Just to be completely clear, I don’t claim to have any special knowledge concerning The Dark Knight Rises. However, I do enjoy having fun with a little research. This is what I have uncovered while searching “John Blake+Batman+comics.”
Thomas Blake as some of you old timers may recall, is none other than Catman. There have been a few incarnations of this character starting with Blake as a nemesis to Batman and Robin, first appearing in Detective comics #311. He’s pretty much what one would expect of a guy with a tan costume and brown cape, not very menacing. As the decades progressed, Catman turns out to be more of an anti-hero but still on the wrong side of justice as far as Batman or anyone else is concerned. In reading up on this I realized it didn’t do much for my speculating brain seeing as the only correlation between this character and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character is the last name.
But it does get a little more interesting.
In further reading, on Wikipedia of all places I found out a bit more about this Catman. There was another character in the comics referred to as the King of Cats. This version turned out to be the brother of Selina Kyle. In a typical set-up of sibling rivalry, the two engaged in thwarting the efforts of the other. Now this does make a bit more sense in the realm of the Nolan films, but this characters actual name was Karl Kyle (horrible, I know) So it doesn’t add up with the Blake clues at all.
Until…
The third version of the character is the most interesting. It comes to us from the pages of Legends of the Dark Knight and portraits The King of Cats as a serial killer. (Note: when we first heard of JGL’s involvement it was as a serial killer. Did everyone just assume it was Alberto Falcone?) In Legends of the Dark Knight, Batman and Catwoman form a shaky alliance to stop The King of Cats (That’s the character’s name, I’m not being a sensationalist) and his violent murder spree. As the story wraps we are shown the true identity of the killer, one Thomas Blake.
This third version of the character is a combination of the first two. What can we assume from this? Absolutely nothing. The character Levitt plays could be anyone of these or none at all. An amalgamation of all three or parts and particulars. Who’s to say?
Unfortunately the probabilities start to drop from there. It could be a total blind coincidence the Nolans and Goyer settled on the name “Blake.” Or it could just be a tiny tip of the hat to comic fans with nothing more to add.
But what are the odds of randomly selecting “Blake?”
There’s my info. Have fun with it. If I’m even remotely correct I want bragging right next year. If I’m totally wrong, well, most of you won’t remember this anyway. But like I said, it’s just for fun.
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