The casting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES led to rampant speculation as to who exactly his character, John Blake, is. Many find it incredulous that he could be a wholly original character with no roots in an existing comic book creation. The first and still popular theory is that John Blake is in fact Robin. I can say I felt this made sense at the outset before we saw the trailers for the film. Plus, Gordon-Levitt has a look that works with what we expect the Robin from the comics to look like in real life.
The latest viral release from DEWGothamCity is a police performance review on John Blake. From the looks of it, Officer Blake is an excellent policeman, with a couple of specific notes about his character.
“Officer Blake shows great dedication and tenacity,” the report states. “He made an impact in his assigned beat by building effective associations within the local community.” The report summary also states he “needs minor improvement in his relationships with fellow officers”, and that his thoroughness gives him a tendency to “question authority”.
That could be Robin. That could even be Nightwing. Or, we could just be running around in circles and Blake is just a surrogate for the audience, watching and waiting for Batman to return to Gotham. I now think that last option is the most likely. I would be pleasantly surprised if it did turn out to be one of Batman’s sidekicks, but I don’t think Nolan would throw that into the last film of his trilogy for nothing. If that other theory, the one that has Batman dying at the end of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, proves to be true, Blake could be the new “white knight” to shepherd Gotham into a new era of peace.
We will all find out when THE DARK KNIGHT RISES opens on July 20th.
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