By Jeremy Patrick (jhaeman@hotmail.com)

Published in The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, v. 8 n. 6 (Nov.-Dec. 2001)

Traditionalist academics may scoff at the idea that a student could earn a doctorate from a well-respected university by writing a book about Batman. After reading Will Brooker’s Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon (Continuum Books), however, many such skeptics will quickly change their minds. This is a serious study about the evolution of the figure originally designated, "Bat-Man."

Brooker begins his book by discussing the character’s beginnings in 1939 as a grim, solitary vigilante who didn’t hesitate to use handguns or allow his opponents to die. It wasn’t long, however, before fan reaction and editorial control forced the writers of the comic book to lighten the tone by not having Batman kill his foes, and by introducing Robin, the Boy Wonder. Subsequent chapters chronicle the character’s place in American popular culture during the 1950’s censorship scares, the 1960’s period of camp and television stardom, and the 1980’s movie phenomena and their "dark and gritty" Batman.

Brooker makes it clear that the evolution of the character and its influence on (and from) its audience has been more complex than commonly thought. GLBT readers may find particularly interesting the chapter on queer readings of Batman and the controversy surrounding Dr. Fredric Wertham’s allegation of homosexuality in his famous 1955 book Seduction of the Innocent, which called for censorship of comic books and led to the Comics Code.

Batman Unmasked is a model for books about the place of literary figures in popular consciousness. It’s well-researched and extraordinarily readable. Brooker has made an important contribution to a field that doesn’t receive nearly as much respect as it should.