From the truly surreal files, you remember the Batman villain Bane? This guy?

You notice anything strange in his hand there? Turns out that our buddy Bane is a fan of the fiber arts.

This may seem like a strange choice; as the article points out:

…it seems pretty out of place for someone set on destroying a city to all of a sudden have a penchant for arts and crafts.

Not so strange after all. Director Christopher Nolan modeled “The Dark Knight Rises” on “A Tale of Two Cities”, which makes Bane Madame Defarge:

She’s a villain from A Tale of Two Cities who has a passion for two things in particular — killing and knitting, as seen in this excerpt:

“Eh well! How then?” demanded madame, tying another knot, as if there were another enemy strangled.

So that’s not one, but two knitting villains. Surely a coincidence. On the other hand, knitting teaches you patience and attention to detail, something that most villains could use a little bit more of. Anyway, it’s not like everybody who knits is evil…

::Slowly casts on stitches while staring you in the eye::

::Retreats into a dark corner::

::Leans back into the light so he can see what he’s doing…those stitches are tiny::

Link via Jen.