The Dark Knight Manual: Tools, Weapons, Vehicles & Documents from the Batcave

Like so many others out there, I am extremely hyped for the final chapter of Nolan's Batman saga. To help bide my time until the film's July 20th release, I decided to check Amazon to see what was out there. The Dark Knight Manual, seemed interesting enough... and really the only book out there. I decided to take a flyer on it. Two days later, (thanks Amazon Prime!) and boy am I glad I did. I spent a good 2-3 hours just going through this book, page by page, artifact by artifact. You can really sense that this book was a labor of love by the people who made it. Never will you come as close to being an inhabitant of Gotham City as you are while reading this book. The book may seem small at 112 pages but there is so much detail that bleeds off every single page, with lots of cool easter eggs littered throughout. My only negatives are that I wish the book had a few more profiles of key characters in the trilogy. And that some of the individual photos used are a little dark. All in all, a really great book for the Nolan fan. It's definitely a coffee table book that will leave your guests with a smile on their face and one that you'll find yourself coming back time and time again.

This book is really really cool. I love books like these that have items in them and pull outs, and this is great because it’s aimed at adults, which means it’s treated a lot more serious than other books like this. They have several case files on various characters and events in teh trilogy, and they’re super interesting to look at, and they also have maps/layouts of locations in the trilogy which provided a really cool look into the sets and geography you don’t really get to explore in the movies. However, this book does have a few drawbacks. For one, while the pullouts in the book are VERY well secured, it can be hard to read around overlapping scraps of paper without pulling them up to read underneath them, potentially damaging the papers over time. For a second and more potent one, there is a goof chunk of info that you already know if you’ve watched the movies. The case files provided a lot of small details not seen in the movies and felt like they were widening the world of the movies when you were reading them, but when you read the main sections written by “Bruce” it becomes a bit generic. It reads like a first person Wikipedia recap of the plot of the movies, which sort of sucks because I was like “yeah, I’ve seen the movies, I know that part, what do I not know yet that you can tell me?” But it really wasn’t a huge deal, because so much of this book is really really enjoyable. The pictures are great, the new information on everything from characters, to vehicles, to locations, to the bat suit is really really cool, the pull out maps, case files, and other things are really cool, and the overall presentation is enjoyable. I hope this info tells you wether of not this book is for you or someone you know, and I hope you enjoy reading it or found it informative. Thanks for your time!

This is a great book to add to any batman fans collection. It's packed with lots of great stuff. Done in a way that really makes you feel like you have a real piece of both The Dark Knights world, and Gotham Police files. Lots of facts, blueprints, communication stickys between Alfred, Lucious Fox, and Bruce Wayne. All leading to how Batman evolves. The police files are done in a way that make you feel like you actually have the real deal in your hands. The Joker cards are in here too as evidence files. There are criminal bios in here also, written as though the Dark Knight himself authored them as part of his investigations. I thought that map of Gotham was a great touch also. It was fun tracing down where certain events took place and imagining the ground Batman has to cover. Really cool stuff! For sure worth adding in your collection.

Super cool visually and conceptually. Has forms and files in it as if it were an actual design portfolio. My only complaint is that the measurements in the diagrams don't have any units. Considering that the rest of the book has such good attention to detail, I was pretty disappointed about that. either way though, it's pretty cool.

This is a must-have for any fan of Nolan's Batman trilogy. All of the gadgets Batman uses in the movies are shown, explained (some with diagrams) and elaborated on. Batman's vehicles and Batcave are explained in-depth (with removable blueprints providing a nice touch), some basic Batman psychology is brought to light, and case files are included on many villians and heroes. Some wonderful props are thrown in as well, such as; the Joker's playing cards, "I Believe in Harvey Dent" campaign stickers, and many others. Pricewise, buying it off amazon was a huge deal! I went to Barnes and Noble and saw the same book for $40! Here I purchased it for only $20. I highly recommend it to any Nolan Batman fan.

I bought this as a birthday present 4 years ago for a Batman obsessed boy I nanny for. He was turning 6 years old and was constantly asking questions like, "I wonder what the dimensions of the bat cave are" and "I wonder how I could build a bat-mobile." I searched for a few days to find something to give a deeper explanation to this curious fan and was absolutely THRILLED to find this book!! He had every Batman book, movie, toy, costume item, etc., but this book is different! It offers a detailed look at the characters, story, tools, inventions, and more! To our delight it even has a blueprint of the bat cave including dimensions! This book has been read cover to cover multiple times, was the favorite bedtime story book for several months and continues to be found around the house after 4 years. It is not a kiddy, picture book, but is great for kids and filled with file-folders, flaps, envelopes and more to open and remove maps and such. It has held up really well too! I am completely pleased with this purchase and would absolutely buy another and have recommended it to others who are looking for something Batman related for a serious fan. It's pretty freaking cool!

This book is like no other! I bought this for my husband who is a lifelong Batman fan, and he was very impressed. (I really set the bar high for future gifts now!) The book contains a lot of extras that you cannot purchase elsewhere. There are fold out posters, maps of Gotham, specs for Batman's toys such as the Tumbler, GCPD stickers, police case files, so many extras to list! This is a must have for any true Batman fan.

this book's written from bruce/batman's perspective. there is so much in this book it isnt even funny, joker's playing cards, pull out blueprints for 'the bat' and even a little booklet regarding the pneumatic grapple gun. the amount of inserts actually has the cover bowing a bit, not a bad thing in this case considering all the content, including things I'd never even noticed despite owning all 3 movies. slight cavet though, some of the inserts are glued in in such a manner as to make looking at the pages they're attached over a tad awkward, aside from that, no real issue. if you're looking for hidden nuggets(such as the page of gotham services stickers, yes those ARE stickers) or things you've missed that ARE in the movie, then this book is for you. if you're expecting behind the scenes comments and production notes? there are other books out there that cover that. very much well worth the price paid.