The Caped Crusade cover art

The Caped Crusade

Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Caped Crusade

By: Glen Weldon
Narrated by: Glen Weldon
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

 “A roaring getaway car of guilty pleasures” (The New York Times Book Review), Glen Weldon’s The Caped Crusade is a fascinating, critically acclaimed chronicle of the rises and falls of one of the world’s most iconic superheroes and the fans who love him—now with a new afterword.

Since his debut in Detective Comics #27, Batman has been many things: a two-fisted detective; a planet-hopping gadabout; a campy Pop Art sensation; a pointy-eared master spy; and a grim ninja of the urban night. Yet, despite these endless transformations, he remains one of our most revered cultural icons. In this “smart, witty, and engrossing” (The Wall Street Journal) cultural critique, NPR contributor and book critic Glen Weldon provides “a sharp, deeply knowledgeable, and often funny look at the cultural history of Batman and his fandom” (Chicago Tribune) to discover why it is that we can’t get enough of the Dark Knight.

For nearly a century, Batman has cycled through eras of dark melodrama and light comedy and back again. How we perceive his character, whether he’s delivering dire threats in a raspy Christian Bale growl or trading blithely homoerotic double entendres with Robin the Boy Wonder, speaks to who we are and how we wish to be seen by the world. It’s this endless adaptability that has made him so lasting, and ultimately human.

But it’s also Batman’s fundamental nerdiness that uniquely resonates with his fans and makes them fiercely protective of him. As Weldon charts the evolution of Gotham’s Guardian from Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s hyphenated hero to Christopher Nolan’s post-9/11 Dark Knight, he reveals how this symbol of justice has made us who we are today and why his legacy remains so strong. The result is “possibly the most erudite and well-researched fanboy manifesto ever” (Booklist). Well-researched, insightful, and engaging, The Caped Crusade, with a new afterword by the author, has something for everyone: “If you’re a Bat-neophyte, this is an accessible introduction; if you’re a dyed-in-the-Latex Bat-nerd, this is a colorfully rendered magical history tour redolent with nostalgia” (The Washington Post). 21st Century Art & Literature Authors Literary History & Criticism Modern Social Sciences Fantasy Superhero Witty Middle Ages Crusade

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Superman cover art
The Many Lives of Catwoman cover art
Batman and Psychology cover art
Superheroes! cover art
Supergods cover art
American Comics cover art
Final Cuts cover art
Planet Simpson cover art
The Red King cover art
Little Fuzzy cover art
Batman Unauthorized cover art
Stranger Things A-Z cover art
A Convenient Parallel Dimension cover art
Secrets of the Force cover art
Marvel Comics cover art
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I Loved this audio book very much and the narration in this audio book. I give it 5 Stars out of five. thank you very much for entertainment.

The Caped Crusade: The Review

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Whether you're a Bat-fan or a complete novice, you'll find this book amazing! I've never written an audiobook review, but this book was so good I just had to write one. Even hard-core fans will learn something new, and the narration is brilliant and hilarious!

Holy Audiobook Batman!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Although a self-described ‘normal’, I utterly ate this audiobook up. It is absolutely brilliant. Not only does the author take me firmly into his world, he is able to contextualise his world in such a way that really requires a macro take and a non solipsistic approach.

Comic book guy voice, brilliant, on the nose, Chris Nolan, entertaining, Scottish accent..., maybe you want to outsource that one...

But seriously, immensely enjoyable and has flicked an internal switch that has had con elements and dust on it for about 25/27 years.

Bravo!

Love it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting insight into the social and cultural history of a pop culture icon and also how nerd culture can become so self serious and frankly creepy. The narration is only marred by the authors insistence on doing an unfunny and cliched Simpsons style internet nerd voice repeatedly when quoting fans and several bad accents. If you can put up with that it’s a well researched and accessible book.

A really interesting listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just a great history of one of the biggest characters in the world that is both informative and funny.

Batman fan loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews