I consider myself a pretty sizable Batman fan. I've seen all of the movies...well, all of the good ones, anyway; I consider myself above Batman vs. Superman. But I'm not much of a comic geek. I find comic books nearly impenetrable with the layers upon layers of necessary backstory. Which is why a history of the lives and times of the batman and how they fit among the surrounding cultural milieu was pretty interesting to me. I found bits overly pedantic, or a little unmoored from the greater history, and there were times that I wished Weldon would offer more speculation as to why, for instance, there's been a huge resurgence of super-hero culture, but overall, I appreciated this serious and thorough take on one of the biggest cultural icons of American history.