Will Brooker: Batman Unmasked

USA 2002, 358 pp., brochure, € 23.95
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
Like James Bond, Robin Hood and Dracula, Batman stands as a cultural icon whose malleability from era to era reveals much about our changing social preoccupations. This heavily footnoted volume – which will appeal to avid students of pop culture and comics, as well as to a gay cult audience – allows Brooker to examine the famed DC Comics character in greater depth, benefiting from access to DC’s own library plus interviews with long-time Batman editor Denny O’Neil. Invented in May 1939, Batman has since branched into every form of communication: from newspaper comic strip over movies now to the Internet. Brooker’s impressive overview of Batman’s history reflects on the masked one’s origins, the introduction of Robin, and concentrates on four periods: WWII, the mid 1950s, the Sixties and the 1990s. In 1954, child psychologist Wertham attacked the comic book industry in »Seduction of the Innocent«, noting homoerotic undercurrents between Batman and Robin. Brooker’s fascinating »gay reading« supports Wertham’s claim, albeit with a positive, postmodern twist.