Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight Delves into the History of Batman
Written: Jul 05 '05 (Updated Jul 18 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Interesting information about the characters.
Cons: Organization could have been better. Little information on some things and missing completely on others.
The Bottom Line: Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight is full of interesting information. It is a good book for fans of Batman.
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| dragonfire88's Full Review: |
I have been fascinated with superheroes since I was a child. I have seen most of the recent super hero movies and enjoyed them. I do know more about some of the characters than others and I have some books, like Ultimate X-Men, about some superheroes. After really enjoying Batman Begins, I wanted to find some books about Batman and the different characters he has encountered. I checked to see what I could find out in the local bookstore and picked up Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight by Scott Beatty. The book was published by DK. That company has published similar books about other superheroes like Spider-Man, Superman, and the X-Men.
Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight isn’t a collection of Batman stories. It shared information about Bruce Wayne, his life as Batman, his allies and enemies. Each page contained a few small paragraphs and some comic book style illustrations related to the subject. Most subjects were covered over two pages. For the different characters, a small yellow circle somewhere on the two pages would share some vital information including, name, alias, height, weight, occupation, and when the character first appeared in a comic book. Several important events were discussed throughout the book, though there wasn’t much information about any of them. I think that the different illustrations used throughout the book were pulled from the many comic books that Batman has appeared in over the years. The illustrations went along with the accompanying text well.
Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight was divided into four sections instead of chapters. The information in each section was connected in some way. For each section, a few main story lines were briefly mentioned, but there wasn’t enough shared about any of them for those events to be completely clear to me. Since getting more interested in Batman, I have heard about some story lines that are considered to be some of the best ever written for Batman. Those stories were only briefly mentioned in this book. That did disappoint me, but I do still want to pick up more books about Batman. It did seem like the story line that received the most attention in this book was one that took place shortly before the publication of the book in 2001. An updated version of the book was released in 2005. After the fourth section, there was a time line that briefly mentioned important events in Batman’s history. The launch of new comics featuring characters first introduced in Batman comics was also included. The time line was helpful to me in figuring out the exact order certain events happened. It was a little awkward to have to flip all the way to the back of the book to find the time line. It did take me a little while to find the events I was looking for in the time line a few times. The time line in the updated version of the book contained events that happened in 2005, including the release of Batman Begins.
The first section of the book, Batman’s World, mostly focuses on Bruce and Batman. Bruce’s childhood and how that influenced him to become Batman as an adult was briefly shared. His suit, weapons, gadgets, vehicles and the Batcave was described. There were illustrations of each of those items that helped to show how they worked. There were different versions for some items, usually the vehicles. I thought it was interesting to see how Batman’s vehicles and some of the gadgets changed over the years. Information about the playboy image Bruce created to help protect his secret life as Batman was discussed along with Wayne Enterprises and some of the women Bruce became involved with over the years. Gotham City and a few story lines in which the city was very important were also briefly discussed. I would have thought that there would have been more about Gotham included since it is so important to Batman. Commission Gordon and a few other police officers were also discussed in this section.
Allies of the Bat featured the many different characters that Batman ended up working with during his crime fighting. Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce’s butler, was the first character included in this section. Alfred was one of the very few that knew the truth about who Batman really was. It would have made more sense to me if Commissioner Gordon had been included in this section as well since he did work with Batman. After talking about Nightwing, the book next discussed Bludhaven, the city Nightwing worked out of. A few of the villains from that city were also discussed on those two pages. Some of Batman’s allies ended up fighting crime with two different names and new versions of the other allies would join the fight. That fact about a few characters could have been made a little clearer at first. Huntress, one of the characters in this section, really wasn’t on Batman’s side, but she really wasn’t one of his enemies either. That character had been on a short-lived tv series, Birds of Prey, which I have learned was based on a comic. I did see the show, but it seems like the back story of Huntress was changed completely. The last pages in this section covered how Superman and Batman have worked together to fight crime. There was nothing in this book about Batman being part of The Justice League.
The Rogues Gallery shares information about the different villains that Batman fought over the years. The first two pages discussed Arkham Asylum, the place where the villains are usually sent after being captured by Batman. The information about the Joker in the book does contradict certain things from the first Batman movie about the character. In fact, according to this book, the Joker’s real name isn’t even known. There were only two pages devoted to the Joker, but he was mentioned in other sections of the book and it was made clear just how important he was. The pages about Catwoman did briefly mention the attraction that she and Batman feel for each other. Some of the childhood of Harvey Dent was shared, which did help to explain why he became Two-Face later in life. The pages about the Penguin showed some of the different gadgets he had concealed in his umbrellas. I hadn’t known anything about Ra’s Al Ghul before seeing Batman Begins. This book does have a lot more information about him and some of the people he worked with. A storyline he was involved in was also talked about. According to the book, Bane wasn’t just a mindless thug working for Poison Ivy like he was in the last Batman movie. Scarecrow was another character that I hadn’t known about before seeing Batman Begins. The information about him fit with the character in the movie. It doesn’t seem like he was changed too much for the movie. Batman fought many more villains than I had realized before reading the book. Some villains only received a few sentences devoted to them. Blackgate Penitentiary was the last thing discussed in this section.
The final section of the book, Batman’s Career, talked about how Batman has changed in the comics since he was first introduced as a character created by Bob Kane. Batman first appeared in a Detective Comics in 1939. Since then, elements have changed, but the character remained basically the same. This section mentioned things that happened during what is considered the Golden Age of Batman, the Silver Age of Batman, the Dark Knight Returns storyline, and basic explanation for alternate worlds and times when Batman fights crime. In the pages for the Golden and Silver Ages of Batman, a few more villains and allies of Batman were also mentioned. There was very little information about the events brought up in this section. The time line started right after this section.
I thought that the information shared in Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight was interesting. I learned about other events in Batman’s history and some of the other characters he encountered in his career as a crime fighter. I did think that there wasn’t enough information about many things. The death of Bruce’s parents was only briefly touched on even though that was a very important event that would ultimately lead to him becoming Batman. The years between the murder and when Bruce became Batman were just glossed over. I felt like those years were important in leading to the creation of Batman and should have received more attention. I would have liked it if there had been more information about those things. Batman and some other superheroes operated out of Gotham City and there was very little information about the city shared. There was a small map in one section, but there weren’t very many locations marked on the map. I would have liked it if the map had been larger. There was a diagram of Wayne Manor, but it wasn’t as detailed as I would have really liked. I did really enjoy the book, but I was left feeling like there were still several holes in history of Batman.
As of June of 2005, there have been five major Batman movies made, along with several animated shows and the old television show. I think there was also at least one movie made with the cast from the television show. Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight mostly ignored those pieces of Batman’s past. I have seen part of an episode or two of the television show and it was rather silly and campy, but it was still an important part of Batman’s history. The show was only mentioned two or three times in passing in other areas. The movies and animated shows weren’t mentioned at all either. Batman Begins was mentioned in the time line and that was it. Those were also important to Batman and think they deserved to have their own section in the book. The section didn’t need to go in depth for each project, but I think it would have been interesting to have those things included. I think it would have been interesting to see how different his suit and other things looked for each movie and even in the animated versions. Ultimate X-Men did cover the movies and the animated series as well as the comics. For this book to really be the ultimate guide to Batman like the title says, it needs to have that information included. This book even mentioned the Catwoman movie from 2004 which had nothing in common with the character in the comics.
The main problem that I had with Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight is the way the information was organized. The way things were arranged just didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The book started off in a logical manner, first with a little about Bruce, Batman, and then some of the things he used to fight crime. Instead of going on to talk about the Batmobile or one of the other vehicles after the section on the gadgets, the book went into talking about Gotham City and then a few story lines before jumping back to talking about Bruce and then the loves of his life. That organization didn’t make sense to me. Another story line, Commissioner Gordon, and some other police officers were discussed before the book got to the part about Wayne Manor and the Batcave and then finally the vehicles. It would have been more logical to me if after talking about Bruce, Wayne Manor was discussed, the Batcave, the suit, weapons, gadgets, and vehicles before moving onto Gotham City. The way the book jumped around, especially in the first section, did make it a little confusing. Only a few of the story lines were even mentioned, and the only way I figured out for sure the order they took place in was to check the time line at the back. Maybe the organization would have made more sense to readers more familiar with Batman. The organization was a little better in the last three sections.
I really enjoyed Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight. I thought the book had a lot of interesting information and it helped to figure out more about Batman and the many characters in his world. Fans of Batman may also enjoy this book since it does seem to cover all of the major characters. I was disappointed that some things were left out completely or only barely mentioned. The organization could have been a lot better, but the book is still worth checking out.
Batman Reviews
Batman: The Movie ~ Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman & Robin ~ Batman Begins ~ The Dark Knight ~ Batman The Animated Series - Volume One ~ Batman: Mask of the Phantasm ~ Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero ~ The Essential Batman Encyclopedia ~
Other Superhero Reviews
Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ The Incredibles ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Sky High ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~ X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ Ultimate X-Men ~
Recommended:
Yes
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