Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger for Detective Comics in May 1939, Batman soon transcended the comic book to become an American icon, appearing in war bond promotion and an antiJapanese film serial. The McCarthyite 1950s saw Batman and Robin accused of promoting homosexuality while the 1966 television series, notorious for its camp humor, revived the character for the pop generation. Batman was dramatically reinvented in Frank Miller’s “graphic novel” The Dark Knight Returns (1986), and again in Tim Burton’s 1989 feature film. The blockbuster sequels which followed demonstrate the character’s undiminished cultural potency in the early twentyfirst century.