Batman: The Complete History: The Life and Times of the Dark Knight

by Les Daniels

Chronicle Books, 208 pp., $29.95

Ten years ago, he was The Phantom Menace in pointy ears — the year’s box office champ. Thirty-three years ago, he was Pokémon in a cape — the entertainment phenomenon taking TV and the nation by storm. In the 60 years since his debut as comics’ hot new hero, the Batman has cast a long shadow over popular culture, and comics historian Les Daniels measures just how long in this detailed tribute. Daniels’ text tracks Batman’s assorted incarnations, from 1939’s pulp-inspired crimefighter through the campy Caped Crusader of the Fifties and Sixties to the driven Dark Knight of the Eighties and today, with illuminating comments from comics creators, animators, and Hollywood artists who handled the character. With Chip Kidd’s design providing big, colorful images of the Gotham gangbuster on film posters, trading cards, milk mugs, and, of course, the comics page, you’ll see it’s a bat’s, bat’s, bat’s, bat’s world.

This article appears in December 24 • 1999.

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