We know that Christian Bale is signed for 3 movies under the Nolan Batman franchise. The internet is rife with speculation about what the next movie entails. The only thing that can be agreed upon is that Nolan is looking for a story that peaks his interest.

Here is my take on what the next movie should be.

The movie opens with Batman taking on one of the lesser criminals he faces (I would like it to be The Ventriloquist & Scarface. A personal choice) Batman asks why he came to Gotham and the villains says something to the effect of we all come for you.

Batman returns and expresses his frustration with the amount of criminals who are coming to Gotham just to fight him. He is beginning to think that Batman has become less of a deterrent and more of an attraction for criminals. Either Alfred or Fox can be the confident.

Bruce Wayne receives an invitation to the opening of a new club called the Iceberg Lounge. The owner is new Gotham resident Oswald Cobblepot. The name of Cobblepot is well known to Bruce Wayne but he wants to know why such a predominant socialite left Metropolis and moved to Gotham. Also there is a connection with the Luther Family, which Bruce Wayne suspects of criminal activity.

Wayne shows up to the party and notes its odd location, quite near the narrows and within short distance to Arkham. At the party a new reporter, Vicki Vale, approaches Bruce Wayne for an article she is doing entitled “A Batman Free Gotham: What our city would look like if Batman wasn’t around any longer.” Wayne says it has been on his mind lately and that she should come by his office and they could talk about it.

Bruce asks Cobblepot why he moved to Gotham. “A new town, a new start and a new business investment.” Cobblepot, a short rather rotund man with a pointy nose also notes that despite money and the best of clothing (mostly tuxedos) that some are not so lucky in their looks as Bruce Wayne.

Batman starts catching wind of a new crime lord in town called the Penguin who seems somewhat more refined. He is fencing stolen artwork from around the world and using Gotham as his home base. But there aren’t any deaths or mugging associated with it. The white collar crimes escalate as Batman (used to beating his opponents up) has his hands full with the psychopaths that he himself is drawing to Gotham.

While looking into Cobblepot’s background Batman begins tracking the stolen artwork and finds it is coming into a dock in the narrows. He goes and finds Cobblepot at the dock. When he confronts Cobblepot, Oswald says that he is just enjoying the birds that live near the water. Batman doesn’t by it but Oswald simply points out that all he has is conjecture and that Batman cannot testify in court so his intimidation tactics are worthless.

Batman begins harassing the Penguins criminal activity and even shows up at his club once or twice. This inconvenience drives the Penguin to bring in every assassin and lunatic he can to battle batman. During this time he has been seeing Vicki Vale socially.

The Penguin has decided the best bet is to saturate the city with lunatics and while the whole town is turned upside down, to rob the Gotham Museum of Art. He is going to make one big take of the town and then leave.

By this time Bruce Wayne has vowed to retire Batman once he has ride Gotham of the penguin. Batman also realizes that relying on a car in a city that has gone mad is not a good idea and commissions an ultra light single person plane to get around the city.

The heist is foiled but Alfred is killing while helping Batman. Also Cobblepot dies.

The next morning the paper headlines “Batman Retires” and underneath socialite Oswald Cobblepot killed in Riotous night. The city complains that Batman failed to protect Cobblepot and that he made their town a mess and now has abandoned it. Commissioner Gordon is taking heat for not having captured Batman and saved the town.

Fox and Wayne are the only two at the funeral for Alfred. “Did Batman kill him? Did I kill Alfred” Wayne asks. “No, we all killed him. But he wasn’t the only one.” Fox asks “What will you do now?”

Mark McGwire used steroids. Surprised? No, of course you aren’t. But if he hadn’t he would have ended up like Ken Griffey Jr., another sad story in the history of professional talent in a sub-par body.

Everyone keeps saying that using performance enhancing drugs to get an edge is wrong, but let me ask you a question; If you went to the doctor and he wanted to put you on steroids to help you get better faster, wouldn’t you take the steroids? Of course you would, so why shouldn’t athletes?

Now I am not saying that football linemen should take them throughout their career but if you hurt yourself you can take them to get better. Why can’t professional athletes?

The argument has been put forward that it gives them an advantage that previous generations of professionals didn’t have. Yeah, so does the advancements in medicine and clothing but I don’t see anyone clamoring for football players to go back to wearing the leather helmet because that is how it is was done in the old days.

Or how about Tommy John surgery? It used to be the kiss of death but now guys come back from it on a regular basis. Are we going to start relegating our professional athletes to 1930s health care for the integrity of the game?

We ask these athletes to destroy their bodies all in the name of our entertainment but don’t afford them the latest medicine to help them heal quicker because it can also be used to get really, really big fast? Really, we are going to do that?

I understand that we are worried that kids are going to get on steroids at an early age. I was a student athlete in high school and I had asthma. There isn’t a cure for asthma but when it gets really bad there is a special inhaler to help improve my breathing. It has steroids in it. I didn’t use it in high school but I ended up using it later in life. Did it help improve my performance? Yes it did. I was able to breathe. I can’t tell you how much that helps.

So why is there this armistice on steroids in any form? Can’t they play a role in helping players heal and maintain their bodies for a longer period of time? Who didn’t feel a little bit bad for Ken Griffey Jr. when we realized that every time he swings he breaks at least 2 bones and rips a tendon? We demand so much from these athletes, can’t we give them the tools to heal their bodies.

What is it with today’s announcers calling everyone the Great so and so. I am just waiting for somebody to be doing a piece and reference “the Great and under-appreciated contributor, Jud Buechler”. Okay, so now that Bill Walton is no longer announcing it might not happen, but suddenly there are no bad players anymore.

It has to do with announcing, I think. The announcers have become conciliatory to a fault. Bill Walton actually compared Boris Diaw to a Beethoven piece in the sense that they are both classical? ESPN announcers reference everyone as either legendary, great, or my own personal hero.

Case in point is Jim Rome. He made his chops by dissing Jim Evert. Since then he has done nothing but complement people in a choppy cadence. This is a guy who literally made his name by insulting people and then as soon as Jim Evert tosses him like a body double in a Don Johnson clip he becomes the biggest proponent of pro-athletes’ skills since every woman Wilt has ever met.

What they need to do more of is pair these conciliatory announcers with people who will call them on it. When Walton was with Stephen A. Smith they had the match made in heaven. Bill Walton was waxing poetic about the way new sneakers were not only fantastic fashion but also revolutionized the way players were running and how fast, or some such nonsense and Smith would be flailing in apparent pain in the background only to challenge him on just how crazy he sounded.

Enter the ultimate call-your-bluff announcer, Charles Barkley. We need to get Bill Walton out of retirement and pair him with Charles Barkley. Please. Please. Seriously, please. Now that would be