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Casting Katie Holmes as assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes in “Batman Begins” brings up old wounds for me. To paraphrase Jim Carrey as The Riddler in “Batman Forever,” there are too many questions with love interests in the Batman movies.

When “Batman” came out in 1989, I was pleased to know photographer/journalist Vicki Vale would be a part of the movie. That made sense since Vicki was a consistent presence in the Batman titles for decades. She certainly had been an on-again, off-again flirt and/or serious part of Bruce Wayne’s love life.

Kim Basinger has blond hair; Vicki Vale has red hair. I could look over that. Basinger did justice to the role.

Vicki Vale is a big part of the Batman universe, so she deserved to be in “Batman.” The same goes with Catwoman and Poison Ivy in two other movies.

I can’t say the same for Chase Meridian or Julie Madison.

I simply couldn’t understand why the writers of “Batman Forever” created psychiatrist Chase Meridian or why Julie Madison was forced into the script of “Batman & Robin.” Nicole Kidman’s role as Chase later made me rethink things, but why, oh why, do we have Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) in “Batman Begins”?

Needless to say, I groaned when I heard the casting news. “Here we go again,” I thought – and actually, I still do.

First of all, I am not against love interests in comic books and their movies. If Mary Jane Watson weren’t part of the Spider-Man film series, those movies would lack a lot of punch. Lois Lane is an essential character in the Superman comics. After all, she gave him his name!

Hollywood has come a long way since female characters like the one played by Marie Osmond on TV waited for her hero in the white hat to rescue her from the railroad tracks. Women characters in action-adventure films are generally more than the stereotypical damsels in distress.

Many of them, like Chase Meridian, are assertive and their characters can be defined without the leading man. Hollywood writers are creating love interests who play an important part in the storyline – instead of being “eye candy” simply yelling for the hero to save them.

Meridian, for example in “Batman Forever,” helped Bruce Wayne explore who he was as a man and the man behind the cowl. Vicki Vale arguably pushed Batman to consider there was something outside of crimefighting.

The question about the necessity of love interests remains. Why is this Rachel Dawes character in “Batman Begins?” I know the Batman comics well. Trust me; she’s not part of anything I remember. She’s also not that integral to be in a movie that: 1) will hopefully relaunch another film franchise and 2) most importantly, tells the origin of the Caped Crusader.

Even though there have been many women in and out of the Dark Knight’s life, Batman is essentially a loner when it comes to romance. Unlike Superman/Clark Kent and Spider-Man/Peter Parker, the love of a woman doesn’t define the character.

Sure, the Batcave and Gotham City are full of supporting characters such as Alfred, Robin and Commissioner Gordon. The bottom line is that Batman is well-defined without those characters. They’re simply foils for what we already know about him.

Again I ask: why Rachel Dawes? If director Chris Nolan felt the need to have a love interest in “Batman Begins,” why not include Talia? After all, her father (Ra’s al Ghul) is one of the film’s villains and the comics version of Talia is arguably the love of Bruce Wayne’s life.

Of course, that would make sense.

Seeing what’s done with Katie Holmes’ character onscreen will be the test of what, if anything, Rachel Dawes adds to the storyline.

Until June 16, Rachel is a Chase Meridian, or worse, a cinematic Julie Madison in my book.

Cary Ashby writes a twice-monthly comic book column for the "Norwalk Reflector." He is also the newspaper’s crime and education reporter. He can be reachedvia e-mail at ashby@goreflector.com.