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.