I really hope that's The Joker as it looks awesome, and if it is, bet on WB releasing an official poster picture ASAP.

It looks like the Crow Joker with those weird lines by his mouth and sunken eyes.

As long as he has green hair and a white/grey face, it's good enough for me. I'm much more interested in seeing how Ledger plays the character rather than freaking out over test pictures.

That, sir, is a thought-out and measured response. You do not belong on the internet.

GUUUUR HEATH LEDGER RAPED MY CHILDHOOD

Oh, god, it's really going to be like that, isn't it? 13-year-olds who weren't old enough to see Batman in theatres are going to start comparing him to Jack... well, yesterday.

It's possible the mouth marks are just like indicators for where future prosthetics will be that they haven't figured out or made yet. It's not that far fetched to imagine he (Joker, not Ledger) might self-mutilate himself to get the full on grin.

As for Jack - yeah it was fun, but really, fuck him.

Looks good to me, I just hope he gets the laugh down.

They're going with the Black Dahlia/ Man Who Laughs facial scarification? Mondo disturbo. But probably more scary for it. The thing with Batman is, there's so much history and so many different interpretations of the characters that the whole argument of what the true spirit of them is, is so open that it's ridiculous. Arguably the Adam West series was the definative version... but the psychotic murderer version of the Joker is probably the most popular right now.

It's probably sad that I'm hoping those Geller/Harley Quinn rumors are true, huh?

Of the Joker? He was an afterthought in that series, with Gorshin's Riddler taking prominence over the Joker for the only time... well, ever.

As with most things Batman, TAS is the definitive take on Mr. J.

No, I would disagree with that. There's just no menace in the character if he can't kill.

Denny O'Neil or Steve Englehart probably wrote the best Joker story sometime in the 70's.

According to this site, that pic is a fake.


--S.

Best interpretation of the Joker was in The Dark KNight Returns, with a close 2nd place going to the Killing Joke. Just my opinion.

TBO

That is indeed very much like Kakihara from Ichi the Killer. I hope that it is indeed a fake, something about it just doesn't seem right about it. Perhaps it's just because I've seen Ichi, this just feels cheap in comparison.

Yeah, AICN has verified this is a fake. A well done fake, but fake nonetheless.

Paul Dini wrote it in 2006. "Slayride" from Detective Comics #826.

Killing Joke was great up until the end. Only Alan Moore would make Batman break character by laughing at one of the Joker's jokes.

Thank you! That makes 2 people who have said that ... you and, well, me. I mean, laughing at his joke, after his blown away Batgirl v1.0. All that trauma & emotion, lost for what? If there's a joke of Joker's to laugh at, it's that "your baby was born spastic" joke from "Arkham Asylum" by Grant Morrison.

I imagine Alan Moore would agree with you. He's repeatedly stated his distaste for THE KILLING JOKE in recent years.

I'll agree with the problems with the ending, but there's still too much greatness in that story to dismiss. And that Brian Bolland art is incredible stuff.

Oh man, the Brian Bolland art is what makes the story. It's what I think of whenever the name Joker comes to mind.

The end of the Killing Joke always baffles me though. I think it's a phenominal story but if Batman laughs at Joker's joke after the crap he's gone through in the course of rescuing Gordon, then the ending doesn't work for me.

If Batman laughing is all in Joker's head, then it becomes the best ending of a Joker story ever not named Slayride.

I don't know, the issue in the 80's where Joker kipnaps Gordon and Robin and hijacks Gotham Arena so he can kill them with an atomic birthday cake is pretty hard to top.

Also, THE JOKER'S FIVE-WAY REVENGE, dude.

Now I understand why our school system is so poorly ranked with the reading comprehension skills on display here.

The ending of KILLING JOKE made perfect sense. The entire point Joker was making was that what, exactly, is insanity? Like his point about almost going to nuclear war because of a flock of birds on a radar screen...is that not insanity? And etc etc. We think Joker is insane but in his mind, he's just a sane person in an insane world.

Anyway, the ending where Batman laughs at the joke was Moore's subtle way of showing Batman, for one brief moment, sees the world from Joker's point of view.

Joker makes a very eloquent speech, but in the end Batman's simple response trumps him. Also, I think Gordon remaining strong, is a pretty fatal point to Joker's argument.

Why on earth would Batman even bother to become mildly considerate of the Joker's point of view?

Batman's been trying to prove to the Joker since the beginning that neither of them are anything alike, despite the Joker's insistance that they are co-dependant yet mutually destructive birds of a feather.

Now after Barbara's shooting / crippling, Gordon's torture, and a wacko punchline later Batman "sees the light" so to speak? Fuck that.

I liked this "Yes you are! No I'm not!" interlude between the Caped Crusader & the Clown Prince of Crime better when it was the "Our Family Memories" segment of the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker movie, which is so clearly inspired by The Killing Joke that it's transparent.

Can anybody explain this a bit further? I know Moore's a curmudgeonly old fuck, but why would he dislike his own work?

Having not read Slayride I am completely, 100% behind the greatness of Joker's 5-Way Revenge btw.

William, Mr. Monday Morning.

Bask in the evil chill of the greatness of Detective Comics, issue #826

It only takes Dini 22 pages to reinforce the reasons why you should fear the Joker.

But I am a ginormous idiot for leaving The Joker's Five-Way Revenge and the bits from No Man's Land out of a discussion of the better Joker stories out there.

For the folks that think that comics are for kids, I've heard that the (not illustrated) short story, "Definitive Therapy," from F. Paul Wilson's collection, The Barrens & Others, is also a damn fine Joker tale. I may have to order it from Amazon one of these days.

Everytime it dawns on me to try to find it at the library or a book store, I can never find a copy in print.

Moore doesn't like the book because, in the end, it's really nothing more than a story about two fictional characters. In "The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore", he calls it "clumsy, misjudged and [devoid of] real human importance." It was never his idea; Brian Bolland had just finished "Camelot 3000" and, when told he could do anything he wanted next, his dream gig was to do a story by his favorite writer (Moore) about his favorite character (Batman). The genesis of the story was basically Moore calling up Bolland and asking him what he wanted to draw.

Blather:

There's pretty much a school of thought that has made a religion out of delving into the deeper meanings of The Killing Joke. To see the creator say that the work is devoid of real human importance is fucking hilarious.

Above and beyond the call of duty, sir, thank you. I will check it out when I get home from work.

As for J5WR, it's responsible for the only time I ever felt disappointed in Batman: The Animated Series. I can't remember the name of the ep, but whichever it was where they adapted part of the story - as soon as I realised where they were going I couldn't help but feel let down, as I knew that as hard they tried they would never be able to match the source material. Especially when for some 'covers', if you will, they actually did a damn fine job (I'm thinking The Laughing Fish, in particular)

Boy am I dumb. How did I forget The Laughing Fish?

I've been thinking about it and I have this nagging feeling that they actually used the J5WR material in the same ep they did The Laughing Fish. Gonna have to go back and check that.

"The Killing Joke" is basically a rorschach ink blot.

*rimshot*


--S.

At another point in time, Moore tried to elaborate a little more in an interview, where he stressed that he worked hard on The Killing Joke, that it wasn't hack work, but that, looking back, he just doesn't like it very much.

We're getting closer..

http://www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com/

From AICN

"Dr. Cliff Huxtable (an AICN reader) went to Meltdown in Hollywood a few days back, and found playing cards littering the store.

Dr. Huxtable says the people working in the store didn't know why the cards were there...some unknown person had strewn them around. Cliff was kind enough to send in pictures of the cards: "

The Joker Is Here!!!



---
I don't know what to say about it at the minute. I'm speechless.

Well, as i've said, how the character is played is the most important thing, but i'm sure what we have here is going to scare the shit out of people.

Watching this picture come together was a lot of fun and I hope they can keep this up. You can get an e-mail message from Mr. J if you send one to the address on the site and there's a MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/ibelieveinharveydenttoo . Mr. Sandman, eh?

Ha, I noticed they took his religion off the page. Joker used to be a Scientologist.

Having had chance to think about it. I like it, looks like the twisted sicko who The Joker should be. I like how the make up looks rough, applied by The Joker himself. Above all my favourite thing aboyt the image is that it looks at least for me pretty damn disturbing. Hope it's a 15 at the very least.

Fuckin great marketing campaign also.

Well, that certainly scares the shit out of me. It'll be interesting to see how they play The Joker in the movie. If its anything as dark and fucked up as he looks, I'm not sure the American public is ready for this. I imagine it might be difficult for your average moviegoer to reconcile their memories of Jack Nicholson with THAT.

I'm pretty psyched, though. They definitely do not appear to compromising for the toy manufactures, so that's cool. However, I really want to see a Happy Meal with that picture on the side.

I'd argue that Batman Begins was as dark as Batman 1989 in some aspects but the filmmakers and if I remember rightly it was Christian Bale who said this film was going to be really dark, and the picture alone points to that direction. Glad I'm not alone thinking The Joker looks genuinly frightening.

Here's the GIF of the alternative Harvey Dent site and how The Joker emerges. Again it's a brilliant marketing idea:

http://www.mywasteofspace.com/ibelieveinharveydenttoo.gif

Man that is fucking creepy. Especially the scars on the sides of his mouth. This movie is going to be so awesome.

Scars on side of mouth - check.
Outrageous clothing - check.

So Mr. J is Kakihara from Ichi the Killer?

Kakihara - Koryoshiya Ichi manga

Kakihara - Koryoshiya Ichi movie

Eli Roth in Kakihara makeup! Fucking sweet!

Not that I mind. Scarred & legit scary Joker is better than watered down, wise cracking Joker. I'm actually impressed that the move seems to be to make the Joker as terrifying as possible & possibly press towards the darker side of a PG-13 rating.

I don't know. Give me a scary Joker who also wisecracks. And Green hair.

Well perhaps the argument could be made that Kakihara was a riff on the Joker in the first place.

From Ledger's website.

Yeah that's it I can no longer try to deny I'm excited. The hype has been increased 10 fold.

What is the URL? I tried google and was unable to find anything

http://www.heathledger.net

That picture can be found here http://www.heathledger.net/_main/content/view/207/48/

I dunno what that's got to do with the price of tea in China, but yeah it's pretty obvious that Kakihara could be interpreted as some weird interpretation of the Joker given that the similarities between the two aren't terribly subtle.

My point was that I was sorta shocked yet pleased that Nolan went for the terrifying Joker route, not that I was accusing Nolan of retro rip-off of Miike or Hideo Yamamato.

Ichi the Killer has always struck me as a sort of a Batman tale told from the viewpoint of the Joker, given that Kakihara (Asano) has the lion's share of the screentime.

Well someone must have watched A Night at the Roxbury


Tell me about it. I had the DVD on my to-watch list for a while and was well surprised when the Chelsea smiler wasn't the titular Ichi. One of many surprises that film provided.

That poster has been around for a while. I don't think it's official.

I don't think Ledger would post it on his website if it weren't legit.

As for the poster itself... fucking WOW. I want it to be 2008 right now.