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[Thad]

In terms of color scheme, yes.

In terms of "somebody with a face that's scarred on one side", I would have to say that it looks a hell of a lot like Two-Face.

Assuming you haven't been reading Morrison's run, there's been quite a lot of red-and-black symbolism in what he's been doing with the Joker.

Other thoughts: the "J" on the Joker card is backwards and half its face is in light and half in shadow.  (The light, incidentally, seems to be shining directly on Tim; that could mean something.)

There are three scratches on the giant penny (which is actually NOT associated with Two-Face in the the comics universe AFAIK), and Batwoman appears to be looking for clues of some sort.

The arm coming out from under the crate is in an impossible position for an intact body to be attached to it -- it's a right arm, so if there's a torso attached to it, it's cut off at the chest.  Could be a dismembered corpse, could be a manequin or robot (the "Wayne Enterprises" stamp on the crate has to be significant), or it could just be a fuckup.

EDIT: reading through the comments on Nrama; a lot of overlap between my thoughts and theirs.  Something I didn't notice: there's a spoked wheel behind Hush.  Could be from Babs's wheelchair.

[Arc]

Oracle's wheel is unhinged behind Hush (confirmed by the bandages wrapped around his leg). The backwards J could mean that one of Joker's action could be reversed. Barbara walking again?

Harley will be apart of Girls of Gotham, and Alfred is leading the Outsiders with Geoforce.

[Thad]

There are a couple other versions of the pic on Tony Daniel's blog.  One's black-and-white; the other's high-res but really dark and suffering from some serious JPEG compression.

EDIT: he's also got some Battle #1 cover pics.  It's got Dick in the center holding Batman's cape, flanked by Wildcat, Huntress, Batwoman, and Catwoman, and with Damian as Robin swinging in behind him.  (And he says in the post that the final version will add in Black Canary and/or Man-Bat.)  Presumably the other two covers will feature the other two Robins.

[Romosome]

Thad seems right on the money about the two standard Batmen; the Batman in the center has that thin Bat-symbol on the chest with no yellow around it that makes it look pretty Nightwingish.  And the one off to the side has the pole, of course.

The giant penny looks like it's got some huge gouges on it.  Did that happen during the comics which I am totally gonna go back and read, or is that just another Harv nod?

[Disposable Ninja]

I haven't been reading the comics. Is there any meaning to the three letters the scratches on the penny are pointing to? Or is it making fun of me for thinking that there might be?

DER

[Kashan]

I haven't been reading the comics. Is there any meaning to the three letters the scratches on the penny are pointing to? Or is it making fun of me for thinking that there might be?

DER

You can't see it in that picture, but the penny was actually minted in Pennsylvania and there's a a fourth scratch pointing to the mint symbol.

[Thad]

The giant penny looks like it's got some huge gouges on it.  Did that happen during the comics which I am totally gonna go back and read, or is that just another Harv nod?

Hasn't happened.  And again, the penny in the comics was not actually Two-Face's, it belonged to a villain called The Penny Plunderer.  It's possible that's been retconned to resemble the Animated Series version of the story, but knowing the way Morrison's been treating Batman continuity, I'm betting he'd go for the obscure retro version of the story.  (Of course, it also bears repeating that, if history is any indication, the teaser image may have fuck-all to do with what Morrison actually has in mind.)

I haven't been reading the comics. Is there any meaning to the three letters the scratches on the penny are pointing to? Or is it making fun of me for thinking that there might be?

DER

There's a lot of speculation on that, and on some of the other letters in the pic -- the backwards "J", the "A" and "R" on the crate that the shadow cuts through, the illuminated "N" and shadowed "G" on Harley's "BANG" flag...there seem to be tendrils pointing at "M", "T", "M", and "N" in "I AM BATMAN", too.  So far I haven't seen anyone come up with any kind of coherent interpretation.

"DER" is "RED" spelled backwards, and both Dick (in Kingdom Come) and Jason (in regular continuity) have worn the Red Robin mantle, but I think that's reaching.

You can't see it in that picture, but the penny was actually minted in Pennsylvania and there's a a fourth scratch pointing to the mint symbol.

Is this a joke sailing over my head, or can you give us a link to a better version of the pic?

[Kashan]

You can't see it in that picture, but the penny was actually minted in Pennsylvania and there's a a fourth scratch pointing to the mint symbol.

Is this a joke sailing over my head, or can you give us a link to a better version of the pic?

It's a  joke.

[Thad]

both Dick (in Kingdom Come) and Jason (in regular continuity) have worn the Red Robin mantle

Oh, also, the Batman in the middle is wearing the Red Robin utility belt.

Some other points people have noticed:

• Heroes on the left and villains on the right, EXCEPT Harley and Batwoman.
• Batwoman's magnifying glass COULD mean they're turning Detective into her book -- similarly to how Action is going to be about Flamebird and Nightwing (the other Nightwing) for awhile.
• Reversed "J" could mean the Joker is reinventing himself again.  On the one hand, I think it's far too early; Morrison hasn't played with his new version of the Joker nearly enough yet.  On the other, the Joker's changes DO seem to mirror Batman's, and an entirely new Batman would almost NECESSITATE another Joker metamorphosis.
• One commenter at Nrama suggested the woman's arm being right in front of Damian could suggest it's Talia.  (This would also fit the "villains on the right" trend, though so would Selina.)  I would add that there's a green glow behind Damian and Hush.  (And a pair of stalagmites resembling bat ears smack-dab in the middle of it.)

[Thad]

Tony Daniel confirms that's Tim on the left and heavily teases he'll be wearing that costume somewhere in the story.  He suggests the rest of the costumes are conceptual (we'll probably never see the Two-Face Batman in a comic).

Meantime, Batman #683's out and wraps the two-part Butler story.  It deals with Batman in the 1980's and 1990's, but this time the reminiscence is secondary to the plot of Bruce figuring out what's going on and trying to escape.  I like to think Morrison just finds the 1980's and 1990's Batman stories distasteful, but of course that could just be me projecting.

The ending is satisfying but is STILL just another "BUY FINAL CRISIS!" lead-in.

Perhaps the biggest problem is just how much of a badass Batman is in this story.  Getting Bruce out of the picture in a believable fashion would have been a tough thing to do BEFORE he [spoiler]defeated the agents of Apokolips WITH HIS MIND[/spoiler], but now it's going to be even trickier.  But Grant's smart enough to play up the "we all know he'll be coming back eventually" angle, so I expect that's what he'll do.

On the subject of interesting Morrisony tricks, a couple of pages in the Bat insignia on Batman's chest is distorted into the shape of the Batman Beyond/Batwoman version.

[Romosome]

Bit of crossposted musing:

Well, he was wrong about the boats but right about Dent, in DK.

I personally think he wasn't right or wrong, but rather somewhere in-between, unless you took his meaning literally when he said anyone was capable of etc.

Honestly, I think there's a certain percentage of people that will snap, and I am not going to guess at the number because it would probably depress me.

This is neither here nor there, but after thinking about this Joker actually kind of had two things going here.

Dent, who he was right about, was the classic "The only difference between me and anyone else is one really bad day" idea.  The people on the boat, however, were expected to lose their humanity simply out of fear, to survive.  Dent caved due to horrible mind-breaking trauma that did cause him to turn into a monster; the boat full of people didn't let the simple fear of death sway them.

Dunno, it's a bit interesting in that regard.

DER

...I'm Batman.

[Brentai]

In defense of the opposite theory, Dent was seen threatening a mook with a loaded gun before his fall, signifying that he was at least a little bit of a bastard before the fall.  True, he had secretly rigged his own coinflip to let the guy live*, but the uncertainty he was projecting of "will I or won't I put a bullet in your face" was real to everyone else.  Including Batman.

And Batman of course actually really beats the Joker nearly to death, so you know.


* Actual interrogation technique.

[Romosome]

Yeah, individual predisposition is another thing.  Harv was already on the edge.

Which I guess means the Joker was a bit more wrong as well.

And it's Batman's job to beat the Joker nearly to death.  It's why we love him.  It's his modus operandi.

What was that quote from Animal Man?  "You settle your ideological differences by beating the crap out of each other.  Whoever wins is right.  Don't laugh, it's remarkably similar to how things go in the real world."

[Brentai]

...for some reason, I suddenly see this brilliant connection between Big Scary Black Man throwing the detonator and Not Christopher Walken screaming "CRIMINALS BELIEVE IN HONOOOOOR!!!"

[Friday]

The interesting thing about the Joker is I cannot entirely disagree with anything he says in the entire movie.

[Romosome]

That's why he's so great.

[Friday]

I still don't understand why they don't kill him, though.

I mean, Batman's code aside. I guess Gotham doesn't use capital punishment, but seriously, if there ever was a guy who needed to be killed.

[Detonator]

I still don't understand why they don't kill him, though.

I mean, Batman's code aside. I guess Gotham doesn't use capital punishment, but seriously, if there ever was a guy who needed to be killed.

In the movie or the comics?

His fate in the movie is pretty vague, you could argue that he would be executed for his crimes.

In the comics it's just marketing.

[Rico]

Texas aside, the insane are not generally held fit for capital punishment.  And the Supreme Court even recently  set aside a Texas death penalty.

[Romosome]

The Joker is probably cognizant enough to not have the insanity defense hold up.


There was actually this one-shot comic where the Joker was jailed and put on trial and was convicted and on death row, and it turns out he actually DIDN'T do the crime, that it was a copycat murdering people using methods that the Joker normally used but leaving really good evidence everywhere, just to get him killed finally.  And Batman went out of his way to clear the Joker's name because justice works both ways or something like that.


Which is fucking stupid because if Batman believed in our system of law and courts working properly he wouldn't be dressing up as a bat and beating the shit out of people illegally.

Also, during the 70s when Joker had his own comic book, he had a SECRET HIDEOUT under his cell in Arkham complete with, you know, a convenient escape hatch to the outside.