How in the world do you top this? How do you create action set pieces that are gorgeously shot, massive in scale, and incredibly thrilling? How do you find such richness of theme, the mystery of goodness, the price of justice? And, most importantly, how do you find another villain and actor playing him that can even match the menace of the Joker and the supreme brilliance of Heath Ledger? Can it even be done?

SInce The Dark Knight grossed $156 million in it's first weekend, rest assured that there will be another Batman movie. The question is, will it be as good as TDK? The answer, most likely not. Even if all the principal actors reprise their roles, even if Christopher Nolan decides to have one last go, I don't think it would be a wise idea. They've already reached the top of Mt. Everest; there's nowhere else to go.

Nolan has said that he tried to put everything he wanted to see in this movie. It shows. This is the Godfather and Heat of superhero movies: the character based tragedy and the epic crime thriller. The action cannot be improved upon, the themes are richer than any other movie in this genre. The Joker as character and as performance cannot be rivaled. Some points

1) Aside from the Joker, Batman has always had terrible villains. OK Two Face has potential, but the Riddler? Mad Hatter? How is a short fat man wearing a top hat, with cane, called the Penguin supposed to be frightning? Poison Ivy, a radical environmentalist-not really (though if Tilda Swinton were to play her, I might be interested). Catwoman is mysterious and sexy, but not really a villain. Even if they were to find a credible adversary, Ledger's Joker beats them all.

2) Christopher Nolan has gone as far as he can with the tragic realism of the films. If Burton's Batman was S&M gothic, Nolan's Batman is realistic; not for nothing do we have many terrorism inferences and references made by reviewers about the movie. Nolan could make another film in the same tone, like Paul Greengrass did with the Bourne pictures, but there wouldn't be an issue left to explore. These these films need and depend upon the fact that they are not traditional comic book movies. They are an exciting examination of such themes as obsession, justice, freedom and virtue.

3) Creative energy may be spent. Again, how can you make this better or even match it? If they change genres, like the Alien films did, it would be too soon--wait 10 years and find a different director and star.

The Dark Knight is the last word on superheroes on film. A universal law of sequels is that they decline in quality over time (See Star Wars and Indiana Jones). Yes, it would be crazy to end the adventures of Batman right now, but it would be the honorable and correct choice.