Earlier this week we reported Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be playing “John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon” in The Dark Knight Rises. As far as we knew, this was a new character by Chris Nolan. It turns out there was a Johnny Blake who briefly appeared in Batman #13 in 1942. In Bob Kane and Jack Schiff ‘s Comedy of Tears, Johnny Blake was the little boy whose report card was stolen by the Joker. Yes, the Joker stole a kid’s report card. Not exactly his finest caper.
The original panels are after the jump [via BleedingCool]. I saw a coloring book page based on the comic (to the right) on Superdickery ages ago, but it didn’t occur to me that this Johnny Blake kid might grow up to seek vengeance on the rogues who stole his straight-A report card. Yeah, okay, Nolan probably didn’t have any clue this character existed, but I’d like to believe he reads Superdickery and is writing a scene into The Dark Knight Rises where Batman kicks a bear into a Christmas tree.
(Answer: Joker was stealing papers to try to get a specific person’s signature. Real exciting sh-t, this.)