As we CBMers look to the movie wonder that will be Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, I (like many others) am trying to guess at the plot of the film. Knowing that Christopher Nolan draws his inspiration (at least somewhat) from Batman comics, I decided to check into his known and most-likely sources to see if I could anticipate any key points in the final story arc of the Nolanverse.
I looked over the credited comic books attributed to Batman Begins' storyline (Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and Batman: The Man Who Falls by Dennis O'Neil) and there are obvious connections. Looking to Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory, both by Jeph Loeb, I found they also hinted towards both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. I also feel the ton set by the trailers and tv spots for The Dark Knight Rises hint at a The Dark Knight Returns vibe, so I looked there too. These are my findings and some imaginative speculation concerning the third and final installment in what has been an amazing CBM experience.
-A young Bruce Wayne falling down a hole on the grounds of Wayne Manor. Bats begin to swarm towards him and out the hole. Bruce's father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, rescues Bruce (Batman: The Man Who Falls)
-Bruce is haunted by images of bats (Batman: Year One, Batman: The Man Who Falls)
-Bruce leaves Gotham City to explore and obtain skills in martial arts and forensics (Batman: Year One, Batman: The Man Who Falls)
-Bruce's parent's are killed by a random mugger after a night @ the theater (all of the comics mentioned above)
- Bruce trains at a monastery, hidden in a mountainous region and after nearly a year of training his master tells Bruce he has exceptional intelligence and physique, but he has a fatal flaw that will prove his demise (Batman: The Man Who Falls)
- Bruce trains with a man named Henri Ducard, who shows him "the uses of brutality, deception and cunning." But when Ducard kills a fugitive he had been tracking one night, Bruce abandons his training, disgusted (Batman: The Man Who Falls)
-Bruce has to find a symbol and realizes he is going to need special tools and gadgets to help in his war on crime (Batman: Year One, Batman: The Man Who Falls)
-Bruce returns to Gotham to promote justice in his way and, modeling himself after the recurring images of bats, creates his costumed identity: the Batman (Batman: Year One,Batman: The Man Who Falls)
-At his initial appearance he contacts Lt. James Gordon and the two form an uneasy relationship (Batman: Year One)
-Gordon has an illogical trust in Batman, while others view him as a menace and threat (Batman: Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-Batman starts out with an array of gadgets and, while they are limited, he is constantly adding to his arsenal (Batman: Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-There is a slight focus on Gordon and his family (Batman: Year One)
-Falcone and Carmine are prominent in the film (Batman: Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-Gordon is fighting against corruption, in the city as well as in the police department (Batman: Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-Gordon is not yet Commissioner, but is an active Lt. (Batman: Year One, Long Halloween)
-Batman gets his @$$ handed to him a few times, both pre-costume and post (Batman: Year One)
-Dect. Flass is a corrupt cop both Batman and Gordon have dealings with (Batman: Year One)
-Scarecrow makes various appearances and is an antagonist in sub-plots (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, KnightFall)
-Batman has a tank-like Batmobile (TDKReturns)
-Batman takes down The Roman and ties him to something (a bed in the comics, a searchlight in Batman Begins) as a message to Gotham's underbelly (Batman: Year One)
-Batman has to save Gordon's family (Batman: Year One)
-While being cornered by the GCPD at Arkham Asylum, Batman uses a high-frequency device to attract his bats from the cave, allowing him to escape (Long Halloween)
-The concluding scene where Batman and Gordon are on top of the police headquarters continues, to an extent, the final page of the graphic novel where newly promoted Jim Gordon uses the Bat-Signal to summon Batman. When he arrives, Gordon announces the coming of a new threat: The Joker (Batman: Year One)
-Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent talking on the roof of the Gotham City Police Department (Long Halloween)
-The three enter a pact to end Falcone's reign by bending the rules if necessary, but never breaking them (Long Halloween)
-Gordon's line "he does that" to Dent when Batman disappears from the conversation in the middle of Dent's sentence (Long Halloween)
-Harvey Dent has a witness draws a gun on him (reminiscent of the acid thrown on his face in the comics) and later becomes Two-Face (Long Halloween)
-Batman considers Dent Gotham's true hope, but is depressed when circumstances lead to his fall from grace ( Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-In the comic Dent and Batman discover mountains of cash and destroy it, while in the film it is the Joker who destroys a pile of the mob's cash (Long Halloween)
-Dent and his lover are threatened by Joker to be blown asunder, with Dent surviving and his lover perishing in the explosions, though his wife survives in the comic (Long Halloween)
-Harvey Dent is a fierce threat to Gotham's underworld and the corruption in the city's political field (Long Halloween)
-As Two-Face, Dent has an obsession with taking down the mob anyway possible
-Joker plays Dent and others to create chaos in Gotham (Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-Joker, more or less, takes the role of Holiday (Long Halloween)
-Batman is forced to put his war on the mob on hold to stop the Joker's reign of terror in Gotham (Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-Unlike the book, Sal Maroni is not "directly" responsible for Harvey's facial scars, but Maroni is also considered the culprit as he 'unleashed' the Joker. This is the version Dent chooses to believe, as he is later seen confronting Maroni, holding him responsible for the Joker's actions (Dark Victory)
-Two-Face goes on a mission to take down anyone connected to his current plight and lets fate decide if they are to live or die (Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
-Batman disguises himself as a helmeted bodyguard to ambush Holiday is mirrored in The Dark Knight, with the decoy bodyguard being Gordon, the 'transfer' being Harvey instead of Maroni, and the target being the Joker instead of Holiday (Dark Victory)
-Batman pursuing Two-Face being stands a sort of mock trial (TDKReturns)
-Joker is responsible, more or less, for Dent's presumed death (Dark Victory)
-Batman is now Public Enemy #1 (Batman: Year One, Dark Victory)
-Bruce blames himself for letting Harvey go beyond saving and become a villain (Dark Victory)
-Batman becomes even more of a loner (Dark Victory, TDKReturns)
-Catwoman may have a personal vendetta towards the mob and may even be related to one of the heads (Long Halloween, Dark Victory)
- Bruce Wayne has voluntarily retired from crime fighting (TDKReturns)
-It has been years (close to a decade) since the last sighting of the Bat (TDKReturns)
-The return of an old enemy/new threat prompts a now older Wayne to don the Batman costume once again (TDKReturns)
-Catwoman will play a vital role in the 3rd film, possibly filling both her role and that of Carrey Kelly/Girl-Robin/Catgirl (all comics mentioned above)
-The international, master criminal Bane frees all of the maximum-security inmates of Arkham Asylum, a notorious psychiatric facility in Gotham City. Aware that he would lose in a direct assault against Batman, Bane's plan consists of weakening Batman by forcing him to deal with the deadly villains simultaneously (KnightFall)
-Bane has possible connections with the League of Shadows (In Batman: Legacy Bane is allies with al Ghul) and means to carry out the Demon Head's mission of total destruction of Gotham and subsequently Batman.
-Bane had deduced the secret identity of Batman (Knightfall)
-Bane beats Batman mercilessly before "breaking" Batman, saying, "When Gotham falls, then you have my permission to die"(Knightfall; quote from The Dark Knight Rises trailer)
-To rehabilitate his skills, Bruce asks the famed assassin Lady Shiva (possibly Talia as Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises film) to retrain him. Instead, Shiva pits Bruce against several vengeful expert martial artists. Shiva's caveat is that these attacks will continue indefinitely until Bruce Wayne breaks his vow to never kill. If Talia fills this role her motive could be that when he does kill, he will have no reason NOT to join up with the League of Shadows and fulfill the mission of the Demon's Head, Ra's al Ghul (Knightfall and following story arcs)
-During Batman's absence a new "Batman"/Batmen has appeared to confront the vile Gotham underbelly (KnighFall and following arcs, TDKReturns, and Batman Beyond)
-After the events of KnightFall, Batman begins to rely on others in his war, including the possible future where Terry Dawes becomes the futuristic Batman. In the film, John Blake could be a cross between Robin/Nightwing and Terry's Batman, having the film ending with him as Batman and Wayne his guide. Reminiscent of Wayne's statement that "Gotham will ALWAYS need a Batman."
-As in the comics, it is possible Harvey "Two-Face" Dent will seemingly return (TDKReturns)
The DC comic titles, Batman: The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory, Knightfall, and The Dark Knight Rises as they correlate to Nolan's films, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.