[DEWLine]

Personal opinion here: This was one of the few Mistakes of the movie.

You don't not mention him. Respect for Ledger's portrayal or not, you don't avoid making any reference to what's happened to the Joker in the interim between movies.

I do like the idea of Bane not wanting to tempt the fates by invoking Joker. He'd simply go the "Captain Sensible" route: kill the guy, as his comics incarnation tried to do in No Man's Land.