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enduring success lies in the fact that the “content of the mythic is enabled
through the iconic abstractions of sequential art” (80).
The second half of this study focuses on the challenges of
capturing the mythic elements of Batman in different mediums from the
1940’s movie serials to the 1966 TV version, animated series, and
contemporary films. Wainer spends a great deal of this time discussing
the Christopher Nolan-directed trilogy. While lukewarm in his discussion
of earlier adaptations of the Dark Knight, Wainer spends Chapter 7
waxed enthusiastic over the Nolan adaptation, which he sums up as,
“creating a total history of Batman, a beginning, a middle, and an end, as
with so many of the figures of myth and legend” (159).
While Wainer’s study occasionally loses focus and becomes
repetitive, there is a lot to love here. Despite the implication of the title,
this work is more than a study of the mythic nature of Batman. Instead, it
is a primer on the different aspects of the study of myth, an introduction
to the history of the Dark Knight, a reader on comics as a medium and art
form, and a discussion on the theory of adaptation. Weaved within this
plethora of topics, not ever-present in the forefront, but always lurking in
the shadows, is the Batman. This alone is well worth the price of
admission.
University of Nevada Las Vegas
John J. May