Sending tweets with the hashtag #TheFireRises fills in this mosaic image of Bane from The Dark Knight Rises.
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It’s a lot of work for one half-shadowed picture, but when that picture is a glimpse of Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, it’s totally worth it.

When the new website for Christopher Nolan’s third Batman movie went online (presumably Friday), it was just a black screen and a 23-second clip of some wicked-sounding chants. It was relatively confusing. It also screamed “viral campaign.”

Of course it was. Within hours, a helpful fan on SuperHeroHype.com figured out that running that strange chant through an audio program showed that the sound spectrum spelled out the hashtag #TheFireRises.

With that, Dark Knight fans went to Twitter and discovered a @thefirerises Twitter account, which was posting a series of links to another part of the movie’s promo site, where a mosaic image was being compiled. Clicking “Add Me” above that image allows users to log in through Twitter or Facebook and unlock another piece of the image by posting a message with the #TheFireRises hashtag.

The resulting image (seen above as it looked at 12:53 p.m. EDT) is an intimidating profile shot of Tom Hardy as Bane, looking like he’s suiting up for the Comic-Con S&M after-party. Yes, it’s awesome. Bane was always one of Batman’s most hulky and imposing foes, but this shot makes him seem far more sinister.

According to the login for those Twitter and Facebook posts, the mosaic image was compiled by Hashtag Art, which creates pictures by making each person’s profile pic a tile in the final product. This being the internet, the final image has already surfaced (below).

If we’re lucky, more of these teasers are forthcoming. Warner Bros. announced Thursday that principal photography has begun on the final chapter of Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but the film itself won’t be out until summer 2012.

That’s a long time to wait.

Hat tips to UGO, JoBlo, /Film and SuperHeroHype.com

The full image of Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
Image courtesy Warner Bros.