Your Version of The Dark Knight

[The Laughing Fish]

A lot of fans complained that Bruce would change suits between movies in the Burton/Schumacher series without explanation and praised The Dark Knight for tying the costume change into the plot.  I completely disagree with this for several reasons:

1) I dislike the TDK Batsuit, simply on an aesthetic level, and much prefer the Begins suit.

2) The TDK/TDKR Batsuit makes Bruce more vulnerable, so it's hard to buy that he'd opt for it.  Remember the dialogue in Begins?  "This sucker can stop a knife."  Cut to Dark Knight Rises with Talia...

3) I also don't buy the explanation in the movie.  If Bruce was really having trouble with flexibility with the suit, why'd it take him this long to want an upgrade?  It feels like he would've wanted a change immediately, especially since it seemed to work fine when he was fighting the League of Shadows and Ra's Al Ghul.  Now, he's fighting dogs and amateur vigilantes and it's too much for him?

4) Biggest sin of all, though, is the fact that the costume change does not add anything to the rest of the movie's story, other than eating up screentime.  The sonar abilities and projectile gauntlet scallops could've easily been added to the existing suit.

Looking back, it would've made much more sense if Bruce's body began to deteriorate severely (as it did in TDKR) after a year, and he tries to upgrade the suit to add extra protection. Storywise, it would've been more "realistic".

Instead, Fox's reasoning behind the suit came across as saying "Okay Bruce, here's that new suit you need to turn your head and give yourself more freedom to move during combat...but about that problem of being vulnerable to dogs, guns and knife attacks? Sorry, couldn't find a fix for any of those issues".

By the way, here's another good idea somebody else thought of that would've improved the movie's ending. 

It makes much more sense than that outrageous transformation into Two-Face.

[thecolorsblend]

Looking back, it would've made much more sense if Bruce's body began to deteriorate severely (as it did in TDKR) after a year, and he tries to upgrade the suit to add extra protection. Storywise, it would've been more "realistic".

Instead, Fox's reasoning behind the suit came across as saying "Okay Bruce, here's that new suit you need to turn your head and give yourself more freedom to move during combat...but about that problem of being vulnerable to dogs, guns and knife attacks? Sorry, couldn't find a fix for any of those issues".

One thing I was never clear on is whether Fox built more than one of that suit. BB showed he was manufacturing multiple cowls. And yet his living spaces in TDK and TDKRises both implied he only had the one since there wasn't much apparent storage space for anything other than one suit. So hmm.

[The Dark Knight]

I was under the impression it was just the one suit.

[thecolorsblend]

I was under the impression it was just the one suit.

Okay. So where did Bruce get what seemed to be a new suit in TDKRises? My guess is Bane didn't return it to Fox after defeating Batman and dropping him into the Pit prison. Fox wouldn't have had time to build a new one, or even know a new one was even needed by the time Bruce freed him from Bane's minions.

[The Dark Knight]

Then again, he emerged from the penthouse after Joker arrived with the suit on. Which leads me to believe he had a version stored in the safe house.

[Silver Nemesis]

I'm sure he had multiple suits. In Batman Begins he keeps one particular costume in a cabinet for easy access.

But we know for a fact he ordered the components in bulk quantities. "At least we'll have spares." He just keeps them stored somewhere else. Similarly in The Dark Knight he keeps one costume in the display cabinet, but he must've had spares ready in storage for when he needed them.

It's the same in Batman 89. He stashes one costume in the vault, but clearly has spare components stored elsewhere. His suit gets damaged during the alleyway fight. Note the bullet holes in the emblem and left pectoral.

Both of these have vanished the next time he puts on the suit.

It's possible he was able to seamlessly fill the holes, but I think it's more likely he simply put on a spare costume.

[Andrew]

Probably just have the film be just 3-5 months after BB and have the Joker try to corrupt Rachel and have her become Two-Face.

Or, set it a year later, with Harvey, but drastically cut down on or eliminate the love triangle element, have Bruce accept that both he and Rachel have moved on. Also have Batman and the Joker have already fought in the interim year so Batman isn't thinking that he may soon be not needed and ready to retire. And have Dent survive the end.

Either way, have the Scarecrow play a part as another villain working with the Joker, at least or especially in the climax.