It's so hard. We've all been hurt before by fake Joker images from the eagerly awaited Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight, but this time it's the real deal, the One, we promise. This really is a picture of Heath Ledger in his Joker get-up, and scary stuff it is too.
The film, for the four of you who have spent the last couple of years in Narnia, pits Christian Bale's Batman against the seriously scary and criminally insane Joker (Ledger), as he once again tries to keep Gotham City (and Maggie Gyllenhaal's love interest, and Aaron Eckhart's district attorney Harvey Dent) safe for goodness and normalcy.
After internet rumours and frauds aplenty, an official picture of Dent was released last week on the site ibelieveinharveydent.com, which was very nice and all but not very exciting. But now they've also created a link to the rather more mysterious and somehow quite creepily named ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com, apparently The Joker's own creation (and perhaps a hint at the plot, but who knows with director Christopher Nolan's tricksy ways?), wherein fans have revealed this proper scary image of The Joker, one pixel at a time.
Clearly the product of research into facial scaring rather than the almost clownish versions we've seen before, this looks set to carry on the series' grittier, more realistic feel. And, coincidentally, rid Ledger of that awkward pretty-boy image. Roll on 2008!