Holy Franchise Batman! - A Bat Fan's Delight

rating:4.5

You might have noticed that we're fans of Batman around these parts, and hot on the tail of the release of Nolan's epic, but flawed trilogy ender, we were lucky enough to get our hands on a copy of Gary Collinson's lovingly put-together Bat-tome, Holy Franchise Batman! Bringing The Caped Crusader To The Screen. And to say the book, which offers an unprecedented run-through of the Dark Knight's many screen iterations, is comprehensive is to entirely under-estimate its scope. Collinson's well crafted journey starts off right at the beginning, through the little-seen, but gloriously entertaining movie serials that pre-dated Adam West's camp curiosity by some distance, and then on through the modern Bats, from Burton's theatrical gothic to Nolan's crunching realism, with a side-jaunt through the animated series. There's comparatively little mention of The Dark Knight Rises of course, given its recent release, but it's still a journey packed to bursting with information. The book feels a lot like the space where fandom and film criticism meet - the sheer weight of information and dedication to the smallest details comes from an obvious genuine passion for the characters and adaptations, while the authoritative tone and easy presentation of someone who has honed their craft - as Collinson has through his own film website Flickering Myth. And thanks to that, the book doesn't feel like a eulogy to bygone films - as some critical texts can - instead it urges you to go back and rediscover the joys of earlier Batman films (especially those serials, which should definitely be released on blu-ray as part of an extensive box-set). It's a shame there aren't any images included, but we can thank the rights controllers for that, since they would undoubtedly have made that sort of visual addition a financial impossibility for such a relatively understated release. But then the information is so comprehensive, that the lack of images becomes no more than a trifling thing - an unfortunate, but wholly forgivable issue that in no way compromises the enjoyment you'll get from the book overall. Holy Franchise, Batman! is out now, published by Robert Hale and can be bought from Amazon.co.uk.