About a year and a half ago, I did an iteration of Hero Worship called Why the Justice League Movie is a Terrible Idea , a column I stand by. This past week, there were Hollywood rumblings about Joseph Gordon-Levitt taking part in the film in the role of Batman, almost certainly continuing the role of John Blake and picking up from the end of The Dark Knight Rises. Even more than trying to scrape together a team movie out of thin air, this would castrate any chances WB has of building a mega superhero franchise to rival that of The Avengers.

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To be clear, at this point, it’s still speculation. JGL’s representation has refuted the claims . Still, you never know. Hollywood refutes everything until it happens. If this were to be the case, it would be an attempt by WB to build something out of nothing; to retroactively shoe-horn Christopher Nolan’s Batman films as a precursor to a larger shared universe, despite numerous declarations over the last seven years that they are not intended to exist in a greater DC Universe. Don’t get me wrong – I adore JGL and I’d love to see some John Blake Batman stories. Or, better yet, more Anne Hathaway Catwoman. But a foundation for Justice League , that is not.It's not an issue of "continuity"; rather the nature of Nolan's movies in terms of tone and theme. The Dark Knight Trilogy is insular and grounded in a way that Justice League simply can’t be; the world Nolan built for Batman is based on logic. Unfortunately, logic says that a man can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, lassos of truth are fantasy, and getting struck by lightning while doused in chemicals will probably just kill you, not give you super powers. Could they make it work? Sure, probably. But that doesn’t mean they should try.Casting JGL in Justice League would be the least of the film’s hurdles to prove itself as anything more than an attempt to play catch-up to Marvel, but it would certainly be a detriment to the tone that a movie like this should bring forth. The Avengers was successful for its light-hearted, straight-forward approach to a superhero story. That movie had the thinnest of thin plots, yet it entertained because the characters were dynamic and it was fun. I don’t think Justice League should be trying to ape that tonality, but it should be aping the need to build the characters effectively on their own before bringing them together.I understand the desire for familiarity; audiences associate Nolan’s Batman flicks with quality, so the logical thought is to continue that. While Superman may need to prove himself on the big screen in 2013, that’s not an issue for Batman. Batman transcends Nolan’s movies -- he's found success in film, TV, and now video games. He's a brand in a way that few other heroes are. Instead of creating some sort of retroactive world-building, they should use Batman, the icon, as a way to help Man of Steel achieve the beginnings of a shared universe.He could show up at the end of Man of Steel -- maybe just the silhouette of his cowl or lurking in the shadows, with a grisly “we should talk” uttered – and that would be all we need to sell us on the idea of an on-screen DCU. Here you’d have the two biggest icons of DC Comics that are at the same time the polar opposites of what that universe has to offer: Superman, the god-like alien from outer space, and Batman, a human that relies on his brilliance and skill (and those wonderful toys). But using JGL in that role instantly ties it to the previous on-screen incarnation of Batman, creating a conundrum that doesn't allow something like Justice League to exist by its own internal logic.Using Man of Steel as the starting point – just as Superman was the starting point for heroes in the DC Universe to begin with – would be the logical place to kick off a larger universe. Though WB might be rushing into things with only one “setup” movie, at least it begins in a world that’s constructed with the mindset that literally anything is acceptable when a man can fly.What do you guys think? Is using Nolan’s Batman a starting point for Justice League appropriate? Would you rather see a more DCU-friendly Dark Knight? Sound off in the comments or hit me up on Twitter

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito , or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN . He thinks WB should just focus on delivering a good Wonder Woman flick.