I should know better than to read books like this. Like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy", this sounded interesting and intriguing, but at the end of the day it's really just a bunch of academics trying to find a justification to write about something they really enjoy. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but - okay, I'm probably mostly angry with myself for reading all of this. I do think there are interesting questions that can be asked about Batman, but the way those questions are dealt with here was in most cases highly unsatisfying. It's an odd mix of using different philosopher's theory to illustrate a point about Batman and of using Batman to illustrate a point about a certain philosopher's theory. Some essays are actually cringe-worthy in their enthusiasm. Don't get me wrong - hey, I'm the Queen of Enthusiasm, but there's such a thing as too much. Or rather - don't try to be funny when you're really not.
I also have to agree with another reviewer on here in that this reads awefully biased. Again, I myself am a huge fan of Batman, but even when there's a critical question to be raised, in the end Batman is right. If this book was called "Wanking about Batman", it'd be one thing, but "Batman and Philosophy", this is not. ( )

I wrote a sputtering set of comments when I decided that I didn't have to continue reading this book. The surface treatment of the very interesting issues brought up by Batman, and the iconic storylines of his recent history (_Dark Knight Returns_ to present, roughly) is almost worse than just reading the more composed meta comments on any comics message board. If I wanted "Batman is Cool, and Also Right!" propaganda, I know where to get that for free, and I'm disheartened to find cherry-picked analysis supports in something that I turned to in hopes of addressing the problematic nature of Batman-as-hero. ( )