First look at the creepy new Joker from 'Gotham' lands to mixed reviews

Finally. It’s only taken five seasons, but Gotham has finally unveiled the Joker, just two episodes before the series is to end.

A new teaser called (not all that cryptically) ‘Meet Mr J’ has emerged from Fox, and it spells out just what happened to Jeremiah Valeska – played by Cameron Monaghan – after he ended up in that big vat at Ace Chemicals.

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The show has teased a possible introduction of the Joker all along, but now it seems he’s ready for his gruesome close up.

Monaghan himself has confirmed it, telling TVLine.com: “There’s something really interesting about The Joker and reinvention, the idea that that’s a character that’s chameleonic. He changes depending on the situation.

“We’ve seen this character be reinvented so many different times across the show, we’ve seen different permutations.

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“And now… it’s all crystallised into this final form, I would say. So it’s not even so much a new person as it is, I think, just the distilled version of what we’ve been doing for five years.”

The online reception to the transformation, however, is… a bit mixed.

Writes one fan – or perhaps former fan – on Twitter: “It is one thing to take creative liberties and another to f**k up this badly. Joker looks AWFUL. I guess I shouldn’t even be surprised considering all the weird stuff going on on the show. In the end turned out to be a subpar Batman/Gotham experience. Disappointed.”

Others have piled in too…

Meanwhile, The Playlist has called it ‘probably the worst version of The Joker ever created‘.

Though it should be noted that some people do like it…

The show returns to its two final episodes later this month.