Ledger’s Joker makes dramatic debut

This time out, there’s no vat of chemicals to explain how Batman’s greatest enemy came to be the twisted sociopath known as the Joker.

The late Heath Ledger’s Joker springs full-blown in “The Dark Knight,” due in theaters July 18, the sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins.”

It was previewed for theater owners Thursday at the annual ShoWest convention in Las Vegas with a clip showing the film’s opening sequence.

Unlike 1989’s “Batman,” in which the deranged, disfigured clown appearance of Jack Nicholson’s Joker resulted from a dip in chemical goo, “The Dark Knight” starts right in with the bad guy in all his psychopathic glory.

“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you stranger,” Ledger’s depraved Joker cryptically tells an accomplice in the opening scenes, in which he pulls off a daring bank robbery.

Long before Ledger’s death of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January, the marketing of the movie had focused on the villain’s rise to power and his creepy appearance.

There had been speculation that the studio might take a different approach to selling the film in light of Ledger’s death, but the marketing has gone on as originally planned.

“I think he’d be very pleased to see we’re just moving ahead as is,” director Christopher Nolan said. “If you try to honor somebody, you honor them by respecting their work and putting it out there for as many people to see.

“He was immensely proud of the work he did on the film. I feel a great burden to present that in an undistorted form.”