2. Threat Level
I am not going to lie. Heath Ledgers masterful performance made the Joker very threatening and very creepy. The last place I would want to be is in a room with him and his knife being told the story of how he got those scars. It was without question the best acting performance in any of Nolans Batman movies. However it is also clear to anyone who has seen the movies that Tom Hardys bulking and strutting Bane posed much more of a physical threat to Batman than the Joker did. This is evident by their physical appearances and through their fights. Once Batman found where the Joker was in The Dark Knight, it was game over. Once Batman found where Bane was in The Dark Knight Rises, it was game over; for Batmans back. It is not just the physical threat each villain poses to Batman that I am talking about. Its the overall public threat level that the villains plan entails. In The Dark Knight the Joker himself says it best when he calls himself a dog chasing cars when it comes to his plan. He wouldnt know what to do if he caught them. He even asks Harvey Dent if he looks like a guy with a plan while visiting the newly scarred district attorney in the hospital. And its true. While creepy and threatening as a man, the Jokers plan is not overly threatening to the general public as a whole. He wants to play these games with Batman, forever. He plans and succeeds in killing several high profile members of Gotham City and its police force as pawns in his game. Minus the one boat filled with citizens, the rest of the general public was basically safe. Sure innocent bystanders and Batman copy-cats were killed by the Joker. But for the most part it wasnt the publics fight. This is not the case with The Dark Knight Rises. Bane kills hundreds of people at the football game and anyone who was unfortunate enough to be on one of the bridges or in one of the buildings when they blew up. Not to mention all the upper class citizens who were ripped from their homes and sentenced by Dr. Crane and the League of Shadows to death. Then there is that whole nuclear bomb that would kill every living person in the city lingering around again. When it comes to overall threat level it is once again The Dark Knight Rises that outdoes The Dark Knight.