Villain Profile: Man-Bat

There's a face only a mother could love.

A common enough lesson, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” It’s an idea that just about every form of media has played with. One of the better characters in comics that exemplifies this is Dr. Kirk Langstrom. It also has a little of the "playing with nature can be very, very dangerous" lesson to it, but somehow that seems less important for this one.

Langstrom was a simple biologist that specialized in bats. He was also a gifted chemist. Separate, these two things are hardly the makings of a monster, but the two mixed together makes, well that’s the start of a horror story. Langstrom had a problem, he was slowly growing deaf. Not the worst disorder to develop, but its not an easy thing o live with either. Langstrom's years of studying bats gave him the hope that he could use his expertise to restore his hearing. He’d developed a serum that he’d hoped would give him the bat’s ability to travel by echolocation. How this somehow would reverse genetic hearing loss I'll never know. I'd be willing to bet you could find a deaf bat, damaged equipment is damaged equipment, but I digress. The serum worked, for a time. Like most sci fi characters, he got to enjoy his recovery for only a short time before the side effects became apparent. Over the next few days, he noticed his hands had turned claw like, ears had lengthened, teeth grew into fangs, and developed an intense sensitivity to light. He tried to reverse these unintended side effects, but it seemed impossible. Eventually the serum completely transformed him into an enormous man sized bat. His intelligence vanished in this form and he was driven by a feral hunger. He terrorized Gotham for several nights before Batman was able to outsmart the beast, and restore Langstrom to his human form. Despite this, either by accident or design Man-Bat has reared his ugly mug several times since his initial appearance. A good monster is never really beaten.

Hope he's not a vampire bat.

As a man, Langstrom is little more than an above average scientist. As Man-Bat he gains a number of abilities that one would expect from an animal human hybrid. He has immense strength, easily able to bend steel. Which makes sense when you consider how strong he has to be to lift such a huge body into the air. He can track via echolocation (see, he got what he wished for) but the trade up is that his eyes weakened, particularly his daytime vision. His scream can shatter glass.  His hands gain extra digits, allowing him both to fly on leathery wings, but keeping the grasping hands of a man. His fangs and claws are also razor sharp. Like he needs more weapons.

Man-Bat, while not on the same level of notoriety as Joker or Two-Face, is a popular Batman villain, appearing in a number of media. He was the first villain of Batman: The Animated Series in the episode titled “On Leather Wings,” the character is more or less the same as his comic version, but a half crazed Langstrom claims that his monster form is at least partially intelligent. Or, at the very least, smart enough to seek out the chemicals necessary to create his Man-Bat formula. After being cured Langstrom became a recurring scientific add to Batman in a few episodes. His research was expanded across the Animated DC-verse, most animal-hybrid research is attributed to Langstrom.

He also appeared in The Batman series. This version had a few differences, chiefly that Langstrom appears to be an Albino, and that he intentionally created the Man-Bat formula so that he could be feared like the Batman. His monster mode also just seems creeper as a great white bat. This version shows no sign of intelligence, and merely acts on instinct.

Doesn't even look good in lego mode. That's no easy task.

He hasn’t made any appearance in any Batman films, though some say that in Batman Begins Dr. Crane’s hallucination altered Batman was based off of the Man-Bat idea. This also follows later in the film, where people high on the fear toxin see Batman as a great flying Bat monster as he glided over the chaos below. It’s not much, but better than some of the other B-list villains.

He appeared in a number of Batman video games, but usually only as an unlockable or minor character.

I enjoy Man-Bat simply because he is such a monster. He isn’t really evil, no more evil than a hungry beast. Sure he causes damage and is quite horrible to look at, but in the end all he wants is to eat and find shelter. Can’t really fault him for that. Despite not being evil, he has proven to be a powerful and incredibly dangerous adversary for Batman simply because Batman adapted to the night while Man-Bat thrives in the dark. Plus, you see so many villains trying to do what Langstrom did, that is become a monster, it’s kind of nice to see someone who merely changed on accident. Furthermore, unlike other “accidental” supervillains, he himself bares no animosity or hatred to the rest of the world. He’s a lot like the Lizard of Spider-man’s rogue’s gallery, all he wanted to do was fix himself and he was cursed with a horrible alter ego. Next time, X23, a girl with issues.

It just looks gross, doesn't it?

 http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/File:Man-Bat.jpg

 http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/File:Man-Bat_%28The_Batman%29.jpg

 http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/File:800px-Man-Bat.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-Bat