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Batman
The Essential Batman Encyclopedia
The ultimate guide to the man behind the mask . . . and the mythology behind the man.
“Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible. . . . I shall become a bat!” So declared millionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, orphaned as a boy by a murderous thug and driven as a man to battle the scourge of crime by becoming Batman. Batman swooped into popular culture in 1939–and for nearly seventy years has thrilled audiences in countless comics, live-action and animated television programs, and seven feature films. Prowling the darkened rooftops of Gotham City, roaring through the teeming streets in the sleek, high-powered Batmobile, and leaping into action when the iconic Bat-Signal pierces the night sky, the Caped Crusader is a larger-than-life legend. And now, for the first time in more than thirty years, everything there is to know about Batman–from the beginning to the present, and from A to Z–is collected in one comprehensive new sourcebook. More than 500 pages of entries and illustrations include:
• fascinating details and the complete background on Batman’s origins
• biographies of every major character in the Batman universe–including his closest allies, from Robin the Boy Wonder and faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth to Commissioner Gordon; and his countless enemies, from the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler to Scarecrow, Two-Face, Ra’s al Ghul and Poison Ivy
• classic black-and-white comic book artwork throughout
• two sixteen-page full-color artwork inserts
Even an all-access pass to the Batcave couldn’t rival former DC Comics editor and Batman scholar extraordinaire Robert Greenberger’s exhaustive ultimate archive. The Essential Batman Encyclopedia is a must for every Batman fan’s bookshelf.
BATMAN, the DC Logo, and all related names, characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics © 2008. All rights reserved.
“Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible. . . . I shall become a bat!” So declared millionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, orphaned as a boy by a murderous thug and driven as a man to battle the scourge of crime by becoming Batman. Batman swooped into popular culture in 1939–and for nearly seventy years has thrilled audiences in countless comics, live-action and animated television programs, and seven feature films. Prowling the darkened rooftops of Gotham City, roaring through the teeming streets in the sleek, high-powered Batmobile, and leaping into action when the iconic Bat-Signal pierces the night sky, the Caped Crusader is a larger-than-life legend. And now, for the first time in more than thirty years, everything there is to know about Batman–from the beginning to the present, and from A to Z–is collected in one comprehensive new sourcebook. More than 500 pages of entries and illustrations include:
• fascinating details and the complete background on Batman’s origins
• biographies of every major character in the Batman universe–including his closest allies, from Robin the Boy Wonder and faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth to Commissioner Gordon; and his countless enemies, from the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler to Scarecrow, Two-Face, Ra’s al Ghul and Poison Ivy
• classic black-and-white comic book artwork throughout
• two sixteen-page full-color artwork inserts
Even an all-access pass to the Batcave couldn’t rival former DC Comics editor and Batman scholar extraordinaire Robert Greenberger’s exhaustive ultimate archive. The Essential Batman Encyclopedia is a must for every Batman fan’s bookshelf.
BATMAN, the DC Logo, and all related names, characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics © 2008. All rights reserved.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
19 people are currently reading
285 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 9, 2016
“Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible. . . . I shall become a bat!” - Bruce Wayne
If you are an ardent fan of the man behind the mask, then the very sight of ‘The Essential Batman Encyclopedia’ - featuring almost every piece of information related to him - will make you drool over. With this gargantuan encyclopedic volume, Robert Greenberger, provides bat-fans with a magic key to the universe of Batman, describing the fascinating history of the franchise, detailed character sketches and biographies, details of places, objects and events, all listed alphabetically and easy to access.
This massive book with about 400 pages presented in a 3-column layout is virtually bursting at the seams with the sheer volume of excellently researched textual information related to the Batman franchise. ‘The Essential Batman Encyclopedia’ considers the appearance of the Caped Crusader in the Greater DC Universe alone – and excludes comics based on various feature films & animated series - as the base reference point while chronicling the timeline between the 1939 debut to September 2007.
You can find every character that has ever made an appearance in the world of Batman in this encyclopedia - his friends, his rivals and even minor characters that even a true fan could have failed to notice while pouring over volumes of Batman comics. Each textual entry is pretty much detailed with cross-references to the comic book issue number and year, which makes this a valuable reference tool. The book finely balances the textual entries with comic frames, cover images and sketches taken from the annals of the Batman franchise.
One of the entries from this encyclopedia, which I found most fascinating, was ‘Batman’ itself; under this entry the author presents a studious article discussing the Batman origins, basic and special costumes including the batsuit, accessories, abilities, equipments, his relationship with Robin[s] and other super heroes etc with great detail. It also analyzes “The Man Himself”, as both Bruce Wayne and as Batman, which was a brilliant piece of write-up.
Coming up with any encyclopedic volume is a daunting task – with the zillions of cross-references, crunching mountains of facts and information, and concisely presenting the results – and Robert Greenberger deserves a round of applause for the sheer amount of effort he has invested into compiling this volume.
Apart from the choice of typeface size – the text is presented in a very small font size – there is nothing to complain about this excellent volume. ‘The Essential Batman Encyclopedia’ is physically a large book and is a perfect reference volume for researching even minute details about the Batman franchise.
If you are an ardent fan of the man behind the mask, then the very sight of ‘The Essential Batman Encyclopedia’ - featuring almost every piece of information related to him - will make you drool over. With this gargantuan encyclopedic volume, Robert Greenberger, provides bat-fans with a magic key to the universe of Batman, describing the fascinating history of the franchise, detailed character sketches and biographies, details of places, objects and events, all listed alphabetically and easy to access.
This massive book with about 400 pages presented in a 3-column layout is virtually bursting at the seams with the sheer volume of excellently researched textual information related to the Batman franchise. ‘The Essential Batman Encyclopedia’ considers the appearance of the Caped Crusader in the Greater DC Universe alone – and excludes comics based on various feature films & animated series - as the base reference point while chronicling the timeline between the 1939 debut to September 2007.
You can find every character that has ever made an appearance in the world of Batman in this encyclopedia - his friends, his rivals and even minor characters that even a true fan could have failed to notice while pouring over volumes of Batman comics. Each textual entry is pretty much detailed with cross-references to the comic book issue number and year, which makes this a valuable reference tool. The book finely balances the textual entries with comic frames, cover images and sketches taken from the annals of the Batman franchise.
One of the entries from this encyclopedia, which I found most fascinating, was ‘Batman’ itself; under this entry the author presents a studious article discussing the Batman origins, basic and special costumes including the batsuit, accessories, abilities, equipments, his relationship with Robin[s] and other super heroes etc with great detail. It also analyzes “The Man Himself”, as both Bruce Wayne and as Batman, which was a brilliant piece of write-up.
Coming up with any encyclopedic volume is a daunting task – with the zillions of cross-references, crunching mountains of facts and information, and concisely presenting the results – and Robert Greenberger deserves a round of applause for the sheer amount of effort he has invested into compiling this volume.
Apart from the choice of typeface size – the text is presented in a very small font size – there is nothing to complain about this excellent volume. ‘The Essential Batman Encyclopedia’ is physically a large book and is a perfect reference volume for researching even minute details about the Batman franchise.
December 19, 2025
Very informative and extensive resource for Bat fans. You can look up pretty much anyone and anything from the Gotham universe in this book and find a detailed explanation. It also contains beautiful illustrations directly from the comics! I’m happy to have this on my shelf.
October 19, 2017
I rated the book five stars, because I enjoyed learning about the characters in the Batman series.
November 13, 2009
2009.1103-2009.1113
First, yes, I read this Encyclopedia cover to cover.
It was interesting to see trends depending on which decade the story was written. I gave this work 5 stars because it is a very useful and amazing resource. I do however have several problems with it:
- I found 1 typo (the p and t in Mr. Mxyzptlk where transposed p 135) and two factual errors in the text (Jonathan Crane became the Scarecrow not the Joker p 10, Leslie Thompkins had a short lived romance with Alfred not Bruce p 349). With that stated, 3 types in a 400+ page work is impressive.
- The author switched between past and present in odd ways in several accounts (this became apparent later in the book, in the W section).
- Some material was duplicated, word for word, in different accounts (see BlockBuster II and his brother, the Todds etc). A reference to the other article would have sufficed. This could have cleared up space for more original data.
- Some entries were vague (many of the 1940's entires end in something of the order of "and batman stopped them")
- The author used some titles of characters without specifying those titles in entries (e.g. some of the Joker's random titles) .
- terms like "Pals" (p 280) make the work sound antiquated.
First, yes, I read this Encyclopedia cover to cover.
It was interesting to see trends depending on which decade the story was written. I gave this work 5 stars because it is a very useful and amazing resource. I do however have several problems with it:
- I found 1 typo (the p and t in Mr. Mxyzptlk where transposed p 135) and two factual errors in the text (Jonathan Crane became the Scarecrow not the Joker p 10, Leslie Thompkins had a short lived romance with Alfred not Bruce p 349). With that stated, 3 types in a 400+ page work is impressive.
- The author switched between past and present in odd ways in several accounts (this became apparent later in the book, in the W section).
- Some material was duplicated, word for word, in different accounts (see BlockBuster II and his brother, the Todds etc). A reference to the other article would have sufficed. This could have cleared up space for more original data.
- Some entries were vague (many of the 1940's entires end in something of the order of "and batman stopped them")
- The author used some titles of characters without specifying those titles in entries (e.g. some of the Joker's random titles) .
- terms like "Pals" (p 280) make the work sound antiquated.
February 3, 2023
A batstravaganza for fans of the caped crusader
A decent read
A decent read
Want to read
February 26, 2017I still don't know how to read this full book.plz can u tell me .guys PLO tell me.
April 19, 2011
I remember getting news about this book a long time ago & have been kind of excited about it, thought it would be a very cool book to have. Well, after seeing/reading this book, I gotta say I am very happily surprised! First, the thing is HUGE! It’s like a giant phone book, ha! Next, it’s not only jam-packed with a ton of detailed information but it’s beautifully illustrated all through out. The author, Robert Greenberger, has done a really nice job compiling & organizing tons of Batman history. The book has almost 400 pages & the wonderful thing, for me, are all the awesome graphics that are sprinkled about on almost every page. They didn’t skimp on that area. There are beautiful pictures from the Golden Age 1940’s all the way to the very very recent comic books. That was something that kinda surprised me, how “updated” it was. Now, to be honest, I have not yet read every single line in this book, that would take me months to do. But I have read a lot & the way the information is laid out is really nice. Just like any encyclopedia you look up a name or place & there’s a section on that person or thing. I like that they list the “first appearance” of many characters. ( Bat-Mite, Detective Comics # 257, May 1959 ). I think that this is a book that every Batman Fan would love. For example, as a test, I tried to think of a very obscure character to look up. When I was a little kid I always liked a villain named The Eraser. I flipped through the book & not only did they have some nice information about him but they also had a wonderful graphic as well. They reprinted the original comic book cover he 1st appeared on, ha ha! I ran many tests like that & was happily surprised each time, a fun book. One thing I gotta say though. This book’s main focus is the “Comic Book Batman” or what most fans call the “real Batman”. It doesn’t have any facts about the 1966 TV Show, The Animated Series, The Movies…it mainly covers the “comic book” character. But, that’s the character we all love & covering those other areas could be another 400 pages! So, I guess, to sum it up…this book is really wonderful & it’s a must have for any true Batman Fan or Collector. I like it & hope, that if you check it out, you will too.
February 20, 2010
Batman Mania and Superheroes of All Countries, UNITE....!!
*all countries, maksudnya serpong, benhil, ciputat, utan kayu, rawa lumbu, cinere, radio dalam, tangerang, geger girang, dayuehkolot, bojong koneng dst..:p*
*all countries, maksudnya serpong, benhil, ciputat, utan kayu, rawa lumbu, cinere, radio dalam, tangerang, geger girang, dayuehkolot, bojong koneng dst..:p*
July 31, 2010
Useful reference but a bit dated, especially with the big changes happening to the caped crusader nowadays. Heavily illustrated though and worth the price tag. The binding though on my softcover copy is a bit dodgy but the color plates are very nice.
October 27, 2008
Some odd choices in here on what to focus, but overall a fun overview of 70 years of the Batman, his world, and the peoples within them.
Read
January 30, 2009brother c' owns
wish-list
February 23, 2010mau duuuuunk :D
September 7, 2010
All the info about the Dark Knight Detective that you've ever wanted to know.
September 6, 2011
I thought the batman encyclopedia was great and it tells you nearly everything to know about batman and robin and his foes and the justice leauge and teen titans.
April 15, 2012
This book lives up to the name of encyclopedia.
Light on images but heavy on text this tome should satisfy anyone looking for Bat info.
Almost 400 pages.
Light on images but heavy on text this tome should satisfy anyone looking for Bat info.
Almost 400 pages.
May 25, 2012
good book about batman!
September 1, 2012
Worth reading.
February 4, 2014
Really good. Choc full of info.
January 21, 2019
i loved this book full of interesting facts and information on the charcters of the DC Universe a must have for any batman collector to have in their collection.
June 11, 2012
OMG! I love Batman SO much! this book is perfect for me!!
September 17, 2014
Thanks for telling me everything I ever wanted to know
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews