Nick Nadel is a comedy writer and blogger living in Brooklyn, NYIt's official: Filming on The Dark Knight Rises has wrapped. While we won't see the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy until next summer, rumors and plot details have been circulating faster than the Batmobile peeling down a Gotham back alley. So let's separate the fact from the fiction in the Dark Knight Rises rumor mill. 
How Much Time Has Passed Since The Dark Knight?Answer: 8 years. As I speculated when the first teaser trailer for The Dark Knight Rises hit, much time has passed since Commissioner Gordon and his annoying son watched Batman run off to become the "hero that Gotham needs." In the brief clip of an injured Gordon talking to Batman (or is it Bruce Wayne?), we learn that the Caped Crusader has been "away" for some time. Now we know that Batman has been absent from Gotham for nearly a decade. Nolan revealed to Empire, "Our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state." And, from the looks of the early photos of Bane in action, neither is Gotham. 
Will Bane "Break" Batman? Answer: Yes, metaphorically at least. Since Bane was announced as the "big bad" in The Dark Knight Rises, fans have been wondering whether Nolan and company would bring the infamous moment from the "Knightfall" storyline where Bane broke Batman's back to the big screen. Indeed, Tom Hardy, who plays Bane, has revealed that the villain's fighting style is "brutal" and that he does everything from "crushing skulls" to "ripping out spinal columns." While there's no indication so far that Bane will literally "break" Batman, Christian Bale's recent comments about Batman's emotional state in The Dark Knight Rises hints that perhaps Bane's destruction of Gotham will push the Caped Crusader to his breaking point. As Bale told Ace Showbiz, "It's time for Bruce Wayne to face the pain that has always stirred his life." Bale confirms that Bruce will finally start to deal with the death of his parents. Between his emotional pain and the physical beatings that Bane will no doubt hand out, Bruce Wayne will be lucky to come out of The Dark Knight Rises in one piece. 
Will Christian Bale's Hang Up the Batsuit After The Dark Knight Rises? Answer: Yes. Bale recently told the press, "I wrapped a few days ago, so that will be the last time I'm taking that cowl off ... It's all done. Everything's finished. It's me and Chris -- that will be the end of that Batman era." We all suspected that The Dark Knight Rises would be Bale and Nolan's swan song, although many fans wondered whether Bale would sign on for a fourth film without his director. Now we know that Bale is officially saying goodbye to the franchise. Let the casting rumors for "Batman 4" begin! 
Answer: No. Rumors have circulated for a while that Ellen Page would cameo as Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon who eventually becomes Batgirl. Recently, Dark Knight Rises Rumors claimed to have spotted a sign on The Dark Knight Rises set that read "E. Page 'B. Gordon.' " However, sources close to the production have now confirmed that the sign is a fake. Looks like we'll have to wait until the inevitable Batman reboot to see a new Batgirl on the big screen. Maybe Batman & Robin's Alicia Silverstone can play the new Batgirl's mom! Let's start that rumor now ... 
Answer: For this one, we go to costume designer Lindy Hemming, who told Empire, "[Bane] was injured early in his story. He's suffering from pain and needs gas to survive. He can't survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at his back, where there are two canisters." So the question is, will the gas be the "Venom" drug that Bane draws his strength from in the comics? Also, will his gas tie into Scarecrow's fear toxin? You know Scarecrow has to pop up somewhere in The Dark Knight Rises.
Will the First Scene of The Dark Knight Rises be shown before Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol? Answer: Yes. Nolan confirmed that, much like The Dark Knight prologue that played before I Am Legend way back in 2007, the first six or seven minutes of The Dark Knight Rises will be shown before IMAX screenings of Tom Cruise's latest spy opus. (In case you skip that flick, a new trailer will be shown before Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.) Nolan also revealed that the prologue would introduce Bane to audiences and be "a taste of the rest of the film." Clearly Batman will once again be the talk of the holiday movie season.
Fans of DC's Amazonian warrior princess had their hopes dashed when Joss Whedon's proposed Wonder Woman flick fell apart several years back. Recently, Whedon revealed some details about his take on the iconic hero. "[Wonder Woman] was a little bit like Angelina Jolie ... she sort of traveled the world," Whedon said. "She was very powerful and very naive about people, and the fact that she was a goddess was how I eventually found my 'in' to her humanity and vulnerability. ... She would look at us and the way we kill each other and the way we let people starve and the way the world is run and she'd just be like, None of this makes sense to me." Whedon added that in his original screenplay, Wonder Woman's romance with Steve Trevor would also help to humanize her. An interesting take on a character that DC has so far failed to get a handle on for the big screen. Of course, Wonder Woman fans' loss is Avengers fans' gain. 
Recently, concept artwork was released from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's failed reboot of James O'Barr's enduring goth icon. The planned update was to have starred The Hangover's Bradley Cooper in the role made famous by the late Brandon Lee way back in 1994. But, as with many projects related to the seemingly cursed Crow franchise, Fresnadillo's reboot fell apart once Cooper dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. As evidenced by the concept art, the new Crow would've had something of a Western punk rocker thing going. Diego Latorre's grim drawings (which originally appeared on Shock Till You Drop) are also proof that the jovial Cooper was completely wrong for the Eric Draven role. With The Crow, casting is everything. (Didn't the producers learn anything from Edward Furlong's over-the-top performance in the dreadful fourth film The Crow: Wicked Prayer?) 
Justice League Remember when Warner Bros. was working on a Justice League movie? Well, director George Miller (Happy Feet) talked to Superhero Hype recently about what happened to Warner/DC's answer to The Avengers. Turns out the 2007 Writer's Guild strike was only part of the problem. "There [were] a whole bunch of complex events," Miller said. "It was the middle of a writers' strike. There was Australian rebate legislation that was required to get the film going. ... It was no one particular's fault that it didn't happen." At one point, the film was ready to go with Adam Brody as the Flash, DJ Cotrona as Superman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Common as Green Lantern, and the then-unknown costar of The Social Network Armie Hammer as Batman. After the project fell apart, Miller went on to work with Common in the upcoming Happy Feet 2. As for Justice League, it's sadly still languishing in development hell while Avengers rockets toward the big screen.
Throughout the '90s, Avatar guru Cameron tried for years to get a Spider-Man film off the ground, only to face a protracted legal battle between defunct studio Carolco and various other parties that was more epic than a Green Goblin-Peter Parker face-off. Last year, Cameron's illustrated script treatment surfaced, providing a peek at what might have been. Featuring Electro and Sandman as the primary villains, copious profanity, and a racy Peter-Mary Jane sex scene, Cameron's take on Marvel's wacky wallcrawler was far more mature than Sam Raimi's 2002 film. One element that remained from Cameron's treatment? Those divisive organic webshooters. So feel free to blame James Cameron for that one. 
Before bouncing back with Superman Returns and Batman Begins, DC's top superheroes floundered throughout the late '90s and early '00s. Everything from a third Joel Schumacher film (tentatively titled Batman Triumphant) featuring Scarecrow and Harley Quinn to an adaptation of the Batman Year One comic helmed by Darren Aronofsky was considered for the Caped Crusader, while Superman projects were tackled by the likes of Tim Burton and McG. (Who could forget Nic Cage's bizarre Superman costume that leaked a while back?) At some point, Warner Bros. just gave up and decided to combine the two franchises for the ultimate superhero smackdown. Director Wolfgang Petersen was attached to the project but eventually left to make Troy. The story found Superman battling a Batman who was driven to the edge by the deaths of Robin, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon. (Of course, they eventually team up to take down Lex Luthor and Joker.) The strange project, which also involved Joker killing Batman's fiancée and Clark Kent dating Lana Lang, ended up being referenced in the least likely place -- as a fake movie poster in I Am Legend's post-apocalyptic Times Square. (Legend screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also worked on Batman Vs. Superman.)