Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Bat-Mania Roundtable

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This week Special Topics in Media hosts a "Bat-Mania Roundtable" as part of our Season 2 RETRO REWIND focus on Frank Miller's Batman:The Dark Knight Returns (1986). In this episode, the dialogic duo is joined by another pair of super scholars Karen Anderson-Lain and Kyle Hammonds, as well as comic shop proprietor Brian "Buck" Berlin. The panel discuss personal encounters with Batman literature and expand our understanding of its varied commercial and educational utilities. Finally, the group considers the eerie parallels that may speak to why this fictional character remains an American mainstay in the public consciousness.     

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Panelists: Karen Anderson-Lain, Kyle Hammonds, Brian Berlin

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns":
Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1986.

Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.

Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.

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