The Dark Knight Rises: Teaser Poster

Sadly, the pop culture event the Connoisseuraus is anticipating most - yes, even more than the release of Watch the Throne - is still over a year away. Which means, it's time for the promo team to start torturing us with teasers: posters that don't show the Dark Knight himself nor the buzzed about new villains, trailers that offer scraps worth of visuals and sound bites (one is rumored to be attached to Harry Potter). The media campaign begins with the just released image you see below. Quite foreboding for a movie with such an optimistic title, no? The blink-and-you'll-miss-it Bat signal is cool though.

The final installment of the trilogy hits theaters July 20, 2012.