Apparently, the Joker would have to be crazy to team up with other Bat-adversaries, as he regularly does in the comics, especially those written by Jeph Loeb. After all, the Joker's satisfaction in defeating Batman goes down the more people are involved, because he derives maximum satisfaction from disposing of Bats himself. (Assuming the Joker actually wants to kill Batman, which isn't really his goal anyway.) Of course, the Joker's chances of defeating Batman go up if he collaborates with other villains — but then the law of diminishing returns kicks in, so each extra villain you add to the scenario only increases the Joker's effectiveness by a small percentage.

In a second blog post, ShadowBanker (who appears to be smarter than a lot of non-shadow bankers) examines a scenario where two or more Bat-villains team up and actually succeed in defeating Batman. Is it in their interest to betray each other? Answering this question requires game theory, the prisoner's dilemma, and a chart showing how Mr. Freeze and Two-Face can maximize their utility. (Short answer: each villain comes out on top if he betrays the other... but not if they both betray each other.)

If only Gotham City's nastiest actually thought about the prisoner's dilemma before they decided to work with Hush or Black Mask. Someone needs to toss Brad DeLong into a vat of chemicals so he can smarten those rogues up.

[Destiny Interrupted]

It's... a Burger King Joker, I guess? Or perhaps an Emperor Joker? But what with a conference center full of Heath Ledger-alikes, it was nice to see a different take on ol' smiley.
And here's the Joker's Dark Knight nemesis, looking just as impressive as he did with millions of dollars' worth of CGI behind him.
You can just imagine the conversation here, can't you? "Okay, I'm gonna be Arnold Terminator. I'll look bad-ass and have blood all over me. You can be the other guy from T2. Here. Stick this on your hand and dress like a cop."
Dear DC Comics:
This is why a Question movie would look awesome.
Am I the only person who finds this Plastic (Wo)Man strangely sexy? If so, forget I said anything.
He may play a faceless hard-ass in the Halo videogames, but in real life? The Master Chief is a nerd just like you and me.
Hulk Smash! Or, if his plush muscles are anything to go by, maybe he'll just cuddle you to death.
The stars of Star Wars: Episode 2.5: When Those Clones Were Kids.
Sadly, when you tried to open up his chest in real life, it was already full of blood and guts and shit.
While I didn't see any Doctor Mrs. The Monarchs - and shame on all of you for that, collective Comic-Con attendees - this awesome Dr. Henry Killinger (complete with Monarch Henchman) almost made up for it.
No, your eyes really aren't deceiving you; that really is Teela and Evil-Lyn cosying up to the terrifying mascot of Mattel, "Matty". I'm telling you, Matty freaked me out last weekend.
Now that he's lost his main squeeze to a freakily-headed corporate mascot, poor Skeletor has nothing better to do than just hang around the con, heartbroken.
There are two children who are going to grow up to resent their parents. Do you think that when the little girl hits puberty and starts rebelling against her mom and dad, they'll make her wear the Dark Phoenix outfit instead?
You know what makes this Starscream so great? The incredibly happy, smiling face. He may be a murderous killing machine out to enslave humanity, but look at him - He's so cute!
Possibly the best outfits of the entire con - Human Tie Fighters. The only thing that would've made this better would be if someone had thought to decorate the entire con like the surface of the Death Star, so that at the end of Sunday, they could've run around it, while a gang of kids dressed as the Millennium Falcon pretended to shoot at them before shouting "You're all clear, kid! Now let's blow this thing so we can all go home!"

Four Days, Four Hundred Cosplay Photos. Welcome to the Ultimate Geek Gallery [Maximum PC]

Eckhart told reporters:

To work with Christian (Bale) all over again, and the cast, would be phenomenal. I think this movie is a movie of a lifetime.

So, are there some obstacles to Harvey Dent's big return to the public eye? Sure. There are always obstacles in politics, but a true leader doesn't let a few setbacks stop him.

(And here's the spoilery bit.) Just google the phrase "Harvey Dent faked his death" and you'll see the rampant speculation online. Just because there's been a funeral doesn't mean that Harvey can't bounce back in B3. Trust him — he's got an honest face. [Hollyscoop]

The Dark Knight is very clearly a film of two halves, as the cliche goes. The first half is impressive, if flawed: Foregoing the flash of an Iron Man or Incredible Hulk in favor of direction and visuals that seem more influenced by movies like Michael Clayton and Heat, it's successful in spite of the men in the funny outfits fighting over who can try to save the day. In fact, for the first half of the movie, it's as if everyone involved is kind of embarrassed about Batman's involvement... which makes sense, considering Bale's performance when he's wearing the costume, all near-parodic husky whispers and threatening pouting (He's better as Bruce Wayne, thankfully). The movie comes to life more when we're watching Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent and Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon as the last two good men in Gotham trying to deal with the chaos caused by the Joker's appearance in the criminal underworld than watching Batman stiffly fight dogs and men in clown masks.

Not that there aren't good action set pieces - the climactic chase through Gotham where the Joker is both trying to kill Harvey Dent and simultaneously just piss off Batman is wonderful, over-the-top enough to be spectacular but realistic enough to be thrillingly believable, edge of the seat, viewing. A shame, then, that it happens less than halfway into the movie itself.

That's the main problem with The Dark Knight. We can put up with bad dialogue, accidentally homoerotic scenes of male bonding (The scenes of Harvey and Bruce falling for each other are unintentionally hilarious) and unimpressive second-fiddle villains as long as we have a story that actually worked. Instead, we get a movie that wraps up all of its themes with a literally explosive climax about ninety minutes in, and then forgets to stop. When Maggie Gyllenhall's Rachel Dawes - Katie Holmes' character from Batman Begins - gets killed as the result of the Joker's schemes at the same time that he escapes from the Gotham City police station and causes the accident that turns Dent into Two-Face, we're given a strong emotional end to all of the movie's character arcs - The (already cynical) idealism of the heroes has been shown as naive, Dent has compromised his morals for the woman he loves, and Batman has realized that he can't save everyone. It's a downer of an ending, but it is an ending... something that the moviemakers seem to have either missed, or else felt compelled to ignore in order to give the audience some kind of closure that is completely unnecessary.

Everything that follows the death of Rachel betrays the tone and intent of what came before. Batman goes from flawed hero to a man who - thanks to his new cell-phone-tapping sonar technology - can now see through walls, hear every conversation in the city, single-handedly defeat a SWAT team and the Joker and his henchmen all at the same time. Dent goes from a nuanced but fucked-up character to one-dimensional one-schtick murderer out for revenge at any cost. As the plotlines pile-up on each other - and there are three subplots in particular that serve no purpose whatsoever, although I guess that Chris Nolan got a trip to Hong Kong with one of them. The movie devolves into crass melodrama, something that is made all the more obvious by the end of the movie, where a small blond child tells his daddy (and the audience) that despite everything, Batman has done nothing wrong. The boy's daddy - Oldman's Jim Gordon, at this point finally the police commissioner - gives a long and sprawling monologue about the fact that Batman isn't a hero, he's more than a hero, he's a "silent guardian" and Gotham City's "dark knight."

The end of the movie in particular is, despite the intent of the creators, far too neat and tidy: The bad guys are either dead or captured, Batman makes a noble sacrifice for the good of his city, and everyone else pretty much goes on about their business in exactly the same way as they had at the start of the movie. It's a lazy and, considering the unsettling nature of the first half of the film, frustratingly safe way to finish.

There is one area, however, where all of the hype is earned: Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker really is everything people have been saying. Nervous, edgy, uncertain, he's magnetic everytime he's on-screen, and by far the best thing about the movie. For the first time outside of the comics - and perhaps just the first time anywhere - the Joker actually is scary and disturbing, fucking with everyone's heads just for the hell of it. Even when his character gets reduced to near-generic expositionary villain at the end of the movie, Ledger's performance really sells it. I don't know if that means that it's Oscar-worthy, as people have been saying, but it's stunning, stunning work.

The best way to enjoy The Dark Knight may really be to just leave once you've seen Aaron Eckhart lying in the hospital bed, half of his face, covered in gauze, weeping; it's not just that it doesn't get any better than that, but that it gets much, much worse. Stick around at your own risk.

So hmmm... If these pics are real — and they do look real to me, even though Harvey Dent's hand isn't scarred — then I can't wait to hear the dialog in this scene. The Joker traipses in, in his crisp looking white nurse dress, and it looks as though he revels in Harvey Dent's condition. Since the Joker's aim is to turn the forces of law and order into avatars of chaos like himself, he has to be pretty stoked to see Harvey looking all messed up and crazed. It makes me wonder if we'll see more of Two Face in this movie than we originally thought, since this scene looks like it would lead somewhere interesting. Way more pics at the link: [SpoilerTV-Movies]

Yes, this is our first peek at Two Face, aka deformed white knight Harvey Dent. You can see scarred Harvey slide in and seriously ruin a man's drink. You don't get a whole look at his ugly mug, just a tiny chin taste. I'm assuming Nolan will hide the full reveal until the very last minute in Dark Knight.

[newVideoPlayer("twofaceclip_io9.flv", 506, 423,"");">Why So Serious]

The dashing White Knight of Gotham, Harvey Dent, appears to have it all in this trailer. Looks, integrity and the Dark Knight's lady Rachel Dawes. I can't wait until he loses it all with a face full of acid.

In an interview to the LA Times actor Aaron Eckheart leaked a bit of information on what the disfigured DA will be like:

I can tell you that, basically, when you look at Two-Face, you should get sick to your stomach. Being the guy under all that, well, that was a lot of fun for me. It's like you would feel if you met someone whose face had pretty much been ripped off or burned off with acid. I can't talk about it beyond that because I don't want to give away too much of the plans by Chris.

Take a gander at the burnt flesh along his nose, to quote The Riddler inBatman Forever , "That's never going to heal if you don't stop picking."

Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face Batman Forever (1995). The only part I thought was interesting to this interpretation were the girlfriends for his duo-personalities Sugar (Drew Barrymore) and Spice (Debi Mazar).













Two-Face in Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1994)







Two-Face on the cover of Batman Annual #14(1990).



















Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent Batman (1989)
It's a shame we never got to see what Billy Dee could have done for the character of Two-Face. He could have really added a little pizazz to the part with his attitude and fancy boutonniere. Besides who doesn't want to see Two-Face sport a mustache (I bet the evil side's mustache would have been pencil thin).



One of the few Two-Face covers from the Detective Comics where he was introduced (1942).























[LA Times via Comics2film] [HD Trailer at WhySoSerious]

New York City Clown Gang George, Christopher and Keelin wait in line for the trailer.

Following the clues from the disfigured presidents on their eerie why so serious site, I joined the rest of the Clown Gang in New York City's Bryant Park. We were lead to a theater where they screened the new trailer that premiered at NYCC. As we first reported the Joker continues on his, "Kill the batman," discourse and gathering of criminals for chaos. It all was the same except for one major moment that I can not believe I missed in the first screening, I must have blinked, it's that fast. White night Harvey Dent has a voice over where he says,"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Then Dent is seen on the floor screaming no as we described before but then in an instant, a mere instant, and I hope my eyes weren't playing tricks on me you see a silhouetted man with hair like Dent. This person is scratching the side of their face with a gun. The very tip of his nose and along the side of his profile appears to be flaky and black, like the edge of a burn mark. Here's a blurry screengrab: It happened so fast I had to grab three fans afterwards to confirm that I wasn't hallucinating. They all concurred it was the first screen shots of Two Face. Take a look (if you can make it out) and let me know what you think.

More fans in line for the trailer screening.