How cool does Slacker Grunge Batman look in his flannel shirt?
    
The answer lies in "The Batman Vault," a self-proclaimed "museum-in-a-book" ... er, OK, a coffee-table book about the Dark Knight, from his humble, short-earred beginnings in 1939 to his many "Elseworld" incarnations in the 1990s.
     
Along with a history of Batman by former DC comics editor Robert Greenberger and comics writer Matthew K. Manning, the book is bloated with vintage comic panels, plastic-encased "ephemera" (a paper Batplane, anyone?), lots of artists' rough, drawing-board sketches and cool esoteric images.
     
Among the latter: a spoof by artist Stan Shaw that depicts Batman as a grunge rock star and as "Dream Date Batman," a photo of comedian Milton Berle as the villain Louie the Lilac from the 1960s campy TV series, a figure of Batman as an ugly vampire from an "Elsewhere" alternate-universe tale, and the cover of another such comic in which Batman is a Civil War character.
     
"The Batman Vault" (Running Press, 192 pages) is available now for a list price of $49.95.