6. Theres Still Places For Bales Batman To Go
The obvious elephant in the room with a Nolan/Bale Justice League film is the ending of The Dark Knight Rises. Bruce Wayne retired as Batman, hung up the cape and the cowl, and is going to spend the rest of his life living in Italy, right? How can Bale return as Batman without throwing the trilogy completely out of whack? Its perhaps a little more complex than that. Nothing about The Dark Knight Rises ending necessarily insists that Bruce could never put on the cape and cowl again; what it
does insist is that Bruce would be a
very different Batman. Throughout The Dark Knight trilogy, Bruce was essentially an angry young man, driven by rage and guilt, trapped in Gotham, the city that was both his legacy and his curse. At the end of The Dark Knight trilogy, Bruce finally managed to put his pain behind him; hes now gotten to a point where he
could hang up the cape and the cowl, is not emotionally arrested to the point where he
needs to be Batman. What this (potentially) means for Justice League/Worlds Finest is less Frank Millers Batman the obsessed man driven by uncontrollable rage and more Grant Morrisons Batman, the most well adjusted man on the planet who is putting on the suit not because he cant do anything else with himself, but because hes the best there is at this and more importantly because the world
needs him. Were looking at a Bruce Wayne who has a real emotional life, real responsibilities, something very real and very palpable to lose. Were looking at a Bruce Wayne who is needed as Batman, not one who needs to
be Batman. Thats something weve never seen on screen before, and it (arguably) opens the doors to a whole world of storytelling possibilities.