humor

While Scott Beatty's Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight is advertised as a children's book, its content and the writer's sophisticated prose will please the young and mature. Beatty has an intimate knowledge and understanding of the Bat universe, yet he brings readers a new, delightful vision of the villains and heroes populating Gotham. The art was well-chosen, and the book's layout is accessible. Not a better writer for this project could have been chosen. Finally, DC got it right, and you should too: Buy this book!

When I heard that DK was doing a book on Batman, I was excited. The James Bond and Star Wars books that DK put out were some of the best visual dictionaries I had ever seen.

However, when I paged through the text, I found I would have preferred a more "inclusive" coverage of Batman in other mediums. I would have loved to have seen a few pages of the Adam West incarnation, the Superfriends, the movies, the current animated series, the filmation cartoons, and other appearances of the caped crusader.

(I would have loved to have seen a list of every Bat device that was used on the Adam West version, that would have been hilarious).

Perhaps a few episode guide would be in order from the varous series.

The graphics done on the Batmobile, utility belt and the Bat cave were tremendous. I just wish they would have included more pre-eighties art on the previous Batcaves and such.

For the "elseworlds" stories, a few less dark stories could have been mentioned. And I confess I'm being "nitpicky" here, but they forgot about Batman's alias of "Matches Malone."

But overall, it's a great text focusing on the past fifteen years of Batman in DC Comics.

I'm still looking forward to their texts on Superman, Star Trek, and hopefully the Justice League. If they could include the various versions of Superman as well.

Maybe DK Publishing would do a second Batman volume as well.

Sincerely,

JSmith

This book is a blast to read. I wished this book had come out sooner when I was just finding my way around the modern Batman comics. Nevertheless, better late than never.

A word of caution. If you are looking for the DEFINITIVE guide to everything Batman, I wouldn't recommend this book to you. Les Daniels' book on Batman is by far the most comprehensive treatment on the whole history of the Batman from his pre-conception in the 1930s up till the recent stuff (including his incarnations outside the comicbook - TV, toys, cinema, etc.). Also, if you're interested in analyzing Batman as a pop-culture icon, you should check out Will Brookner's "Batman Unmasked" book. Finally, if you're interested in reading a one-volume collection of the definitive Batman - I'd recommend Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns" and/or "Year One" along with the "The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told".

What then is this book by Scott Beatty about? It's about the modern day Batman. THIS Batman is as different from the classic Bob Kane/Bill Finger creation as the Tim Burton movies are from the Adam West TV show. For your information, THIS Batman is the one from Frank Miller's "Year One" (1986) and it includes the later revisions by Dennis O'Neil and Chuck Dixon up to today. In other words, this is the Batman of "Knightfall", "Contagion", "Cataclysm" and "No Man's Land". And in my opinion, this is the most exciting and rich version of the Batman since his conception in 1939. This book is not so much a guide but more a celebration of this modern-day Dark Knight of the comicbooks.

The book is neatly divided into sections. The first section is about Batman/Bruce Wayne and Gotham City. The second section covers his allies and loves (Alfred, Gordon, Nightwing, Oracle, Robin II, Robin III, etc.). The third section focuses on the many colorful villains in the Bat-mythos. Finally, there's also a foreword by Chuck Dixon, the man who, under the editorial-eye of Dennis O'Neil, pretty much shaped the direction of the Bat-books throughout the 1990s. Note: Dixon also teamed up with the author Scott Beatty on some other great works like the recent "Robin: Year One" and "Batgirl: Year One".