I've seen Batman and the villains of Gotham City evolve over the years from Jack Nicholson as the Joker to Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face and I would have to say that "The Dark Knight" is by far the best combination of Batman and villains. I have never read any of the Batman comic series because I'm more of a watcher but I have seen and worshipped all of the movies. The Michael Keaton movies were always my favorite and they are in many ways incomparable to the Christian Bale movies due to the changes in actors, time, and directing styles. The Dark Knight was evil mixed with good and brutal yet humane. "[Gotham] deserves a better class of criminal," and Heath Ledger, the Joker of The Dark Knight, gave the audience just that.