by
R. O'Donnell
You’re a Batman aficionado, a been-there-done-that read-it-all about Gotham’s Dark Knight, and you’re having a little debate with another claiming to be a Batman buff. Okay then. Your buddy digs down deep into the super heroes’ celebrity, and throws a question at you about the earlier Batman Detective comics (gulp) and a little ditty about the misguided super hero Blue Beatle. Yeah...? Well, was he one, two, or three super heroes trying to get a piece of the Gotham crime-fighting pie? Um...? How about naming the Gotham City Police Department? I’m talking about the first, second, and third shift, and the top cop they reported to? Okay, no problem, easy, huh? Planet Zurenarrh? Could you tell me a bit about Planet Zurenarrh? You’re stumped, you’re hemming and hawing, starting to sweat, want to change the subject and then "bingo" – The Essential Batman Encyclopedia, page 60-61 has got the answer to the Blue Beatle riddle–three by the way, it’s in the book, and I’ve got one (Big Joker laugh, folks) And Zurenarrh, page 385, that planet on the other side of the galaxy that in 1958 called upon Batman to protect them from alien invaders–boul-ya! Mission accomplished!
The reason you come off smelling like the Batman scholar of all time is because Bob Greenberger, former DC Editor, has done it all for you. He’s packed into 400 plus pages all you would ever need to know about the who-what-when-where-and why of the entire Batman legacy. The Essential Batman Encyclopedia, a completely updated version of the 1976 Michael Fleisher Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume 1: Batman, covers 70 years of Batman history in one whoop-ass book. And if that doesn’t baffle your buddies, plug their pie-holes with loads of insider scoop on ALL the Batman core titles and many of the Batman family books–well? The damn thing is certainly heavy enough that you could easily threaten the little buggers with it–believe me, they’ll shut up.
Everything is here and great for late night reading: blanket over your head, favorite tunes plugged in your ear, candy bar, flashlight in hand, turning the pages as if they were gold leaf–C’mon. The Essential Batman Encyclopedia covers DCU storylines like "Crisis on Infinite Earths," "No Man’s Land," "Identity Crisis," and "War Games." There’s big-time Batman info from the Outsiders titles and the Justice League to the Batman squads in The Brave and the Bold. Thanks to Greenberger you get a detailed account of how characters were created and how they evolved over the years, name changes, attitude adjustments, and weapons galore. Especially Batman’s arsenal of deadly toys. The evolution over the years reveals how he slowly slips into the shadows to embrace the Dark Knight persona we all love...and fear.
And just so you don’t think it’s all text here, kiddies, the full color spreads will make your eyes pop out. Over 300 in all! Cat Girl in living color, from first introduction to her latest and greatest cat gear is enough to make you howl at the moon–ladies too. The artwork, the pen and ink, the colorings are all collector worthy. But the best part of The Essential Batman Encyclopedia is everything Batman: the Bat Cave, the Bat Car, the Batman family tree, Robin, the villains like The Joker, Two Face, Ra’s al Ghul, Penguin, The Riddler, yadda-yadda-yadda–it’s all here, folks, tenfold.
So before The Dark Knight movie hits the theatres this weekend, don’t wait to be stumped by your friends by anything Batman ever again, get all you need for your bat salvation with The Essential Batman Encyclopedia available now. Time to get Bat-tized, folks!
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