First Joker Image Just a Joke?

Chances are you've seen the image going around that people claim is Heath Ledger in makeup as The Joker. For those of you who don't know the story it goes like this. On May 11th, Warner Bros. posted a teaser site for the upcoming film "The Dark Knight" (due out next year). Quickly following, a companion site ibelieveinharveydent.warnerbros.com popped up showing an election poster for Harvey Dent.

Then, last weekend, a comic shop in Southern California received a bunch of playing cards (Jokers, naturally) with the words "I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT TOO." People who went to the new website found the same image of the Harvey Dent election poster, but by registering their e-mail address they could receive a code to gradually reveal another image. The image turned out to be The Joker image that has the whole Batman fanboy crowd geeking out this week.

Now the image is gone, replaced by a black screen that says "Page Not Found," unless one highlights the screen to reveal a lot of HahAhaHAhAha (a Joker trademark signature). Within the "ha ha" are several letters that spell out "See you in December." A clue to a coming clash with the Clown Prince of Crime? A cryptic conundrum to confound the Caped Crusader?

Who knows? Warner Bros. has been silent on the whole thing, neither confirming nor denying involvement. (Hey, any publicity is good publicity...)

According to the good folks at Batman on Film, the image is real. Other sources, such as Total Film and Buzz Echo are more skeptical. They point out, for instance, that the second website is not registered to Warner Bros. It was registered anonymously on GoDaddy.com. Can you see Warner Bros. using GoDaddy to host a website? Nah, me neither.

Some people are now erroneously reporting that the marketing firm 42 Entertainment is responsible for the second website and the viral marketing campaign. They claim that 42 Entertainment registered the domain "seeyouindecember.com". Buzz Echo points out that the name was also registered anonymously via domainsbyproxy.com (GoDaddy).

FilmGuru.Net is willing to bet that this is an elaborate marketing ploy, but not from the folks at Warner Bros. My gut tells me that this photo (as intriguing as it may be) and the buzz it has generated is nothing more than a fan-generated hoax.

Personally, I hope this isn't the look of The Joker in the upcoming movie. He looks like The Crow with lipstick. I want the Joker to be the super-villain from the comics that we all fear. I want a Joker that doesn't remind me of a twenty dollar hooker who was so stoned she couldn't put on her makeup.