Heath Ledger's Joker: First Pics

The first picture of the joker from next years Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight has been released as part of a subtle advertising campaign for Gotham City District Attorney candidate, Harvey Dent. The first ad shows the campaign poster and the second, a vandalised version that dissolves into the face of The Joker himself.

The plot summary for the movie, according to IMDB is:

'Batman and Lt. Gordan work together to bring all the inmates and Crane back to justice. They soon find alliance with the new DA official, Harvey Dent who's Rachel Dawes' new partner. Out of all the escaped inmates, only one hasn't been captured. His name is Jack Napier, but refers to himself as the Joker. He becomes obsessed with Batman and uses his sick, twisted sense of humor to lure Batman out into the open by killing all that are close to him. Will Batman Bring him to Justice or has the Joker had the last laugh?'

For batman fans, this should be a good one. Batman Begins was a return to the darkness started with the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman movie, which unfortunately got lost with the following Batman Returns despite writing input from Bob Kane himself. We won't even go into (or link to) the awful Batman Forever or Batman & Robin.

Long live the Christian Bale/Michael Caine Batman & Alfred partnership.