Man-Bat
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| Man-Bat | |
 The Man-Bat. Artist's Rendering of Man-Bat. |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Detective Comics #400 June 1970 |
| Created by | Frank Robbins and Neal Adams |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Robert Kirkland "Kirk" Langstrom |
| Team affiliations | Secret Society of Super Villains |
| Abilities | Flight, echolocation, above-human strength |
Man-Bat (real name Robert Kirkland "Kirk" Langstrom) is a fictional character in the DC Universe, who first appeared in Detective Comics #400, illustrated by Neal Adams.
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character biography
Dr. Kirk Langstrom, a scientist specializing in the study of bats, develops an extract intended to give humans the bat's sonar sense and tests the formula on himself because he is becoming deaf. While it works, it has a horrible side effect: it transforms him gradually into a hideous humanoid bat-like monster.
He first clashes with Batman when he tries to steal the chemicals needed to reverse his transformation, but his control over the new animalistic instincts resulting from his bat-like state is tenuous, and Batman is forced to subdue him in order to administer the antidote.
Langstrom later refines his serum, enabling him to retain his human intelligence while in bat form, and allowing himself control over his transformations. He works for a while as a detective and independent crime fighter as Man-Bat, while he and his fiancée, Francine marry and have a daughter, Rebecca. Eventually, however, his instability returns and he is left unable to control his transformations. In this condition, he clashes several times with Batman in the Batcave (which he finds by following other bats through the network of caverns; he does not recall its location in human form, and he never knows Batman's secret identity), believing — erroneously — that his daughter is dead and that Batman is somehow responsible.
Although he briefly regains control of his transformations, this appears to have changed. He begins to suspect that his cures missed an element of the serum, and he's losing control to his bat side. He believes he has slaughtered his own wife, son, and daughter.
However, both Kirk and Francine are shown to be alive in the "One Year Later" storyline. In Batman #655 (September 2006), Talia al Ghul ties up and gags Francine, and then threatens to poison her if Kirk does not give her the Man-Bat formula. After Langstrom gives her the formula, she releases Francine as promised. Talia utilizes the mutagen to turn members of the League of Assassins into Man-Bats.
Man-Bat is also shown to be one of the captured villains in Salvation Run.
[edit] Powers and abilities
By taking his bat-gland formula, Kirk Langstrom can transform himself into a bat-like creature. By taking an antidote he can return to human form.
As Man-bat has strength, agility and endurance are all enhanced to super human levels, a set of leathery bat wings that allow him to fly and super-sensitive hearing. He has natural sonar. He emits high-pitched sound waves and can hear the echoes they make when they bounce of nearby objects. The Man-Bat can navigate perfectly in pitch darkness.
[edit] In other media
Man-Bat has appeared in numerous version in the animated Batman cartoons, the associated toys, and in the video games. He was considered as an antagonist in one of the unproduced scripts for a fifth Joel Schumacher Batman film. [1]
[edit] Television
[edit] Batman: The Animated Series
- In Batman: The Animated Series, Dr. Kirk Langstrom (voiced by Marc Singer) is a zoologist at the Gotham City Zoo. He first appeared in "On Leather Wings", where he steals a serum at the chemical labs. Langstrom also has a wife named Francine. One night, Langstrom drinks the serum, when Batman arrives to question him - revealing himself as the thief of the serum from the chemical labs. Langstrom transforms into a half-man, half-bat creature, and turns on Batman. Francine arrives at the lab and discovers that the creature is her husband. Langstrom is cured and returns to his wife.
- Langstrom next appears in "Tyger, Tyger" where he analyzes the chemical that Dr. Emile Dorian used in his experiments.
- In the episode "Terror in the Sky", Langstrom is having a dream that he transforms into Man-Bat, and he begins to commit crimes. Then, Langstrom is awakened, just to find the remains of the fruit and scratches from a rag. Then, as Francine decides to go to another city, due to Langstrom's inability to control the power of the Man-Bat, he then discovers that the other Man-Bat turns out to be Francine herself, accidentally exposed to an alternate man-bat serum. In the end, Batman cures Francine, and she returns to her husband.
- When Batman: The Animated Series was revamped into The New Batman Adventures, Man-Bat never appeared in the new show. His alter-ego did make a cameo in Bruce Wayne's wedding in the episode "Chemistry".
- In the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Doomsday Sanction," Professor Milo mentions that Dr. Langstrom's research has proven useful to his experiments splicing together human and animal DNA for the Cadmus Project. This ended with a disaster when a mutated warthog was mentioned to have destroyed his lab.
- In Batman Beyond, a new trend called "splicing" involved fusing together animal and human DNA. The new Batman Terry McGinnis, ends up captured by the leader of the splicers, Abel Cuvier aka Chimera, and is injected with vampire bat DNA and ends up resembling Man-Bat. He is later turned back to normal by Wayne.
[edit] The Batman
In The Batman, Langstrom (voiced by Peter MacNicol) is an employee in Wayne Industries doing research on bats and apparently afflicted with albinism. Unlike the Batman: The Animated Series version of this character, this version is not married, meaning that his wife, Francine Langstrom, has not appeared in the show. When Bruce Wayne begins to cut off his project, Langstrom tells Bruce that he needs the project to cure his niece's deafness. When Bruce discovers that Langstrom is lying, he goes to Langström's office to discover the project's real purpose. Langström arrived in his vault to find his boss there; he admits that he created the formula so he could be feared like Batman, and drinks a serum, transforming him into a half-man, half-bat creature. He attacks Bruce at his office, and escapes. Bruce changes into Batman and confronts Man-Bat in the skies of Gotham City. They land on the ground, and Langstrom reverts back to his human form. To be safe, Batman destroys one of Langström's vials. Langstrom drinks the remaining vial, transforms back to Man-Bat, and kidnaps Detective Ethan Bennett. Batman confronts Man-Bat in a sewer, and Langstrom reverts back to his human form, and he is taken away to Arkham Asylum.
In "Pets", Langstrom is still in Arkham and trying to recreate the Man-Bat serum, while The Penguin finds a sonar device he wants to use to control a large condor but ends up with a sonar designed to control bats. When Penguin uses the device, dormant remnants of the Man-Bat formula still inside Langstrom reawaken, transforming him to Man-Bat and instinctively leading him to the Penguin's hideout, as he continues repeating the line: "Come to me". With the sonar device, Penguin is able to use Man-Bat to do his bidding for him, returning him to his human form by saying "rest." Langstrom is furious with Penguin when he learns that Penguin plans to use it to turn Langstrom from human to a half-man, half-bat creature for his own gain, and promises Penguin that the minute he loses the sonar device, he will feel Man-Bat's wrath. At the docks, Batman confronts Man-Bat, and, using his own sonar device, induces a reversion back to his human form. Langstrom and Penguin are both taken back to Arkham.
Langstrom returns in "Rumors" as one of the many villains captured by the vigilante Rumor. He was show in his human form and later in his Man-Bat form, implying he has full control over his transformation.
Langstrom made one last appearance in "Attack of the Terrible Trio", no longer a villain and renouncing the Man-Bat name. Batman charged Langstrom with creating an antidote for his own mutagen that some college students (who are the show's version of the Terrible Trio) had stolen from him and were planning on infecting the entire student body with.
[edit] Video games
- In the Super Nintendo game The Adventures of Batman & Robin, Man-Bat is one of the bosses. In this game he speaks, although in the show he never spoke in Man-Bat form.
- There is a rumor that he'll appear in Lego Batman.
[edit] Toys
- Man-Bat has made several appearances as an action figure as part of Hasbro's Batman: The Animated Series and Dark Knight lines, Mattel's The Batman line, DC Direct's Arkham Asylum line, Art Asylum's minimates line, and the HeroClix line.
- Man-Bat is also one of the action figures from the line, Secret Files 1: Batman Rogues Gallery. The Man-Bat version of this is the brown skinned/fur with green pants.
- An unproduced prototype figure of Man-Bat for Kenner's Super Powers Collection was unearthed after the line's cancellation.[2]
- Man-Bat was also featured in Mattel's DCSH line. The brown version was scheduled for series 8, but was dropped and replaced by Catwoman. A white version of Man-Bat was featured as a San Diego Comic Convention exclusive in packaging designed by Frank Varela of Mattel Toys.
[edit] References
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