<p>ABC&rsquo;s action-comedy series <em>Batman </em>(1966&ndash;68) famously offered a dual address in its wildly popular portayal of a comic book hero in a live action format. Children uncritically accepted the show&rsquo;s plots and characters, who were guided by lofty ideals and social values, while adults reacted to the clear parody of the values on display. In <em>Batman, </em>author Matt Yockey argues that the series served as a safe space for viewers to engage with changing attitudes about consumerism, politics, the Vietnam war, celebrity, race, and gender during a period when social meaning was increasingly contested in America.<br />
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&nbsp;Yockey examines <em>Batman&rsquo;</em>s<em> </em>boundary pushing in four chapters. In &ldquo;Bat-Civics,&rdquo; he analyzes the superhero as a conflicted symbol of American identity and considers the ways in which the Batman character parodied that status. Yockey then looks at the show&rsquo;s experimentation with the superhero genre&rsquo;s conservative gender and racial politics in &ldquo;Bat-Difference&rdquo; and investigates the significance of the show&rsquo;s choices of stars and guest stars in &ldquo;Bat-Casting.&rdquo; Finally, he considers how the series&rsquo; dual identity as straightforward crime serial and subversive mass culture text set it up for extratextual production in &ldquo;Bat-Being.&rdquo;<br />
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&nbsp;The superhero is a conflicted symbol of American identity&mdash;representing both excessive individualism and the status quo&mdash;making it an especially useful figure for the kind of cultural work that <em>Batman</em> undertook. <em>Batman</em> fans, from popular culture enthusiasts to television history scholars, will enjoy this volume.</p>