Empire had been planning a great reveal of a full photo for Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight, the next in the Batman franchise of films, but they've been beaten to it and someone has revealed the full photo online.

The new magazine cover has the full photo which gives us a surprising look at his face, a face which seems heavily contorted and damaged. Everything else is toned down from the traditional Joker character.

I really like this look, and the face really does look heavily scarred and damaged, presumably from his rather gruesome birth. This really does make me believe that Christopher Nolan can do anything. Not only has he rescued the Batman franchise but he's created a new Joker, a very reality based Joker, that is far from the comic cartoon character we've seen before.

Perhaps this really is the perfect nemesis for today's Batman. I had thought that the result would still be twee and slightly campy, but it looks like I'm wrong.

You can see the full cover image over on Coming Soon who have the front page of the next Empire magazine. Meanwhile Empire are still running their viral page which boasts a huge reveal, once those last three cards are off...ermm, too late guys.