The Dark Knight Rises Sequel: 10 Things Warner Bros Must Get Right

5. John Blake's Anger Issues

If the ending of The Dark Knight Rises is to setup John Blake as the new Batman (and one of the themes of the film is that "anyone" can become him) then the new writer/director team would be wise to look carefully at the character's portrayal. He talks about his anger issues, he talks about the smile he wears to mask the anger that is going on inside. We know he lost his parents young and he tells Bruce Wayne the story of how his father was gunned down. We also know that, unlike Batman, Blake is willing to kill as he shot two criminals in the cement yard and as a cop has carried a gun his whole life. There's lots of ways this could be explored in the sequel. Blake could find out about his parents killer using Batman's technology... becoming obsessed with the idea of taking him down, whether it be Tony Zucco (the killer of Dick Grayson's parents in the comics) or another villain in the Bat-universe. Perhaps Blake, adopting the new mantle of the Batman, takes things too far and kills Zucco and other bad-guys he comes in contact with, perhaps even threatening to kill a new version of The Joker. Once he has killed the low level thug Zucco, he then goes after Tom Wilkinson's Carmine Falcone who makes a comeback from the first movie and this new Batman's way of delivering justice is not how it should be done. Nolan has already adapted parts of Knightfall for The Dark Knight Rises, the second half just looks begging to be the continuation. In that comics arc, Bruce Wayne gives up the mantle of being Batman to Jean-Paul Valley who after his first months in the job becomes increasingly unstable under the pressure of being Gotham's protector. He eventually looks to avenge his father's death and searches Gotham for his father's killer, his mind warped as the real killer was defeated years ago. This would make a great storyline to follow as Blake keeps believing other Gotham mobsters have something to do with his parents death. It would be like Magneto's mission in X-Men: First Class to take revenge on all Nazi's. This could lead into Bruce Wayne regretting his stance that "anyone could be Batman" and lead to this...