Hunting the Dark Knight: Twenty-First Century Batman [Paperback]

Will Brooker (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 17, 2012

Publishing on the eve of the world premiere of the third of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, The Dark Knight Rises in July 2012, Will Brooker’s new book explores Batman’s twenty-first century incarnations.

 

Will Brooker’s in depth investigation into Batman Begins and The Dark Knight uncovers the complex relationship between popular films, audiences, and producers in our age of media  convergence. He addresses a myriad of questions raised by these films: did Batman Begins end when The Dark Knight began? Does its story include Burger King’s “Dark Whopper,” the Gotham Knight DVD, or the “Why So Serious” viral marketing campaign? Is it separate from the parallel narratives of the Arkham Asylum videogame, the monthly comic books, the animated series and the graphic novels? Can the brightly campy incarnations of the Batman ever be fully repressed by The Dark Knight, or are they an intrinsic part of the character? In other words, do all of these various manifestations feed into a single Batman metanarrative?

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A fascinating and incredibly detailed analysis of comic fiction's most powerful and successful hero.' - Pat Mills, author of Batman: The Book of Shadows 'Through the prism of poststructuralism, Will Brooker casts dazzling new light on Batman as myth, brand, and canon. Hunting the Dark Knight is, quite simply, a brilliant study of the Batman and contemporary processes of rebooting, franchising and shaping a cultural icon.' - Matt Hills, author of Triumph of a Time Lord

About the Author

Will Brooker is Reader and Director of Research in Film and Television at Kingston University, London.He isa leading expert on the Dark Knight, author of the cultural history of Batman, Batman Unmasked. His other books include Using the Force and Alice’s Adventures. He edited the Audience Studies Reader and The Blade Runner Experience, and wrote the BFI Film Classics volume on Star Wars.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris (July 17, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848852800
• ISBN-13: 978-1848852808
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Language and the Words of Batman September 18, 2012

By Brian Beise

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are many books on the market that use pop culture figures as spring boards to delve into sociological, philosophical, and ethical topics. Usually those books have little to say about the pop culture figures, so the whole thing ends up feeling like a bait and switch, when you wander into a book expecting to read about the Simpsons, but instead you find yourself reading long quotes from Kierkegaard.

Will Brooker's "Hunting the Dark Knight" is not that kind of book. As he discusses Nolan's films, the genesis of "Batman Begins," and, best of all, the nature of Batman as being more than any one iteration suggests, Brooker draws from postmodernism, deconstructionism, and anthropology about middle-age carnivals, but he does it all in a way that illuminates Batman. If you read with attention and patience, you will learn about some of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, but you'll also learn more about one of the greatest pop icons we have, and one of the only mythical heroes that belong to us, not generations past.

Any reader who wants to argue that Batman represents more than childhood nostalgia and vicarious thrills must read this book. It is the best expression I've ever seen of Batman's value, and of his constantly expanding, ever hardening mythical core.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome September 10, 2012

By Tony Riney

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was amazing. It was very informative, I can see why Will Brooker is called Doctor Batman. I am going to recommend this book to all of my friends who are in love with the comic book world.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Nor for the Faint-Hearted, but worth the read. September 15, 2012

By Nick Jamilla

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

So how does one who is not trained in deconstructionism write a review of Will Brooker's book "Hunting the Dark Knight"?

Right off, it's important to state that this book is not for the casual reader. To best understand it, a university education in literary analysis and a thorough knowledge of the Batman comics all the way from the 1930's would help.

I don't have either of those, but that didn't stop me from reading Brooker's fascinating book. It gets into ideas such as authorship, fidelity, paratexts, and intertextuality, among other literary tools to examine who Batman is, and who he isn't.

Two things struck me as I was reading the book. First, Brooker uses modern tools in examining Batman because he is a modern, pop culture subject. Instead of a scholastic approach wherein one might sight other authoritative writers to prove a personal argument, Brooker looks at information in the modern world. He cites message board discussions, reviews on Amazon.com (like this one), and movie review in magazines, newspapers, and websites. It's a world where Brooker looks at ordinary people who participate in the Batman phenomenon by contributing their personally varying degrees of interest, knowledge, and expertise to the critique of Batman.

Second, I was struck by how loose the concept of Batman is in spite of corporations or directors trying to define Batman in their own way. Especially in the sections on adaptation of the Batman character, I thought that things like continuity, canon, reboots, and branding worked to keep a tight reign on who the Batman character is. Not true! And here's an example.

You know Bat-girl? Well, she was created to heterosexualize Batman because a 1954 book entitled Seduction of the Innocent asserted Batman and Robin was code for gay. But then the 1960's TV show undermined her by showing a campy Batman. Later, again, in the 1990's, Schumacher's two Batman films further reinforced that gay camp with nippled costumes and prominent codpieces. So what is the new Batman? A mean, masculine Batman who reflects a post 9/11 world where issues of terrorism reflect the public's mood.

But is that it? A dark Batman without a Robin?

Well, that's not what Brooker asserts, as Batman is continually evolving, as he always has since his creation more than 70 years ago.

So how does this review help a person decide to buy the book (or not)? Check out a sample of the book before you buy. If the first 10 pages don't make sense to you, then it won't be any easier to finish the rest of the book. The more you know about Batman lore and history, the more you'll get out of this book, as it is not a primer in any way.

If you take Batman seriously in any serious or academic fashion, then you MUST buy this book. You'll particularly be intrigued by the Pharmakon analogy that breaks down the two-part/opposite approach where word meaning can create a gray area in the literary analysis of Batman. I won't even begin to try to explain this, but it is a fascinating read that leads to a discussion on the Bush policy on terrorism.