A new poster for The Batman has been released online – and the superhero movie's latest piece of promotional art appears to turn the tables on the costumed vigilante.
Posted on the official DC Comics Twitter account, the one sheet shows Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight – in his superhero get-up, no less – staring directly at whoever is looking at the poster. The Batman's official logo is also present on the poster, taking up a position in the middle of the image alongside the movie's March 4 release date.
The most curious part of the DCEU movie's newest piece of artwork, though, is the caption that sits at the top of the poster. And, in our mind, it's an intriguing inclusion that flips the script on Batman himself.
Take a look at The Batman's latest poster below:
Vengeance lies behind the mask. Check out the new art for @TheBatman, only in theaters March 4. #TheBatman pic.twitter.com/iZ2XUyWg47January 19, 2022
At first glance, the 'Unmask the Truth' tagline appears to relate to Paul Dano's Riddler. The Batman's main antagonist – so we're led to believe ahead of release, anyway – wears a mask to conceals his identity in the forthcoming flick. So it seems that The Batman's latest poster is metaphorically asking the Dark Knight to find the Riddler and unmask him so Batman can solve the latest big crime to plague Gotham City.
In our opinion, though, it appears as though the 'Unmask the truth' tagline is also directed at Batman, who also wears a mask to disguise himself.
The Batman is set in the second year of his fledgling vigilante career and, as the film's various trailers have teased, an uneasy alliance exists between Batman and Gotham City's Police Department (GCPD). The latter – Jeffrey Wright's Jim Gordon aside – are doubtful about Batman's true motives and his penchant for unlawfully fighting crime in his own way. The Dark Knight, meanwhile, is sure to have reservations about the GCPD over their inability to clean up Gotham's streets. That, or he knows that some on the GCPD's payroll may take bribes from Gotham's most notorious crimes, allowing criminal activity to continue in the city's seedy underbelly.
Batman and the GCPD are sure to clash in the movie at some point, too. A SWAT team is seen converging on Batman's position in the trailers before he escapes by gliding away. So it seems that tensions will arise between the Dark Knight and his fellow crime fighters, which may lead the latter group wanting to unmask the Caped Crusader as much as the Riddler – a decision that ties back into the above poster's tagline.
In that sense, then, there's a duality to the slogan on The Batman's latest poster. Sure, 'Unmask the truth' is a clear indication that Batman will need to stop the Riddler to reveal his true identity and put his murderous crime spree to an end. But it also hints at the GCPD's discomfort that a masked vigilante is helping them to solve a crime involving a, well, masked assailant.
In their eyes, it's likely to be pretty ironic – and a bit too coincidental – that a masked individual is trying to stop another person who just so happens to wear a disguise. So the GCPD have their own truth to unmask – that being a costumed vigilante called Batman who operates in the gray area between what's considered lawful behavior and what isn't.
With so many factions vying for supremacy in The Batman – the Dark Knight, the GCPD, Catwoman, the Riddler and the Penguin are who we know of so far – it's unsurprising that it's one of our most anticipated movies of 2022. And, with The Batman set for release in less than six weeks, we can't wait to see what it has in store for us.
The Batman launches in cinemas on March 4, and will be available to stream on HBO Max 45 days after its theatrical run.
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