A month ago we were treated to a glimpse of Heath Ledger in his full makeup as The Joker. That didn’t last too long for me though and I’ve been quite ready for some more. Thankfully we’re getting just that now.

Here is the first look we’ve been given of Christian Bale as he returns as Batman, The Dark Knight. His Batman outfit is newly redesigned though it looks to retain much of the original look. One of the big steps for this outfit is that it’s the very first Batman suit that has a separate head piece from the shoulders. That now makes more sense why Keaton would always spin around so much or give these strained angles to get a good view. I thought it was just him being dramatic, but it turns out none of the previous Batman actors could really turn their head! So they get all these great toys, but their peripheral vision sucks. Smart move Bruce Wayne. Well it wasn’t so much a design choice as it was just really, really hard for them to do. If I find that article again I’ll link to it as it was rather interesting.

The next pictures are of the Bat Pod (or Batpod maybe?). While not as cool as the Stryker on steroids vehicle Bale sported in the previous Batman movie, or as enabling as the Batwing, the Bat Pod should provide some additional maneuvering for the caped crusader in his upcoming film. There’s still over a year until the planned release (July 18, 2008), but hopefully we’ll keep getting a few more bones tossed our way as we go.