Now that Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of Batman movies is concluding with “The Dark Knight Rises,” it’s time to start thinking about what’s next for Gotham’s favorite vigilante. In this week’s “Adapt This” column for IFC, I suggested that Hollywood should turn to Matt Wagner’s 2005 miniseries Batman and the Monster Men for inspiration.

Here’s an excerpt from the column:

Much like “The Dark Knight,” a film based on Batman and the Monster Men offers a foil for Batman that provides ample material for a talented actor to make his own. Hugo Strange is a sinister psychiatrist who holds the distinction of being one of the few villains clever enough to deduce Batman’s secret identity, and his ability to challenge Batman on a psychological level has a lot of potential. On top of all that, the “Monster Men” of the story (inmates of Arkham Asylum that Hugo Strange “modified”) offer a nice layer of physical threats for the film’s hero, too.

As with any film in a franchise, success generally depends upon how the main character is changed in each installment, and what he or she learns from the latest chapter. A film based on Batman and the Monster Men could serve as a bridge between the Batman movies and the rest of Warner Brothers’ properties — like Superman, for example — by elevating him from a character battling gun-toting thugs to a hero capable of defeating super-powered enemies.

You can read the rest of the column at IFC.com, and if you haven’t read Batman and the Monster Men yet, try to do so. It’s a great story from Batman’s early years.