Will Brooker Returns to Batman

Will Brooker, author of Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon (Continuum, 2000), returns to the world of the Caped Crusader in a follow-up book that has received a lot of attention online. Here are the details.


Hunting the Dark Knight: Twenty-first Century Batman 
Will Brooker

Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

Hardback  £57.50
ISBN: 9781848852792
Publication Date: 30 May 2012
Number of Pages: 272
Height: 216
Width: 134

Paperback  £12.99
ISBN: 9781848852808
Publication Date: 30 May 2012
Number of Pages: 272
Height: 216
Width: 134


Publishing alongside the world premiere of Christopher Nolan's third Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises", Will Brooker's new book explores Batman's twenty-first century incarnations. Brooker's close analysis of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" offers a rigorous, accessible account of the complex relationship between popular films, audiences, and producers in our age of media convergence. By exploring themes of authorship, adaptation and intertextuality, he addresses a myriad of questions raised by these films: did "Batman Begins" end when "The Dark Knight began? Does its story include 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? Do all of these various manifestations feed into a single Batman metanarrative? This will be a vital text for film students and academics, as well as legions of Batman fans.

Will Brooker is a 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.  He is Reader and Director of Research in Film and Television at Kingston University, London, and is the editor of Cinema Journal.