Anybody remember how, during the No Man’s Land storyline back in 1999, Batman spent a good chunk of the story missing in action, with his allies (Nightwing, Catwoman, Robin, Huntress, etc.) taking care of the city for him before both he and Bruce Wayne reappeared in dramatic fashion to save the day in separate but equal ways?What if that’s what we’re looking at for The Dark Knight Rises? In the most recent trailer, there are a few clues that might be the case:The destruction of the bridges leading out of Gotham is a big one. That’s what the U.S. government did when they declared Gotham a No-Man’s-Land following the city’s second earthquake in short order. The city was suffering from crime, civil unrest, natural disasters and, as always, a mountain of supervillains…so the country decided that it should really just evacuate people and cut the city off from the rest of the world, effectively forcing a change of scene on the citizens. of course, many elected–or were forced–to stay behind.John Blake is talking to a small child about whether Batman will ever come back, and it doesn’t sound like a normal conversation. the mood, look and hushed tones of the talk suggest that Batman’s absence is sorely noticed and that, at that point in the story, his return is needed.Speaking of which, it certainly appears from the prevalence of John blake in this trailer that he’ll play a much larger role in the film than previously suggested. Even if he doesn’t turn out to be Nightwing, or step in to replace Batman while he’s away (both of which have been guessed previously by fans), he certainly seems like he might be someone who steps up to wrangle the “resistance effort,” so to speak, in the absence of Batman. He’s obviously at least cordial with Catwoman, which is an odd way for a police officer to behave…until you consider that we see Batman fighting alongside her at one point…and a Batman earlier in the ad that might look like Christian Bale, but sure doesn’t sound like him (listen to the voice that says “not everything, not yet”). Whether or not he actually replaces Batman, he certainly appears to be cozy with the Bat’s earthquake response team.Of course, by this point we’ve all seen the footage of the actual “earthquake machine” and the disaster at the football game. It’s been an important part of the movie’s promotion and to that small extent (there’s an earthquake), we know that No Man’s Land will be represented. After this new trailer, though, it seems as though it’s a major part of the film’s plot.
