Batman: Occupy Gotham City?

The L.A. Times catches a hint of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the trailer for next year's Batman sequel, The Dark Knight Rises:

We already knew Christopher Nolan was up to something topical with "The Dark Knight Rises" when he decided to shoot near Occupy Wall Street. Now we have a clearer sense of what that topic is.

As the Batman film's new trailer released online Monday suggests, it's economic disparity and government response to organized protest, among other subjects.

Over a haunting rendition of a child singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" (lest there be any doubt about his national themes), Nolan offers us a peek at his haves-and-have-nots preoccupation when he has Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle whisper in the ear of Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne a message from the 99%.

Here's the trailer: 

Director Christopher Nolan's last Batman film, The Dark Knight, featured the Caped Crusader hacking Gotham's mobile phone network, turning it into a network of sensors, and using it to track down the Joker, a plot point which a number of people took as a quasi-endorsement of Bush-era anti-terror surveillance tactics. I remain skeptical, however, that Nolan's seriously trying to make a substantive political statement with either movie; it seems more like he's just trying to lend his comic book movies additional gravity by alluding to relevant political issues. It's context, not argument. 

Read my short take on the Batman-goes-corporate series Batman, Inc. here. Reason on comic books here.