Batman has protected Gotham City and fought evildoers for decades, and you could spend the rest of your life just consuming Bat-media. But what's the absolute greatest Batman story of all time? In any media?

When Heath Ledger was preparing to play the Joker in The Dark Knight, he locked himself in a hotel room for a month and put together a diary of inspirations for the role. Here's a tantalizing glimpse at that diary, from a French documentary.

The universe is full of evil masterminds, whose schemes seem too brilliant to defeat — until, of course, they're defeated. But often, those schemes depend on one lowly minion, and if you just took out that henchperson, the masterplan would never have gotten off the ground. Here are 10 evil schemes that depended on an…

Meet Chris Weir. He likes Batman. A lot. You might have seen the concept art of his Batman-themed home theater last year, but now you can take a tour of the real thing, and it's pretty tremendous.

By Charlie Jane Anders and Katharine Trendacosta. It's an unfortunate fact of life: roles get recast all the time. Sooner or later, Robert Downey Jr. will quit playing Tony Stark. Once Upon a Time is said to be recasting its Mad Hatter. Game of Thrones has already recast a few minor roles. Usually, when an actor is…

Villains from every Batman movie tiptoe towards trouble in artist Rafa Toro series of prancing Batman baddies. Even if you hated Joel Schumachers' Batman & Robin, we bet you can't stop watching Poison Ivy march forward for infinity.

This summer, everybody is going into a very dark place. Superman is growing an underwater beard and getting angsty, Iron Man is getting his soul crushed, and Star Trek wants you to know that it's going into darkness so badly, they put that in the title. So if you're planning to film an epic story about a legendary…

The first official promo image for Star Trek Into Darkness shows Benedict Cumberbatch's mysterious villain John Harrison locked in a plexiglass brig. Which means that John Harrison is joining a long and proud tradition: villains who get caught in the middle of the story — often on purpose. From The Dark Knight to The…

Concept art from The Dark Knight reveals a whole creepy clown army, at The Joker's disposal. Concept Artist Rob Bliss, who whipped up an entire horde of Joker lackeys, has recently released his art from Chris Nolan's beloved Batman movie. They're all completely terrifying in their own, horrific way.

Hard to imagine now — but Christopher Nolan's first conversations with Heath Ledger were actually about playing Batman, not the Joker. But Ledger told Nolan that "he'd never do this kinda film," according to a talk Nolan gave last night at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. But by the time came that Nolan was casting…