The worldwide success of The Dark Knight as a blockbuster is being overshadowed (or possibly enhanced?) by breaking news that lead actor Christian Bale was arrested for suspicious of assault.

Bale’s own mother Jenny and sister Sharon claimed the actor assaulted them on Sunday July 19. The London police interrogated Bale for 4 hours but released him on bail, with no charges filed. They even allowed Christian Bale to attend the European premiere in London’s Leicester Square on Monday.

Christian Bale denied the allegations. His mother and sister at first denied the incident but ‘fessed up after, only to say “there was a family situation… the police are handling the matter… we didn’t call the police to the scene…”

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  Without a doubt, Batman has some of the more famous villains in all of supeherodom -  The Joker, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze to name a few. Most of these villains appeared in both television and film, some of them were played by different actors.

In a tribute to the Cape Crusader and the villains he has fought, Time.com compiled this photo gallery of “Batman Battling the Bad Guys” beginning way back 1949. Television then was in black-and-white, which really didn’t make much difference to the bat-suit. 

Check out Time.com for a trip down memory lane.

image: courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. TM & © DC Comics

The Dark Knight (sequel to Batman Begins) - movie
In theaters and IMAX: July 18, 2008
Genre: action/drama/superhero(PG-13)

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) tells Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) that she no longer has to wait for Batman to retire. The day has come. Gotham already has a hero, with a face. And it’s not Bruce Wayne.

Bruce may have spoken too soon. He has yet to meet his greatest enemy.

More trailers are found here!

The Dark Knight (sequel to Batman Begins) - movie
In theaters and IMAX: July 18, 2008
Genre: action/drama/superhero(PG-13)

If Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) was having trouble reconciling how far Batman must to go to clean Gotham up of its criminals, not so Alfred (Michael Caine). The butler has always believed that Bruce, as Batman, is doing the right thing. Batman can be the outcast, he can make the right choice that no one else can make.

The Dark Knight (sequel to Batman Begins) - movie
In theaters and IMAX: July 18, 2008
Genre: action/drama/superhero(PG-13)

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) tells Alfred (Michael Caine) that Batman can’t show any weakness. But in fact he does, and the wise butler clearly sees this. “There are real issues here,” Michael Caine characterizes, “and Alfred often has a go at him about this.”

Caine thinks that Alfred and Bruce’s relationship is the most humorous of all in the movie. Michael Caine IS great at timing comedy, and he know exactly what to do to get a line the most laughs.

The Dark Knight (sequel to Batman Begins) - movie
In theaters and IMAX: July 18, 2008
Genre: action/drama/superhero(PG-13)

With “Batman Begins“, writer/director Christopher Nolan explored how Bruce Wayne became the legendary hero known to the world as Batman. When Nolan returned with “The Dark Knight“, Batman has now defined Bruce Wayne’s true identity.

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) begins to realize that he has unleashed a symbol, this Batman, and that symbol can’t have limits. He can’t show weakness. So there is now a conflict between what’s good for Bruce and what’s right for Batman to do, and “the two of them are not always compatible,” remarks Bale.

The dark knight has taken over the billionaire’s life, and it is something he can not escape from, anymore.

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The Dark Knight (sequel to Batman Begins) - movie
In theaters and IMAX: July 18, 2008
Genre: action/drama/superhero(PG-13)

“An absolute stunner!” - The Rollingstone

Batman fever is on! Showing in just a few weeks, Christian Bale’s The Dark Knight… (and shall I say Heath Ledger’s Joker) is getting very good early reviews! The Rollingstone has nothing but praise for all the major actors in the movie.

The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan’s absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005’s Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie.

Now beware of spoilers before you make the jump!

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Wanted - movie
In theaters: June 27, 2008
Genre: graphic novel/action/thriller (Rated R)

Mark Millar’s comic adaptation Wanted is getting moviegoers buzzing. Some love the extreme action, others hate how it deviates from the original graphic novel. Either way, I think it’s worth watching.

Yahoo actually has twelve trailers of the movie, from the theatrical version to snippets that haven’t been shown in youTube yet. There’s a train sequence,

Superherohype/Coming Soon also wrote leads to sevral more trailers. One of the videos shows how Wesley’s father, known only as Mr. X, was murdered after himself jumping flying off a building and killing others. There is even an  age-restricted trailer.

How does the Incredible Hulk’s purple pants stay on?

No, really. Haven’t you thought to ask that before? Ever since I read the first comic versions of The Incredible Hulk, I always wondered how his pants can grow to size.

Here are some theories floating around.

My own theory? The pants are organic. They grow to accommodate The Hulk/Bruce Banner transformations. But material aside, Bruce Banner has very bad taste in underwear! Who wears purple?!

When the more brooding version of The Hulk (the Ang Lee version) failed to rake in enough monies in 2003, Marvel had its hands full with a complete visual make-over of its 2008 flick The Incredible Hulk. That gamble paid off.

The Incredible Hulk opened this weekend with $54.5 million in 3,500 theaters to take the #1 spot. Rack in another $31 million from 38 other countries and that puts the movie worldwide at $85.5 million worldwide. That’s not bad for a “rebooted” movie.

It’s too early for the studio to commit to a sequel, especially since it still does have to earn beyond the $150 million production expense. But I did read that cast member Tim Blake Nelson (Hulk’s enemy Samuel Sterns/The Leader) is in talks with director Louis Leterrier and producer Gale Ann Hurd for a follow-up. Sequel or not, The Hulk will be returning as part of the superhero team The Avengers. However, there is a big question of Edward Norton returning or not.