A review by jeffmauch
The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon

4.0

The Caped Crusade was a much more in depth and interesting book than I anticipated. I am by no means a comic book guy, in fact, I’m about as far from it as one can get, but I do appreciate the medium. This book is clearly heavily and meticulously researched and probably goes a bit deep even for the casual fan, but there’s a lot more history here than you’d expect. Batman has been around for 80 years now and has morphed and adapted to the times about as well as you’d expect. He’s ranged from the incredibly campy 60’s television show to the more recent darker Batman of the movies. I particularly enjoyed the perspective the book gave of the hardcore Batman nerds and how their voices had so much impact starting in the early fanzines and then growing to a roar with the creation and expansion of the internet. How Batman is seen to change from a nerd perspective versus a normal/pop culture (people like myself) is an interesting dichotomy. I now have a much deeper appreciation for Batman and the comic medium in general and I have added a few comic and graphic novels to my “To-Read” list because of this book. Overall, this is a very interesting read, although it is probably far too in-depth and long for most casual fans.