When he took on the job of directing a new entry in the Batman franchise, Christopher Nolan had a very specific mandate in mind: he wanted to ground the film in reality. Given that Batman has never had superpowers, this makes sense; sure, it could be interesting to know where all his gadgets came from and how he got to be so good at fighting. But some critics have noticed that the one area that could have used a little more "super" is the supervillains: as our colleague Katrina Onstad wrote: "No crazy Joker masks here; instead, Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) plays a bad doctor who sometimes puts a burlap bag over his head and does bad things, but from the neck down, he’s in a suit, presumably with a security pass dangling from his waist. It may be real, but what’s so good about real?"

Hey, Katrina: be grateful that Nolan at least used a villain from the comics; a look at some of the proposed and ultimately rejected villains he wanted to use suggests how the movie could have been even more banal:

The Dental Hygienist

Modus Operandi: Injects prey in the jaw with a drug that makes them drool and have to spit a lot which, though not especially debilitating, is embarrassing
Beef With Gotham: No one never flosses, and it's gnarly to work on them when they come in for six-month checkups

The Auditor

Modus Operandi: Can order tax audits of any citizen -- even without cause!
Beef With Gotham: As a child, her sainted mother was killed when an overpass collapsed on her, which she blames indirectly on cheats whose unpaid taxes meant the City of Gotham couldn't reinvest in its own infrastructure

Cut Off

Modus Operandi: Interferes with the Batmobile when it's speeding to crime scenes, by cutting it off in traffic, driving in its blind spot so Batman can't change lanes, and leaving his turn signal on so Batman can't predict what he's going to do next
Beef With Gotham: Too many car pool lanes

The Girl Scout

Modus Operandi: Controls an army of uniformed moppets who ruthlessly ring people's doorbells when they're trying to get dinner on the table. Also: poisoned cookies.
Beef With Gotham: Gotham's best campground is always reserved for Boy Scout Jamborees

The Meter Maid

Modus Operandi: Inconveniences citizens by issuing parking tickets, with merciless disregard for the city's unofficial five-minute grace-period policy
Beef With Gotham: In an ironic twist, her fiancé -- Doublepark -- is serving time on trumped-up charges for his unpaid parking tickets, and she's engaged in a campaign of terror to negotiate his release

Brown-Out

Modus Operandi: Former employee of Gotham Light & Power, knows the secret of creating rolling blackouts -- even at the height of summer, when Gothamites need their air conditioners the most
Beef With Gotham: Can't get city elders to listen to his pleas in opposition to Max Shreck's nuclear power plant, given that the plant's waste is dumped on the site of the annual Girl Scout Jamboree

Two-Seats

Modus Operandi: Always takes up two seats on Gotham's light rail, which is extremely inconsiderate, especially to elderly and disabled passengers
Beef With Gotham: Public transit stops running at 1 AM

The Posterer

Modus Operandi: Is leading a guerrilla campaign to cover every lamppost and construction-site barrier in Gotham with posters stating his insane manifesto
Beef With Gotham: At age ten, put up posters on neighbourhood lampposts seeking the return of a lost cat; cat never recovered

The Greengrocer

Modus Operandi: Controls the docks through which all of Gotham's fruits and vegetables pass; sees to it that Gothamites have access only to very inferior produce
Beef With Gotham: Following a failed romance with The Dental Hygienist, is trying to start an epidemic of scurvy

The Panhandler

Modus Operandi: Begs strangers for change, thus reducing honest citizens' purchasing power one quarter at a time
Beef With Gotham: Failure of the dollar coin