5 Reasons 'Dark Knight Rises' Should Feature Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn (or both)

Earlier, I published an exceedingly timely piece on why 'DKR' should feature The Clock King as a main villain. This time I'm going to concentrate on two famous female foes who've never quite gotten their due on the big screen. Poison Ivy, of course, has been played on TV, and Uma Thurman gave us the campy version of the eco-terrorist in 1997s 'Batman and Robin.' Harley Quinn first appeared in 'Batman: The Animated Series,' and has seen her popularity grow since.

However, this third installment in the thankfully now realistic Batman franchise, gives us the opportunity to see either a Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn better suited to the times. I'm combining these two into one post because in all likelihood, there would only be room for one in the film were either to become a villain. As nice as it would be to see two hot women slugging it out with Gotham's Dark Knight on the IMAX screen, two of the same kind of antagonist risks becoming redundant.

5 Reasons Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn Works:

1.) The Femme-Fatale model. Thus far, Nolan has employed the use of Mysterious Man from the East with Ra's al Ghul, the Evil Doctor with Scarecrow, the Prototypical Gangster with Falcone, the Saint turns Devil with Harvey Dent, and Utter Madmen with The Joker. What's left? There's many kinds of villains, but one prominent missing piece is the Femme Fatale. The seductress that leads (bat)men to their doom. 'The Odyssey' had The Sirens, 'Fatal Attraction' had Alexandra Forrest, and 'Teeth' had the girl with the razor sharp teeth in her, well let's even go there.

Personally, I've always found than women can be far more sinister than men on screen when it's the right role and the right actress. Glenn Close is more frightening to me as Alex than Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. This is probably the result of ingrained social conditioning that perpetuates the image of women as helpless victims, so that when one appears as a threat it's even more jarring to the senses than seeing the opposite sex as the predator. Or it could just be that there haven't been that many female villains in Hollywood, so the few good ones stand out that much more memorably.

In either case, 'DKR' needs a love interest for the now solitary Bruce Wayne, and it needs a different kind of villain. Why not combine the two? After all, the worst kind of danger the hero can be in is the kind he doesn't see right in front of him. As great as a detective as he is, something tells me Batman could be blinded by the love he desperately needs.

2.) The environmentalist theme. This reason obviously suits Poison Ivy alone. Hollywood has gone to great lengths recently to keep the public aware of the growing threat of global warming and rising CO2 levels, not to mention pollution, strip mining, and a host of other tortures we humans visit upon our planet. This provides an ample opportunity to poke a little fun at the enviro lobby, by having an eccentric green villain obsessed with protecting Mother Earth at any cost.

Wayne Enterprises surely has engaged in destructive behavior to the planet at some point in its past. Poison Ivy could be a wronged scientist or some kind of competing industrialist looking to even the score by hurting both Batman and Bruce Wayne, without being aware she's fighting the same person.

3.) No Joker? No problem. Nolan has made it clear that due to Heath Ledger's tragic death, The Joker will not make an appearance in the third film. Even though it'd be great to see The Clowned Prince one more time, I tend to agree with the director on this one. Joker is too big a character to just do over again with a new actor only four years removed from Ledger's Oscar winning performance.

However, that doesn't mean Joker's influence has waned in Gotham City. While Batman started something for the good guys by the end of 'Batman Begins,' Joker for sure started something for the baddies at the end of 'Dark Knight.' A villain like him would no doubt spawn copy cats the same way Batman "inspired" the "copy bats" in 'TDK.' Harley Quinn could be anything from a psychiatrist who gets sucked into Joker's world and comes out mentally deformed (as her initial origin portrays), an uber passionate fan girl obsessed with Mr. J, or even an ex-lover looking to get back at Batman for imprisoning her beau. All of this could be done without Joker making a full appearance, but would still give us a taste of his insanity in the female form.

Above all, it would give us moviegoers the chance to see this gorgeous monstrosity on screen:

(Source: fanartexhibit)

Now, just try and shake that image out of your head.


4.) Both these ladies have paid their dues. Harley Quinn has built up quite a body of work at DC following her initial debut as a small-time character in 'BTAS' almost 20 years ago. If you ask almost any Batman fan whom he or she'd like to see on the silver screen, Quinn usually comes up among the top three with others like Riddler and Penguin. There's an argument for putting in a villain purely for the fans. It's not as though a Batman film will come out anytime soon after Nolan is done with the character. Following the third installment, it may be many years before someone else takes a crack at Bats. It was 8 years between 'Batman and Robin' and 'Batman Begins.' As a Harley fan, I don't like the idea of waiting that long before having another chance at seeing her outside of a cartoon.

Poison Ivy, meanwhile, has a campy background in one movie and the live-action TV show in the 60s. If any character is due for a modern revamp of Nolan-style realism, it's her. 'Begins' at once vanquished any idea that the new Batman would be similar to his sillier predecessors, and there is something very satisfying in seeing a once ridiculous character made into something serious and foreboding. If an actress like Charlize Theron (who has played a real 'Monster' in the past) or someone of similar stature were to don the green tights, it could make for a memorable and even Oscar-worthy performance.

5.) Women are terrifying. The right role and the right gal can make for chilling magic on screen. Just check out this montage of Glenn Close scaring the pants (literally) off Michael Douglas in 'Fatal Attraction':




Two Possible Drawbacks:

Wait, what? Drawbacks?! Are you kidding? We're talking about putting one, possibly two hot women on screen, in tights or otherwise skimpy outfits, to fight against The Batman. Directed by Christopher Nolan. If there's any drawbacks that could possibly exist there, I don't know what they would be.

Up next in this ongoing series, another villain archetype Nolan has not used yet in Batman: The Brute. You can probably guess who that is, and if not, let the mystery be the bain of your existence.