Heath Leader

Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson
as The JokerWhen Jack Nicholson became the Joker for 1989's "Batman," he delivered an all-time great performance — one for the history books — and he easily stole the show from Michael Keaton aka Bruce Wayne/Batman.

The Associated Press reports the late Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker in the forthcoming "The Dark Knight" is even better.

After attending an early press screening of "The Dark Knight" (the rest of us get to see it starting July 18), the AP's reviewer wrote, "Ledger elevates Batman's No. 1 nemesis to a place even Jack Nicholson did not take him ... Nicholson's Joker was campy and clever. Ledger's Joker is an all-out terror, definitely funny but with a lunatic moral mission to drag all of Gotham, the city Batman thanklessly protects, down to his own dim assessment of humanity."