Will You Spot 'Robin' In 'The Dark Knight Rises' This Weekend?

In his hugely successful franchise, Christopher Nolan vowed to do away with every last bit of the cheesiness that previous Batman movies had suffered from. Gone were the caricatured villains, the silly one-liners and the questionable outfits, and in came complex but rewarding narratives, developed characters, drama and suspense.

Some diehard fans of the comic-books have been disappointed with Nolan's reluctance to include a sidekick to Christian Bale's Batman, specifically DICk Grayson, aka Robin, however, theories that the 'Nightwing' does actually appear in 'The Dark Knight Rises' are beginning to intensify. Mark Hughes of Forbes magazine has been debating for weeks whether Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character, the rookie cop John Blake, is actually Robin. In the comics, DICk Grayson's full name is actually Richard John Grayson, and his father was named John Grayson. Secondly, in adulthood, DICk Grayson became a street cop through the day - fighting crime as Robin by night. Hughes writes, "Now, we've only seen a very little bit about the film character John Blake, but what we've seen is that he's a young cop whom the trailers depict assisting Batman in the fight against Bane, and Blake is shown having some sort of involvement with an orphanage/boys home". Blake also goes around drawing a chalk symbol as a sign for calling Batman to Gotham, though on closer inspection, Hughes reveals that the bat becomes a bird when flipped around. He adds, "I think Nolan wants to create a complete Batman mythology that touches on the most iconic elements of the Batman mythos. So I feel the inclusion of some sort of nod to DICk Grayson is something Nolan might really want to include".

Batman fans will be able to make up their own minds on the theory come Friday (July 20, 2012), when the movie hits cinemas worldwide. The film is considered to be the only film of 2012 that could challenge 'The Avengers' for the title of the biggest grossing movie of the year.