Wrath

Batman had two different enemies named Wrath. The first, whose real name was never disclosed, had an anti-Batman origin very similar to Prometheus. One night, while sneaking out of their apartment to avoid paying rent, Wrath's parents were mistaken for burglars by the police and shot dead. Wrath became obsessed with taking revenge on police and other law-enforcers, which lead to a career as an assassin.

The second Wrath, Elliot Caldwell, was an orphan, one of five abducted by the original Wrath to become the equivalent of Robin, but Caldwell was the only one of the five to survive Wrath's training. Eventually, Caldwell took over as the new Wrath.

Pros: The purple costume is kind of cool, though it might not work in the Nolan-verse. Wrath's anti-Batman origin isn't as contrived as Prometheus'.

Cons: It's still a little contrived. And he's a total no-name villain.

How I'd do it: Show his parents' murder, then just cut straight to the pimpin' purple costume.

Casting Guesses: It could be anyone, so I'll say Clive Owen, cause I like him.

Verdict: Nah. If they announced Wrath, even most dedicated fanboys would be rushing to google to figure out who he is.

The Tally Man

The original Tally Man grew up poor. His father owed money to a loan shark and they struggled to pay their debts. When his father died, matters only got worse. When a collector threatened his mother, young Tally Man killed him, spending most of the rest of his youth in juvie. When he got out, the rest of his family was all dead and he lost it. He apparently had a talent for shooting, and ended up working for the mob, killing people who couldn't pay their debts. He was completely nuts though, becoming downright gleeful while killing his victims.

The second Tally Man appeared during the Face the Face storyline (spoilers to follow). Working for the Great White Shark (who I just realized I haven't covered here), he kills Orca, The Ventriloquist, KGBeast, and Magpie, framing Two-Face for the crimes. He was stopped pretty quickly after his first appearance, and I don't think he's shown up since.

Pros: Essentialy just an mob hitman, either Tally Man fits with the presence of organized crime through each of the first two movies.

Cons: I doubt the mob would go to someone as obviously crazy as the first Tally Man after their experience with the Joker. And the second is a minor, minor character.

How I'd do it: I'd go with the second Tally Man. Just have him be a hired gun, nothing more to it.

Casting Guesses: The second Tally Man kinda looks like Mos Def, but bigger. I might go with Common, just because he's impressed me in the few movies I've seen him in.

Verdict: Almost no chance. There are so many other assassins to choose from. The only possibility is for a tiny cameo, in a situation where the better known assassins aren't available (because DC/WB is saving them for non-Batman movies).

Zeiss

Not only did Phil Zeiss's parents die when he was a boy, but so did any other relative that might take care of him. So a Sicilian mobster took him under his wing, and decided the boy was cut out to be a hitman for the mob. In addition to regular old training on how to kill people, Zeiss underwent surgery to have his nervous system enhanced with cybernetics. His reflexes and vision have been enhanced, and he wears special goggles wired into his brain that let him see the world as if it's in slow motion.

Zeiss's most notable personality trait is his obsession with being the best fighter in the world, which has proven problematic. On one occasion, he was hired as a bodyguard to protect an aging Gotham mobster. Zeiss spotted Batman, also there to protect the mobster, and engaged him in hand to hand combat in order to prove himself superior. With the two protectors occupied, Deadshot waltzed in and shot the guy.

Pros: With the exception of the cybernetics, his origin and his abilities fit with the realism levels. And Batman pissing off organized crime in the first two movies makes bringing in assassins very likely.

Cons: He's a lesser-known comics assassin, and much of his appeal (and design) is based around the goggles and enhanced reflexes.

How I'd do it: I guess just eliminate the cybernetics. And just to be sure he still looks like Zeiss, give him weird looking sunglasses.

Casting Guesses: Zeiss is Swiss. I don't know of any Swiss actors, but there might be some out there. By looks alone (and Zeiss has changed his look a few times, most recently with a shaved head), I might go with someone like Jason Statham, but I'm not sure he can sound like anything but a Londoner.

Verdict: It's possible, but there are lots of assassins to choose from, and Zeiss wouldn't be at the top of my list.

Deathstroke

Slade Wilson volunteered for a Captain America-type military experiment, making him faster, stronger, and tougher. Under the name Deathstroke the Terminator, he worked for the military for a while but eventually quit (around the same time his wife shot his eye out). Deathstroke (writers dropped the "the Terminator" from his name when some Schwarzenegger movie came along) went on to a career as an assassin, wearing his executioner hood with the one eye covered, and his highly impractical orange and blue costume. Maybe he's just a Florida Gators fan?

From his military enhancements, Deathstroke is unusually strong, fast, and intelligent, and has a Wolverine-like healing factor that allows him to recover from all sorts of injuries. Except, apparently, for his lost eye. That never made any sense to me. He's also a skilled martial artist, like most every other comic book assassin, but between that and his strength he's able to keep up with Batman in a toe-to-toe fight.

(image stolen from Phil Noto)

Pros: He's an assassin, which works perfectly for where The Dark Knight left off. He does have some supernatural powers, but change his super soldier experiments to advanced steroids and he fits the level of realism in the movie universe.

Cons: For story purposes, he's identical to Deadshot and pretty similar to Lady Shiva, and either of those would probably work better. Deathstroke can also be confused (ie, people think he was ripped off by the creators of) Marvel characters Taskmaster and Deadpool, and even though that doesn't seem like you'd hold it against Deathstroke, it takes away from his uniqueness. He also may be more associated as a villain for the Teen Titans, and if that gets turned into a movie (which I'm sure eventually it will be), they may want to save him for that one.

How I'd do it: Exactly how I'd do any of the other assassins, someone after Batman hires Deathstroke. Batman has to flee from the police, take down the assassin, and make sure no one gets hurt in the crossfire.

Casting Guesses: Behind the mask, Slade Wilson is an older guy with an eyepatch, but still a tough hardened military man. It's a Bruce Willis type role, or Mickey Rourke if they can get him to not look freakish. Although I have no problem imagining Rourke or Willis as Deathstroke, I have a hard time imagining Rourke or Willis fitting into a movie like Batman Begins or The Dark Knight.

Verdict: I highly doubt he'd be a featured villain. But I could also see a cameo Deathstroke appearance, along the lines of the time Darth Vader hired a bunch of bounty hunters to track down Han Solo, except instead of Boba Fett and company, it'd be Deathstroke and Deadshot and friends.

Deadshot

Floyd Lawton, way back in the early days of Batman comics, was inspired by stories of Batman to put on a tux, a domino mask, grab two guns, call himself Deadshot, and fight crime. In an effort to become the public's preferred protector of Gotham, he launched a campaign to paint Batman as a bad guy. The lesson, as always: don't piss off Batman. With Jim Gordon's help, Batman uncovers the plot to run the Dark Knight out of town so that Deadshot can take over organized crime in the city.

After spending some time in jail, and I think being mostly forgotten by comics writers, Deadshot re-brands himself as an assassin for hire, and equips himself with two pistols mounted on his wrists and a scope built into his mask. Since he's one of the best marksmen in DC comics, his services are in high demand.

The most unique and interesting aspect to the character is his lack of a self-preservation instinct. He's not suicidal, but the idea of going out in a blaze of glory is appealing to him. He's also been shown to have an odd code of ethics, where once he's been paid for a job, he feels responsible to carry it out. So in a pinch, he has no problem putting his own life in jeopardy if it might mean getting the job done.

Pros: His borderline death wish creates a lot of possibilities for dramatic action sequences, and he's certainly a different kind of antagonist than we had in The Dark Knight.

Cons: The scope mask and guns is the sort of comic book idea designed for your inner adolescent (or actual adolescents), which is the sort of thing these films seem to shy away from, preferring to try to pry adult drama out of the Batman mythos. Also, if you had a scope mounted to your eye, would that actually work? You mount the scope on the gun, because that lets you see where the gun is pointed. With the scope on your eye, it tells you where your eye's pointed. Which you should already know. Maybe that's been explained somewhere, I was never a big Suicide Squad reader, which is where Deadshot has made the bulk of his appearances.

How I'd do it: The death wish angle would have to be the focal point. Without killing him, how does Batman stop a killer who would much rather die than be stopped? Unless someone can explain the scope thing to me, that might have to be dropped, or at least changed to plain old night vision. And I'm not sure two guns would play well either. John Woo action would seem out of place in this world.

Casting Guesses: I honestly don't recall what Deadshot looks like under his mask. So he could be played by literally anyone. I'll throw out Karl Urban's name. He's pretty good at playing assassin types.

Verdict: Another guy who will certainly not be the main villain, but he could be a secondary one, or even just make a cameo.

KGBeast

Anatoli Knyazev (I have no idea how to pronounce that) was a cybernetically enhanced KGB assassin sent to the US to stop the Star Wars program Reagan was pushing in the 80s. When Batman had him as good as captured with a batarang line wrapped around KGBeast's wrist, the Beast did what any good solider would -- he chopped off his own hand. Naturally, since comic book characters in the late 80s and early 90s loved this kind of thing, he replaced his missing hand with a giant gun. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, he's usually just referred to as "The Beast," but I still like to call him KGBeast. It's a funny name.

Pros: KGBeast is a funny name?

Cons: KGBeast is a funny name. Also, everything else.

The gun on the arm is great for camp like Machine Girl, but awful in the Batman Begins context.

How I'd do it: I wouldn't in a million years.

Casting Guesses: Vin Diesel with a horrible Russian accent? But this is a villain from another time, he might have fit in the Joel Schumacher Batman movies if they'd been made in the late 80s, and he would've been played by Dolph Lundgren. Or maybe that guy who lip synched to Gene Hackman's voice in Superman IV.

Verdict: Easily the worst one I've covered yet. Compared to KGBeast, Calendar Man looks like a great idea.

Lady Shiva

One of the elite martial artists in the DC universe, Lady Shiva trained Batman, the current Robin, and Black Canary, and she's fought alongside the good guys on a number of occasions. But she's also a professional assassin, and thinks nothing of killing people, which doesn't exactly work for Batman.

Pros: Cool martial arts action, and an opportunity to explore some of Bruce Wayne's training to be Batman before the League of Shadows in Batman Begins.

Cons: A big chunk of Lady Shiva's story as it relates to Gotham comes from characters like Black Canary and Cassandra Cain, who don't exist in the films.

How I'd do it: Start with a flashback to Bruce Wayne after the death of Joe Chill but before the prison where Henri Ducard recruited him for the League of Shadows (he didn't learn to fight six (or seven) guys at once from some self defense class at the Gotham YMCA, right?), and he trains with Shiva. She's trying to teach him killing blows, but he refuses. Normally she'd refuse to train someone like that, but his passion to learn wins her over. Then we cut to the present day, and she's been hired by associates of Lau (the money launderer from The Dark Knight) to take out Batman. Lots of fighting, she probably figures out who he is, and... well Batman wins in the end.

Casting Guesses: I'm not really a martial arts movie fan, so someone will have to help me out here. An actress who can kick ass, look great, play both a 25 year old training Bruce and a 35 year old fighting Batman, and maybe speak English? Though it could work with subtitles too.

Verdict: She could really work. Fits in the world they've created, fills in some backstory that has to exist, nothing to goofy about the character. The role has to be cast well, which is obviously something I'm failing at, but with the right actress Lady Shiva could work well.