Magazine front cover analysis

These are two magazine covers from Empire in the build up to the release of Warner bros The Dark Knight.

The second cover is the standard cover where they have changed "house style" which normally is red white and black, however in this they have replaced the red with green ( the colour of the joker ) to fit in with the theme of the film. However the first poster is a special edition front cover that is meant to incorporate the idea the joker has got a hold of the cover and "defaced" it as though he had sprayed green and purple all over it and then the picture is of him sitting with a michievous look on his face. This is done to build up excitement before the film is released and give the impression the joker will be causing mayhem in the film aswell. the second cover is quite plain it basically just consists of the jokers face which they obviously feel is strong enough to sell batman as he is such a big character and symbol. Although the first cover also does the same playing on the idea everybody knows who the joker is it also has the batman symbol at the top of the page ensuring that if somehow you dont no what film the joker is from they will be able to recognise it by the simple bat symbol. In my opinion the most effective is the first one as i believe that it has the most detail and is the most exciteing to look at. Although the second is appealing it does not have the same amount of detail as the first one and therefore i would not purchase it.