For more than three quarters of a century, he has cycled from a figure of darkness to one of lightness and back again; he’s a bat-shaped Rorschach inkblot who takes on the various meanings our changing culture projects onto him. How we perceive Batman’s character, whether he’s delivering dire threats in a raspy Christian Bale growl or trading blithely homoerotic double-entendres with partner Robin on the comics page, speaks to who we are and how we wish to be seen by the world. It’s this endlessly mutable quality that has made him so enduring.And it’s Batman’s fundamental nerdiness—his gadgets, his obsession, his oath, even his lack of superpowers—that uniquely resonates with his fans who feel a fiercely protective love for the character. Today, fueled by the internet, that breed of passion for elements of popular culture is everywhere. Which is what makes Batman the perfect lens through which to understand geek culture, its current popularity, and social significance.In The Caped Crusade, with humor and insight, Glen Weldon, book critic for NPR and author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, lays out Batman’s seventy-eight-year cultural history and shows how he has helped make us who we are today and why his legacy remains so strong.

    The star-studded production includes lead actress Aunjanue Ellis (Ray, The Help), Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men), Oscar and Emmy winner Louis Gossett Jr. (A Raisin in the Sun, Boardwalk Empire), and features Lyriq Bent (Rookie Blue), Jane Alexander (The Cider House Rules), and Ben Chaplin (The Thin Red Line). Director and co-writer Clement Virgo is a feature film and television director (The Wire) who also serves as producer with executive producer Damon D'Oliveira (What We Have).In this "transporting" (Entertainment Weekly) and "heart-stopping" (Washington Post) work, Aminata Diallo, one of the strongest women characters in contemporary fiction, is kidnapped from Africa as a child and sold as a slave in South Carolina. Fleeing to Canada after the Revolutionary War, she escapes to attempt a new life in freedom.

    A librarian is called to a remote Canadian island to inventory the estate of a secretive Colonel whose most surprising secret is a bear who keeps the librarian company--shocking company.

    In these poems, Purdy ponders the remains of a Native village; encounters Fidel Castro in Revolutionary Square; curses a noisy cellmate in the drunk tank; and marvels at the "combination of ballet and murder" known as hockey, all in the author's inimitable man-on-the-street style.Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets is destined to become the standard Purdy poetry volume for many years to come.

    After decades of fascist rule, the resistance has just been sparked in the form of the FREEDOM FIGHTERS.When a Kryptonian rocket crash-landed in 1930s Czechoslovakia, the Nazi war machine found themselves with the most powerful weapon on the planet: baby Kal-El. With their new Overman on the march, Adolf Hitler’s brutal regime set its sights on the invasion of America, and by the 1960s all hope seemed lost. A group of metahuman Freedom Fighters fought valiantly to save their country, but they were ultimately crushed and their leader, Uncle Sam, was driven to the graveyard of avatars, never to be seen again.Now, over 50 years later, a new resistance has arisen…an ALL-NEW FREEDOM FIGHTERS! To crush the Hitler regime and restore their country, The Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, Black Condor and Doll Woman launch a guerrilla hit-and-run campaign to reignite the American spirit. Only a renewed American spirit can bring the powerful Uncle Sam back from the dead to lead the people in the uprising of their lives.Collects Freedom Fighters #1-12

    Her work as a translator draws her into an underworld of family-controlled drug cartels operating out of South America, and she falls in love with a son in one such family. Pregnant, she is kidnapped to an island off the coast of Colombia and slowly tricked into a dependence on cocaine. Her narrative - violent and bizarre, but also riveting, erotic and filled with the heady flamboyance of orchids - runs parallel to her account of life in "Death Clinic," as Death Row is called at the Heaven Valley Facility for Women. It is a moving story of friendship amongst three female inmates - portrayed with devastating wit - who share only the fact that they each have a date with the executioner.Cargo of Orchids swings through comedy and tragedy to shed a gradual, eerie light on the questions of guilt and innocence and moral ambiguity that lie at its heart.Excerpt from Cargo of Orchids:"Despite the freight of anger she carries, Rainy seems so frail it is hard to imagine her giving birth to anything heavier than tears. Rainy gave birth to twins and six months later left them on the railway tracks. She claims it prejudiced the jury. If she'd smothered them or driven them off a pier, it would have been more socially acceptable.-- But abandoning your kids on the tracks wasn't in fashion. She wishes now she'd gone out drinking for the evening instead, but she didn't have enough money to hire a babysitter and pay for the beer."

    Due to mysterious circumstances, Diana must track down the truth behind what’s happened to her timeline and face the biggest stunner of all: Who destroyed Paradise Island?If you think you knew who Wonder Woman was – think again! All bets are off in this all-new direction for the long-running series that’s perfect for new readers as Wonder Woman embarks on an odyssey to find her past and gets a new costume, a new set of foes, and a new tone from the ground up!

    It is also an extraordinary love story that lasted half a century.The first major biography with access to family letters and archives. Mordecai Richler was an outsized and outrageous novelist whose life reads like fiction.Mordecai Richler won multiple Governor General's Literary Awards, the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, among others, as well as many awards for his children's books. He also wrote Oscar-nominated screenplays. His influence was larger than life in Canada and abroad. In Mordecai, award-winning novelist and journalist Charlie Foran brings to the page the richness of Mordecai's life as young bohemian, irreverent writer, passionate and controversial Canadian, loyal friend and deeply romantic lover. He explores Mordecai's distraught childhood, and gives us the "portrait of a marriage" — the lifelong love affair with Florence, with Mordecai as beloved father of five. The portrait is alive and intimate — warts and all.

    One of the breakout hits from DC Comics – The New 52!Buddy Baker has gone from "super" man to family man – but is he strong enough to hold his family together when Maxine, his young daughter, starts to manifest her own dangerous powers? As these new abilities continue to terrify Buddy and his wife Ellen, things take a turn for the worse as Buddy and Maxine begin a journey into the heart of The Red.Don't miss the amazing series from writer Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth) and artist Travel Foreman (The Immortal Iron Fist)!Collecting: Animal Man 1-6

    In this hard-hitting, value-packed volume, witness Batman's formation of the original Outsiders! Metamorpho, Black Lightning, Katana, Halo and Geo-Force star in these stories from BATMAN and THE OUTSIDERS #1-19, BRAVE and BOLD #200 and NEW TEEN TITANS #16!

    No fan of the Dark Knight will want to miss this one-of-a-kind window into Gotham’s dark protector in this fast-paced thriller from New York Times bestselling fantasy writer Tracy Hickman. Readers of Kevin J. Anderson’s The Last Days of Krypton and Enemies & Allies will know that comic book characters pack a powerful punch when they enter the pages of a novel. Wayne of Gotham is no exception: as the DC Universe’s millionaire playboy journeys into the dark recesses of his own past, his a journey that could spell the end for everything he holds dear—and the end of the hero he has become: the Batman.

    With Batman crippled by his fiercest foe, a new hero tries to fill his shoes in protecting Gotham City. But his methods are brutal and dangerous, and the future of Gotham City is uncertain. In June 2005, Batman Begins will be released in movie theatres, starring Christian Bale and featuring Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, and Liam Neeson. Interest in the Batman franchise will surge, with a huge marketing campaign and the star power casting.

    A series of minority governments, and endless Quebec referendums (designed to lose narrowly, to keep the money coming) have left Canada almost ungovernable. When the Governor General resigns in disgrace and the House of Windsor implodes in London, a media baron launches the idea of a Canadian king or queen elected by lottery.It starts as a joke — except that the lucky winner, King John, a bright and charismatic guy from Toronto, knows exactly what people want. Soon Quebec is gone, while Toronto’s surprise bid to leave Canada is averted by shifting his official residence, the new seat of power, to the Toronto waterfront. Many good things happen, and the politicians go along for the ride. And the blockades of Native lands are ended for good, after John is heroically wounded keeping the peace at risk to his life.His popularity soars and Canadian morale soars with it. Soon the rest of the world is taking notice of this model leader. In the United States, the blue states look enviously northward. Then Canada’s king, ignoring assassination threats, goes on a formal visit to Washington. . .From the Hardcover edition.

    For the next six years its members lived the heartbreak, the horror, and the glory of a bitter conflict on foreign soil. This is the heart-and-soul story of the Hasty P's and their part in the Second World War, told by their most eloquent spokesman. First printed over fifty years ago and out of print since 1982, The Regiment has lost none of its immediacy or emotional power. This new edition contains the complete, unabridged original text in all its rich detail. For the first time, it also contains a selection of photographs, and lists the Regiment's Honours and Awards, its Honour Roll, as well as lists of personnel and Second World War casualties. In 1957 The Regiment was awarded 31 Battle Honours for its actions in the war, the most awarded to any Canadian regiment.

    Collecting ADVENTURE COMICS #346, 347, 352-355 and 357! The Legion battles both the Fatal Five and the Sun Eater – and only the ultimate sacrifice can save Ferro Lad's friends!