With Iron Man 3 just hitting theaters and Man of Steel just around the corner, people have been discussing whether or not Warner Bros. is going to create a cohesive DC Comics Universe. With a Justice League movie looming on the horizon, it is not only possible, it is going to happen in some form. The fun in the speculation to this point is to how this will happen. Is WB going to follow the Marvel Studios model by introducing the characters separately and then tie them all together in a Justice League event movie? Can and will the WB be able to fight off the comparisons and "copycat" cat calls that are sure to come? Will the WB be bold and strike out a new comics universe by launching it in a Justice League movie? Both scenarios have their pros and their cons. I prefer the former rather than the latter because there is already a foundation in place for the creation of the universe.
Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy of films is widely acknowledged in critical circles as some of the best superhero cinema to have been created. When Nolan envisioned the films, he did not set out to create a cohesive superhero universe. That is perfectly ok, because in the DCU films that follow, creating Batman first can be perfectly acceptable and I argue in fact, it is preferable in order to set up the wonder of the films that are going to follow.
The Dark Knight Trilogy introduces "the world" to the idea of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. The Gotham City introduced in Batman Begins is a corrupt city. A city where the underworld rules and criminals have no one to fear. If a "Superman" figure existed, why leave Gotham to fail like this? There are no superpowered people at this point in time and that is why introducing a world of heroes through Batman works.
Having the first cinematic hero in the universe being an "ordinary man" making a difference through extraordinary means is a logical place to begin. A character of financial means (in the Marvel Universe it's Tony Stark, in the DC Universe it's Bruce Wayne) utilizes his wealth and resources to right what the character perceives as personal wrongs and therefore find his personal redemption. Stark fights to reverse his legacy as "The Merchant of Death" by destroying the weapons his company has created that are now being used to kill American troops. Bruce Wayne fights to avenge the murder of his parents. Both movies introduce an ordinary man with extraordinary financial means.
It's been said that The Dark Knight trilogy can't exist in a DC Comics Universe because there is no way that other heroes in the world would've allowed the events of The Dark Knight Rises to have occurred to Gotham City. I say that the events of the Dark Knight Rises can exist in a DC Comics Universe if The Dark Knight Rises predates Earth's discovery of Superman. What if no other heroes came to help Gotham during Bane's siege of the city because there were not other heroes in the world to help Batman?
In The Dark Knight, the Joker tells Batman flat out that he's changed things. He's inspired the "Batman" imposters seen in The Dark Knight. Why would this phenomenon be restricted to Gotham City? Surely, news of a costumed vigilante in one city would inspire others in other cities to do similar things. Most would fail just as the Batman imposters did, but what if he inspires people that do succeed? What if combining his inspiration with an inspirational human event... like first contact with an alien species... created even more inspiration for people to do well?
Man of Steel hasn't been released yet, but what we have been able to ascertain from the trailers and TV commercials is that it is a story about "first contact". The people of Earth though Superman and his battles with General Zod that humans are not alone in the universe. Batman introduces the concept of a hero to the world, Superman introduces the concept that the universe is much larger than what humans ever imagined. In the Marvel world, Iron Man came first to ground the idea of the fantastic in some kind of reality. Thor then expanded that universe into the realms of magic and the other worldly.
That is where a DC Comics Universe can succeed. Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy grounded this idea of superheroes in a real world setting. Not only was this a groundbreaking way to present a superhero, it was received with much critical and financial success. Man of Steel can take that real world setting created by the Dark Knight films and start to move it towards the fantastic through the use of Superman as mankind's "first contact".
Now, with Man of Steel this is all speculation. What if Superman, and through him General Zod as well, create a situation where the Earth realizes that there are things out there beyond their control. This kind of catalyst can and should be what brings Bruce Wayne out of hiding to reclaim the mantle of Batman. He returns from hiding to monitor this extra-terrestrial threat. Because of the carnage created by the battle between Superman and Zod, Batman feels a need to not only protect Gotham City, but humanity as well. Batman's monitoring of the world will be the thing that ties together not only the Man of Steel and Dark Knight franchises, but also future DC films culminating in a Justice League film where Batman enlists Superman's assistance in pulling these heroes together to battle an out of this world threat that neither can handle alone.
We know that there are going to be ties and hints to a larger universe contained in Man of Steel. The natural first tie should be to the Dark Knight trilogy. How? We can only wait and see.