Rampant Speculation: The NEXT Movie...

It's natural, as a Batman FREAK, even while The Dark Knight is still breaking records at the box office, to turn one's thoughts to the future and ponder questions about what the next Batman film might be like...

VILLAINS: Of course, this is the chief thing on everyone's mind. Who can possibly compare to the arch-enemy class of the Joker, let alone the mind-blowing performance of the late Heath Ledger? In Chris Nolan's real-world grounding of this franchise, characters such as Mr. Freeze, The Penguin and Clayface are all a bit over the top and would not make the translation successfully, in my opinion. Some of the more ordinary characters, such as Catwoman or Deadshot, would either bring unwanted complications into the story (romance) or are too obscure to the general public to work well.

What about the Riddler, though? No super-powers, no supernatural origin, nothing so far-fetched about him at all that he could not be used in a sequel. Of course, Jim Carrey's over-the-top performance would have to be forgotten, but Nolan and writer David Goyer have been successful thus far, with Ledger's Joker easily outshining Nicholson's interpretation, and Eckhart's Two-Face doing much the same to Jones' version.

Then there's Bane. Yes, most have the wrong view of this guy, born of Joel Schumacher's atrocious Batman and Robin. Unlike the brain-dead, steroid-infused Hulk-wannabe in the WORST Batman film ever, Bane's comic book inspiration is cunning, intelligent, ruthless AND inhumanly strong. He is the only villain to have bested Batman in combat, and his story is not too far outside the realm of reality to be used.

Mad Hatter? No one knows him. Poison Ivy? Again, with the science fiction. Killer Croc? Hmmm... nah, too crazy.

My favorite idea of all, though, is the one I haven't heard anyone put out there yet; the villain, as perfectly set up by the final scene of The Dark Knight, is Bats himself. Make the film about that, and you might really shake things up!