media, or specifics such as the Cold or Iraq War, provides concise insight into important issues
and areas of American comics, many of which are more relevant today than ever before.
Comics Through Time is not a text which seeks to take its reader on an exhaustive
journey through every major storyline of every major character. It is not a Marvel or DC Comics
encyclopedia. The drawback of this is that when dealing with the “bigger” characters and
heroes of American comics, a defining moment or storyline will be condensed into a paragraph
before the writer shunts the reader off into another story arc or critical point of reflection.
However, this is not a flaw in the works, but rather a choice. Storylines are catalogued more for
their effect on comics as a medium than for their potential importance to the story of a
character. Given the subtitle of Comics Through Time, it is fitting that such fandom-fervor be
excluded in favor of academic insight into comics. Keith Booker’s Comics Through Time is an
engaging and instructive history of the ideas and icons of cultural history.
Shaun Leonard, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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