It’s official – we’ve got a first glimpse of Jared Leto as The Joker in SUICIDE SQUAD.

The image of Leto was released by Suicide Squad director David Ayer to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Joker. Covered with tattoos, metal teeth and a smile that would give a child a very expensive therapy bill later in life, Leto’s Joker isn’t one fans are accustomed to seeing. I’ll admit that at first I was part of the “what the hell?” bandwagon, it was easy for me to compare this to the latest on-screen version we saw by Heath Ledger and jump to negativity. As the hours passed it got me thinking that the studio knows that us fans will be making that comparison and of course for any success with this version, that comparison must be stopped. So how do you distance yourself from something so beloved as Ledger’s Joker that is still vibrant in everyone’s memories? Pull a Miley Cyrus and come out with a change so drastic that people realize that you’re not a Disney star anymore.

If one of the driving forces to release this photo was to help distance themselves (which I think it was), then Ayer & Co have achieved exactly what they set out to do. If you search for “Leto Joker” on Google (or Bing if you’d prefer), you’re sure to see a variety of negative comments ranging from people on their high-horses to just people saying “WTF?!”. As mentioned, I was originally jumped on the negative train but then it occurred to me — Leto is shirtless in this photo. Although Stephen Amell has made a great Arrow-career being shirtless something tells me this may not be the case for Leto in Suicide Squad. Why is he shirtless in this photo? Well aside from being able to take to get the internet buzzing, plot wise I can only assume this perhaps could be a stripped down Joker – perhaps even a prisoner Joker. After all, traditionally the Suicide Squad consists of incarcerated super villains, right?

Now go with me here. Assuming that this photo is of a Joker who’s not “suited up”, what would it look like with one that was? Let’s take a look at this half-assed photoshop.

It should be noted that I specifically avoided using Ledger’s Joker as a model because I felt would be unfair to compare to something that the studio is probably trying to separate themselves from. Now I’m sure you’re saying, “Leto still looks out of place with those tattoos on his face.” Well let’s not forget the history that the Joker character has with makeup. Hell even Ceasar Romero’s Joker put makeup over his epic 60s mustache when he suited up (and let’s be honest – with a mustache like that I think every now and then even his Joker had to take off the makeup to admire it).

I present crappy photoshop 2.

Who knows, maybe even The Joker’s first mission when he gets out of prison is to pay a visit to get some dental work done? But I won’t photo-chop that.

The point I’m trying to make is that in my opinion, even with some half-assed photo editing, Leto’s Joker starts to resemble the various versions of The Joker we’ve known over the years (ok, in the second maybe he looks a little like a ghost-Joker, but you get the idea). I could be very wrong with this assumption, but I really think it’s fair to guess that we won’t be seeing a shirtless Joker in the majority of the film and that more than likely at some point he will get into his full-gear. I encourage everyone to reduce their gut reaction to be negative and instead chose to get excited that a character we once thought would never come back after Ledger’s performance is indeed making a return. The Suicide Squad has the potential to be a great film so let’s not get too negative based on one photo.