It's a good thing Batman dresses in black. He could be a popular guy on Hollywood's black-tie circuit come Academy Awards season.

"The Dark Knight Rises" probably has the best chance ever for a superhero film to rise into the best-picture mix at February's Oscars. The film is the last in a celebrated trilogy that elevated comic-book movies to operatic proportion, and Hollywood likes sending finales out with a lovely door-prize (Peter Jackson's first two "Lord of the Rings" films were Oscar also-rans before the trilogy's conclusion won best picture).

It has the weight and scope - and then some - of 2008's "The Dark Knight," the "Batman Begins" sequel whose snub in the best-picture field helped prod the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to expand the category to more than five nominees.

And in the snub department, academy voters are not likely to forget that Batman boss Christopher Nolan, one of modern Hollywood's true innovators, has yet to be nominated for best director.