The Caped Crusade

It's 1939, and tired of The Shadow getting all the love, a host of comics similarly tried their hand at millionaire vigilantes. You've probably heard of The Green Hornet and of course his fellow copycat crusader The Batman. Now The Bat-Man, as he was known back then, didn't come out of the gate quite the cultural phenomenon we recognize now. In his first year alone he would kill 24 men, 2 vampires, a pack of werewolves and several giant mutants - often with the help of a gun.

But as Glen Weldon works out, Batman over the years became more than just a character but an idea. One that has room for Adam West's pop art infused camp, Lego Batman's self-absorbed parody, Christopher Nolan's gravel-voiced Dark Knight and Tim Burton's twisted outsider - just maybe not Joel Schumaker's bat-nipples.

It's a comprehensive history of Gotham's greatest hero that non-nerds can follow along with hitting all the gleeful classic comic stops like Neal Adam's gritty new take in the 70's, Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns in the 80's, to Scott Snyder's recent run with the series.

Wheldon also carefully prods at the idea of nerd culture, already fully rabid back in the 80's but with the addition of the internet, becoming toxic. Gnashing of teeth over the casting of Mr. Mom in Burton's Batman to full on conniptions over Schumaker's bat-nipples there is this protective ownership of the character that will emerge wherein only the badass Batman of comics should exist and those that tamper otherwise will suffer their righteous indignation. A microcosm of the various trolls that scream behind their computer screens over video game reviews, Star Wars canon, and whether Idris Alba could ever play James Bond.

Prior to picking up this book, I would not have called myself a Batman fan, or a Batman enthusiast, or even a Batman kind-of-interested-in. I'd only ever seen (parts of?) the 1966 Adam West Batman movie, somehow missing out on literally every other iteration that's been created over the last 30 years.

Basically, I just like Glen Weldon's dry humor on Pop Culture Happy Hour, and so I picked up this book with zero expectations.

I was kind of surprised at how much I enjoyed learning the back story of the ZAP POW Bat-man, but this book also covered a lot of stuff that I am definitely interested in outside of just Batman: fandom and love for a thing and how it changes (or doesn't) over time and how time changes (or doesn't) the thing you loved in the first place. We've got history of comic books, we've got Comic Con and cosplay here, we've got behind-the-scenes on all the Batman movies and TV series (at least, the ones that came out pre-2016), including Lego Movie Batman. And we've got Internet fandom, and we've got fan-fiction, and inclusivity in fandom.

Plus, Weldon just knows how to turn a phrase and make me chuckle.

The bonus of reading this book is that Matt and I are now starting to work our way (totally out of order) through the movies, and I can toss out fun facts while we watch. I love fun facts.

This is one of my favorite books. I love coming at the topic of comics from a feminist, multicultural and context driven lens. Absolutely incredible

I consider myself a pretty sizable Batman fan. I've seen all of the movies...well, all of the good ones, anyway; I consider myself above Batman vs. Superman. But I'm not much of a comic geek. I find comic books nearly impenetrable with the layers upon layers of necessary backstory. Which is why a history of the lives and times of the batman and how they fit among the surrounding cultural milieu was pretty interesting to me. I found bits overly pedantic, or a little unmoored from the greater history, and there were times that I wished Weldon would offer more speculation as to why, for instance, there's been a huge resurgence of super-hero culture, but overall, I appreciated this serious and thorough take on one of the biggest cultural icons of American history.

This was pretty close to perfection. Weldon delves into everything Batman from the beginning up to about 2015ish. He not only hits everything Batman, but he touches upon everything that is comic culture as well, including the public conception that comics were to blame for children's violent behavior and women readership and the growth it had seen in the last decade, Identity Crisis and all of the reboots DC has done along the way. Talking to everyone who has meant and shaped Batman in some way gives us every facet of the Batman persona. Weldon does all of this with a good dash of humor. I loved every page.

4 out of 5 stars via spikegelato.com/2016/06/11/review-the-caped-crusade/

A definitive cultural history of Batman–from his comic book beginnings in 1939, to his 1960s television campiness, through his cinematic endeavors, and now to his present day existence as a pop culture icon for both nerds and non-nerds alike.

Despite my self-identification as a Batman fan, there are a considerable number of holes to fill, mainly comic book related, when it comes to my knowledge of the history of the man behind the cowl. Luckily, Weldon does a beautiful job guiding the reader through each iteration of Batman in every medium imaginable, starting with the comics.

The general conceit of the book is that Batman takes a tremendous amount of heat from his own fans, who bemoan that each subsequent iteration of Batman does not represent their mental vision of how Batman should be. He's either too campy, not campy enough, too brooding, not brooding enough, and so on. With so many versions of Batman to choose from, it makes sense why allegiances and opinions vary so much across the board. Without the aid of inlaid comic frames or examples, it was difficult, at times, to understand the full nature of Batman's comic transitions. Hearing about line work that is “more confident,” “spare,” “jittery,” or “decidedly unpretty” does not always paint the clearest picture for the non-comic book fan in me.
Personally, I was much more enthralled when Batman's cinematic history was outlined in detail, from Tim Burton to Joel Schumacher to Christopher Nolan–all Batman movies in name, but vastly different takes and styles in practice. Weldon's ability to work the business side of Batman into this book grounded these fictions into reality by showing how each choice made in the fictional universe impacted sales and popularity (i.e., a Batman Returns-McDonald's tie-in left the fast food giant upset with the dark, gross-out tone of the film and may have caused Warner Bros. to leave Burton behind and hand the reins over to director Joel Schumacher, who lightened everything up, albeit with too much nipple, in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin). Weldon also simplifies the business side of the comic book game, spelling out how many issues were sold of which comic, how that compared to other series at the time, and how the industry trended, in general.

Weldon has deftly written about an icon who fans take very seriously (a man who dresses up like a bat to fight crime) with enough “why so serious?” humor to give the reader an outside, objective look at the history of the character and helps them understand why Batman has engendered such deeply passionate debate and fanhood over the past 75+ years.

★★★★ out of 5