And about the realistic Gotham this movie portrays: I agree with what you pointed out about the batmobile and joker, etc. Again, Mandy and I talked about this too, but about something else. What does the next Batman movie hold? I don’t know how much background you have with Batman, but we were trying to think which enemies will be introduced that don’t spear too harshly out of this realism established.

Poison Ivy is a baddie that is at first to far fetched. A person able to command plants and have green skin? Well, that could be adapted to say that she is a genetic experiment and her DNA was actually mutated to be plant like and that she just has an empathy for plants. And how about Doctor Freeze? Also far fetched at first, but possible.

Cat Woman is a main baddy to consider, but after what Hale Berry did, I don’t know if they’ll risk it. Catwoman, from what I know from Burton’s Batman Returns, died from a fall and was mystically revived by a shitload of cats. And she healed and had supernatural reflexes. Translation into the new world? I don’t know.

But that leads to the last point about female roles. What you need to do is get the two volumes of graphic novels from the Mech. library of “Hush” Batman series. It’s a crash course of Batman history, all told really well and having nearly everyone in the storyline participate. Hush is 50% females. Know about Batgirl? In Batman canon, Batgirl does a good job working with Batman, but gets shot by the Joker and becomes paralyzed. She continues to work as Oracle, Batman’s live intelligence and research serivce/TimeLife operator. And there’s also Catwoman, Ivy, a character called The Huntress, the head of LexCorp (who is the daughter of Raz Alguhl) an important assassin character (forget name), and a few others.

But DC comics can just toss realism out the window if they do what Marvel does and combine their heros into one universe/reality like their comics do. Batman co-exists with Superman. They’re friends! So if they have Superman exist, then anything can happen. But that’s too much for one movie.

And that’s too much for one rant.
I know you don’t forget to be awesome.
-Neil