Books : The Essential Batman Encyclopedia

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Rating:

- Awesome
This book has anything and everything you will ever need or want to know about all things batman. A must have for any batman fan

Rating:

- Very Positive review From [...]
Want to know the secret behind Batman RIP? Wonder what the difference is between the original murder of Bruce Wayne's parents and the current version? What is the origin of the Joker? All you need to answer all of those questions and far too many more is Bob Greenberger's new Essential Batman Encyclopedia.

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Rating:

- A triumph...
Wow!
I've been looking forward to this book since I first heard about it (October 2007??) and have had it on pre-order since.

It didn't disappoint. Not one bit.

The book is much in the same style as the Michael Fleisher Encyclopedia of the 1970s (recently reissued).

It has hundreds of entries on a myriad of Batman characters, places and gadgets, ranging from the the very famous to the extremely obscure.

And when I say obscure, I mean it. I also mean that in a positive way.
As a Batman fan of 30 years, I'm extremely interested in him and his supporting characters.
I'm therefore thrilled that this book isn't purely dedicated to well-known characters like Alfred, The Joker and Gordon. It also has entries on such oddball characters as The Eraser, Hydro and The Bouncer.
Some of the characters listed in the book only appeared once or twice, and often not as the main villain of the story (there are entries for various henchmen and gangsters).

In comparison to the Fleisher book, there is less detail, sometimes quite considerably.
However, I think this is a good thing. Mr Greenburger has covered a lot more comics, over a greater number of years than Mr Fleisher. To be able to go into minute detail (as Fleisher did) for the number of comics that represented here would mean several volumes would need to be released (and probably several more years).
In addition to this, sometimes I felt the original encyclopedia to be overly descriptive in parts, sometimes quoting lengthy text portions from the comics. This doesn't happen in this new book. Don't get me wrong, I love the Fleisher book for this, and treasure it as the devoted work that it is. I just feel that this wasn't needed in this case and I'm glad Mr Greenberger decided to go with listing more entries rather than adding more text per entry.

If I had to list areas where improvements could be made, I would have loved to see some maps, diagrams and tables showing things such as a detailed Batcave plan, major Batmobiles, family tree of the Waynes, listings of such things as Gotham City mayors, bat-equipment etc.

Also, full colour illustrations would have been nice, but I understand that would have bumped the price up considerably.
The black & white illustrations are nice though - lots of variety of artists (although quite Jim Lee heavy (not a bad thing, but I'm more of a Neal Adams fan)) and a good selection too.
There are two colour sections and these are lovely. Really eye-popping and a great choice (gotta love that Brian Bolland Poison Ivy pic - stunning!!).

Overall though, I can't fault this book. It has surpassed my expectations and is exactly what I want in a resource for the Dark Knight.

Truly outstanding and a fine tribute to one of our most enduring icons.

Rating:

- Who's who of Batman
This encyclopedic style tome is effective as a who's who of Batman related characters and devices, but unfortunately only scratches the surface. The information that is provided for most is far from complete, so depth is wanting. This is understandable when discussing certain characters with prodigious appearances like the Joker, who would be extremely difficult to produce a complete bibliography for, but the few relatively obscure characters that I researched had minimal data on them also. Very little if any mention is made about the creators or the animated universe, and considering how some of these characters came into prominence from the DCAU, this is a glaring weakness. The writing is average at best and has a poor narrative flow; it jumps from present to past and back again. The book's appeal and its' main target audience will be towards the beginning or casual reader. Many long term Batfans may not find this relatively expensive book worth the cost for the uncertain amount of additional info that they may find. Don't get me wrong, there is knowledge to be gleaned here, and obviously much research was put into it, but it's a regrettable shame that the finished product isn't worthy of the aggregated effort, which ideally would have been an exceptional book that would be considered a must have by all fans of this great iconic legend. More than most, it will probably come down to the price as the determining factor on whether or not to purchase it.

Rating:

- Essential but not ultimate
I was somewhat disappointed by this volume. The author does link the various DC incarnations of the denizens of Gotham, but it's still somewhat confusing. Maybe that's because the DC Universe is confusing.
Perhaps separating the incarnations a bit more would've been beneficial. The volume certainly is comprehensive. I would have opted for drawings of the various incarnations of the major Batman characters, rather than the various color montage plates. This volume and The Original Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Batman by Fleisher (newly republished in 2007)complement each other. The dedicated Batman aficionado should have both.

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