12 Fiendishly Clever Comic Book Movie In-Jokes You Probably Missed

3. The Riddler Appears In The Dark Knight (Sort Of)

You would be forgiven for thinking that Christopher Nolan would have swerved away from any nods at all to the Joel Schumacher iteration of the Batman property, considering how close to death the character came under his wayward stewardship, but there is something of a misdirecting and very much jokey homage to one of Schumacher's best villainous characters from his two Bat-movies.

In The Dark Knight, Nolan flirted obscurely with the audience's expectations of seeing The Riddler in future Batman movies by naming the character who discover's Batman's hidden identity and attempts to blackmail Bruce Wayne Coleman Reese.

In exactly the same way that the hint inherent in Edward Nigma's name is shoe-horned into Batman Forever, thanks to some clunky detective work/word association by Batman, Nolan teases the possibility that Coleman Reese might go on to become the Riddler, since his name shortens to Mr Reese, or Mysteries, if you like that sort of silliness. Naturally, this is also a nod to Riddler's alias in the comic book world, but you can't help but feel like it's also a nod to Batman's discovery of The Riddler's alter-ego in Batman Forever.