title: Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon
author:  Will Brooker 
description: "Brookers account is bolstered by his fan expertise. This book usefully expands upon The Many Lives of Batman. Recommended"Library Journal<br /><br />"This is the definitive history of the Batman in all media: comics, film, television and the internet. The books combination of rigorous historical research and a witty, fluid writing style make it both vastly instructive and vastly entertaining."Roberta Pearson, editor of The Many Lives of the Batman<br /><br />"A historical, detailed, deep analysis of Batman as a cultural icon in America. This isn't a simple polemic or surface-shallow analysis. This is deep stuff-analyzing art styles, histories, individual panels, cultural concepts, and historical documents. plenty of startling revelations and analysesThis is a stunningly well-done, intelligent book. It's proof that comics are not throwaway ephemera, but real, vital, analyzable parts of our culture. It's also a must-have for the hardcore Batman fan and comics fan-who doesn't mind some ideas being challenged."www.super-heroes.net<br /><br />"Brooker cuts through the mumbo jumbo to deliver incisive analysis and very sharp reporting, particularly on the comic book's homoerotic subtext and on the 60's TV show's knowing self-mockery, as well as on how the 'official' 21st Century Batman nods to both.Entertainment Weekly<br /><br />"Eloquent and reasoned."Popmatters.com
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  The Status Civilization
  
  
    
  
  
    
  [Chapter One  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Two  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Three  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Four  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Five  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Six  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Seven  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Eight  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Nine  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Ten  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Eleven  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twelve  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Thirteen  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Fourteen  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Fifteen  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Sixteen  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Seventeen  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Eighteen  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Nineteen  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-One  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Two  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Three  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Four  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Five  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Six  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Seven  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Eight  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Twenty-Nine  
  
  
    
  [Chapter Thirty
  
  
  
  
  
  This page formatted 2007 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  # The Status Civilization
  
  
  ### Robert Sheckley
  
  
  This page formatted 2007 Blackmask Online.
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
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  [Chapter One
  
  
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  [Chapter