Tales of the Dark Knight Batman’s First Fifty Years, 1939-1989

“From his introduction in Detective Comics #27 in May, 1939, Batman has attracted legions of loyal followers, and justifiably so. He is the greatest of them all . . . perhaps because he is the most human of all the outsize heroes the comics have produced. He doesn’t possess any “super” powers–so his unparalleled ability to triumph over the forces of evil is due solely to his piercing intellect, his high-tech crime-fighting weapons, his physical prowess, and, ultimately, to his passionate commitment to the eradication of crime from the face of the earth. And so it has been for fifty years: the citizens of Gotham City, and, indeed, all the rest of us, have been able to rest a little easier at night knowing that Batman was out there watching over us. Yet the character of Batman has undergone many changes since the early days–and this continuous evolution is one of the reasons that Batman remains vivid and vital today. In Tales of the Dark Knight: Batman’s First Fifty Years, author Mark Cotta Vaz takes us on a journey that traces the crusader’s footsteps through the decades, offering a fascinating look at Batman, the nefarious villains who oppose him, and even the world around him: The “Golden Age” of the Forties, when the orphaned Bruce Wayne dons cape and cowl and begins his crime-fighting career. The development of the arch-villi ans: The Joker, Penguin, et al. The “benign scoutmaster” days of Fifties censorship. The strange “sci-fi”/space aliens episodes of the early Sixties, and the campy, “Holy pedestrian safety, Batman” late Sixties TV show. Batman’s recent return to his roots as the apocalyptic Dark Knight. The advent of computer graphics, and how those artists envision Batman’s future. Fully illustrated with the best of the comics artwork culled from the first five decades, Tales of the Dark Knight is the definitive story of The Batman–and a volume to treasure while waiting to see what the next fifty years has in store for Gotham City’s Dark Knight.”–Page 4 of cover.