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Were Batman Begins or The Dark Knight based on any particular comic(s) or was were they completely created from scratch?

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Rises is based much on Gotham: No Man's Land and Batman Knightfall 1. – Matt Feb 21 at 2:05

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Batman Begins is a combination of stories from the Batman mythos, as well as an original story. According to Wikipedia, the starting point for Batman Begins was a story called "The Man Who Falls"; Jim Gordon was based on the character from the story "Batman: Year One". Neither of these stories featured Ra's Al Ghul, who is a significantly different character than the one featured in the comic (both Ra's are leaders of a large group of assassins, and both have a large respect for Batman, but the Ra's in the comics is depicted as being hundreds of years old, regenerating himself in a pool of liquid called "The Lazarus Pit". It remains to be seen if the Ra's in the movie makes a similar comeback or not).

The film The Dark Knight uses elements from the story The Long Halloween, though again the story is mainly an original story. It was also related that Heath Ledger, who played The Joker, locked himself in his hotel room for weeks to try and get to the core of the character of The Joker, even writing a journal of The Joker's 'thoughts'.

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By mentioning Heath Ledger, are you implying that he might have contributed to the writing? – Tshepang Jan 3 '12 at 17:22
No, what he means is that the role was important to him so he did a bit of method acting in order to pull off the performance that he did. Also, in Batman Begins, I believe (I'm not 100% on this) that they call the blue flower used in the ritual/Scarecrow's substance was called the "Lazarus Flower" or some sort, as Nolan's Batman is supposed to be a "realistic" approach to the mythos meaning of course that Ra's should not be returning alive in Dark Knight Rises – TylerShads♦ Jan 3 '12 at 17:26
The Joker in the Dark Knight is largely based on Allan Moore's depiction/interpretation in the Killing Joke. In this, the Joker says he if he has to have a past, he'd prefer it be multiple choice. He also commits hanous crimes to prove anyone is just one bad day from insanity. In the book, Gordon is his victim; not Harvey (Dent is already Two Face in this story, he's seen in the background). – Matt Feb 21 at 2:04

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