Rumor: Bale offered $60 million to play Batman again

As you may have heard by now, the sequel to Man of Steel will feature Batman vs Superman. The big question has been who will play Batman. A few names have been tossed around, including Orlando Bloom and Josh Brolin. However, a new rumor suggests that Warner Bros. is willing to pull out all the stops to bring back Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. It's good news for fans of the Nolan films, and the arrival of Superman on Earth could be a good reason to bring Bruce Wayne out of retirement.

Christian Bale rumored to return for Justice League, potentially sets fans up for massive disappointment

It's the mother of all rumors for the long-suffering Justice League film. After failing to get Ben Affleck to direct the film (a move that would also have seen Affleck take over as Batman), a new report from LatinoReview (via ComicBookMovie) has Warner Bros. trying to secure the return of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, and bring back Christopher Nolan as a producer (Zach Synder too, so this would clearly depend on the success of Man of Steel). Bale has previously said he'd consider returning provided Nolan was on board, while Nolan has said he wasn't interested. However, Warner would probably be willing to move Heaven and Earth to get this done, as such a move would allow the film to overcome the hurdles that other options would face. Basically, this would let the Nolan films serve as setup for the Justice League, instead of requiring audiences forget everything they've seen in those films. Unfortunately, even if rumor is true, it doesn't mean Warner is going to be able to pull off the deals, as they'd likely be be looking for a long-term commitment from both Bale and Nolan. There's a spoiler for the end of The Dark Knight Rises below. You've been warned.

How Marvel's "Ultimate Comics" relaunch did the things that DC should have

The only way you haven't heard about the DC Comics relaunch is if you've been living in the wilderness or you don't care about superhero comics. Either way, all you need to know is that DC restarted all 52 of their comic lines with the new #1 issues and varying changes to the characters and universe (Tor.com did a full look at the line, which can be found here). Similarly, you probably heard about the new Spider-man, who (stop the presses!) wasn't white. This new Spider-man appears in Marvel's Ultimate Universe as part of another reboot, where previous stories can be ignored and all the issues start over at #1.

Marvel launched the Ultimate universe in 2000 as an alternate continuity where they could retell familiar characters and storylines with a new spin. This reached its zenith with Mark Millar's take on the Avengers in The Ultimates 1 and 2 before crashing down with the Ultimatum storyline that killed half the characters. The line continued as Ultimate Comics for a few years, but sales were down and only Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis continued to do well, though Mark Millar's return the universe with Ultimate Comics Avengers is worth the read in my book. So Marvel decided to reboot the entire line again, but this time they didn't kill twenty famous characters, they just killed one. It was a gutsy move, killing the character that kept the line running for ten years, but apart from generating some free publicity, it highlighted the true strength of the Ultimate universe: Characters can die, and they'll stay dead.