MAN-BAT: HIS EARLY STORIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at DC’s character Man-Bat.

DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #400 (June 1970)

Title: Challenge of the Man-Bat

Villains: The Blackout Gang

Synopsis: Kirk Langstrom, a Gotham City zoologist, makes his first appearance in this issue. Langstrom was using genetic components from bats to try restoring hearing to the deaf, but the formula instead wound up transforming him into a human-sized bat creature.

The anguished Langstrom realizes he must go into seclusion until he can devise a cure for his condition. That night he happens by as Batman interrupts the Blackout Gang’s attempt to rob a Gotham museum.

Man-Bat helps Batman defeat and capture the gang and reveals to the curious hero that he is not wearing a costume before departing, leaving the caped crusader stunned. 

DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #402 (August 1970)

Title: Man or Bat?

Synopsis: Kirk Langstrom has been struggling to come up with a chemical formula to restore him to his human form. One night he breaks into Biochem Ltd. to obtain a crucial ingredient and when Batman tries to stop him, he fights him and leaves Bats in an unconscious heap. He then flies off with what he came for. 

Looking for clues the next day, Batman meets Kirk Langstrom’s future wife Francine Lee and soon deduces that Kirk is really Man-Bat. The superhero and Francine arrive at Kirk’s laboratory just as he is about to drink the freshly created serum.

The bottle with the serum winds up breaking in the resulting battle, infuriating Man-Bat. The enraged Langstrom flies off and spends the next nights hiding in assorted caves on the outskirts of Gotham. In one cave his sonar leads him to a small hole that he makes larger. He goes deeper into the new cavern way and, in a comic book coincidence, ultimately finds himself in the Batcave.

Batman is there, working to recreate Kirk’s cure from a sample of the fluid from the floor of the site of their previous battle. He detects Man-Bat’s presence and the pair battle it out. Bruce subdues Kirk and explains what he was doing. He hands the cure to Man-Bat, who gratefully flies off with it.

DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #407 (January 1971)

Title: Marriage: Impossible

Synopsis: Batman learns that Kirk Langstrom never took the serum and is still at large as Man-Bat. He confronts him at a Gotham Cathedral and, after a skirmish, learns that Kirk didn’t take the cure because Francine, to prove her devotion to him, used his Man-Bat formula to turn herself into a similar monster called She-Bat.

The pair planned to get married despite still being in bat-form (It’s only a comic book. Just go with it.) At any rate, Batman winds up fighting both Man-Bat and She-Bat.

Bruce defeats the couple by ringing the cathedral bell, the loudness of which incapacitates the bat-creatures due to their extra-sensitive hearing. He then administers the cure to the reluctant pair, who feel that their bat-forms were messing with their minds. 

DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #416 (October 1971)

Title: Man-Bat Madness

Synopsis: In human form, Kirk and Francine finally tie the knot. As a wedding present, Batman gives them a large quantity of the Man-Bat/ She-Bat cure just in case they ever revert to their monstrous forms.

Time goes by, and while Langstrom continues his other zoological research, a neighboring lab experiments with sonics.

Even in human form, Kirk’s biochemistry has been so changed that he has comparatively sensitive hearing. Prolonged exposure to the sonic experiments affects Langstrom’s brain chemistry and makes him a bit unbalanced.

Kirk irrationally lets scientific curiosity drive him to create a Man-Bat formula which would result in permanent bat-form, reasoning that there’s no danger unless he drinks it. One night the Langstroms happen to be attending an opera which also has Bruce Wayne and his then-romantic partner Marla Mannings in the audience.

The loud music and high-pitched singing of the sopranos trigger Kirk’s reversion to Man-Bat form. He attacks some operagoers then flies off. For comic book reasons – which is to say none – Man-Bat/ Kirk is becoming as unhinged as Spider-Man’s foe the Lizard.

Man-Bat wants to take the formula that will leave him in bat-form permanently. Batman tries to stop him, but the creature eventually reaches Kirk’s safe and drinks from the vial inside. Bruce had switched the perma-bat formula with the antidote in case Man-Bat won. Kirk regains his human form, and he & Francine hope for normal lives from now on.   

DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #429 (November 1972)

Title: Man-Bat Over Vegas

Villain: She-Bat

Synopsis: When nuclear tests in the Nevada desert cause bizarre behavior in the region’s bats, Kirk Langstrom is called in to study the problem.

He and Francine arrive in Vegas and spend days working on the problem. However, other issues soon rear their heads. 

In addition to causing abnormal behavior in the local bats, the tests cause Francine to transform into a vampiric version of She-Bat. Bruce Wayne puts two and two together when news reports mention dead bodies in Las Vegas with neck-bites and no blood left in them.

As Batman, he arrives in Vegas and teams up with the human Kirk Langstrom to find and capture She-Bat. Batman battles her in her new cave lair in the desert, then he and Kirk capture her. Bruce Wayne’s money pays for a complete blood transformation to return Francine to normal. 

BATMAN Vol 1 #254 (February 1974)

Title: King of the Gotham Jungle

Villain: The Getaway Genius (Yes, really.)

Synopsis: When Batman is repeatedly foiled by Gotham’s new supervillain the Getaway Genius, Kirk Langstrom decides it’s time that he repays some of the kindnesses that Batman has shown him.

(Including letting his wife get away with murders in Las Vegas, I’m guessing.)

Kirk becomes Man-Bat and that night teams up with Batman. The pair at long last capture the Getaway Genius and his gang. Man-Bat and Bats then part company.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Vol 1 #119 (June 1975)

Title: Bring Back Killer Krag

Villain: Max “Killer” Krag

Synopsis: When Killer Krag assassinates a mob target, the man’s widow offers a $100,000 reward for Krag’s capture. Kirk Langstrom decides he could use that money to further fund his scientific research so he becomes Man-Bat and sets out to snare the hitman. 

He flies to the island nation of Santa Cruz where Max Krag fled. Batman has also followed the villain there, so he and Man-Bat team up. Against assorted gunmen and other killers, our heroes defeat them all and take Krag back to Gotham.

Batman gets the $100,000 reward (worth over $585,000 here in 2024) and donates it to fund Kirk Langstrom’s work.

MAN-BAT Vol 1 #1 (January 1976)

Title: Beware the Eyes of Baron Tyme

Villain: Baron Tyme

Synopsis: Clement Tyme (sigh), a professor at Gotham’s Antioke University, has made a career studying occultism. He conjures up a demon and begs for actual magic powers. The demon agrees to grant them in return for Baron Tyme offering human sacrifices to him.

The demon grants the Baron the power to cast a spell that transforms Francine Langstrom back into her vampiric She-Bat form. Tyme is also able to control her and uses her to kill off a few victims as offerings to the demon.   

Kirk investigates as Man-Bat and gets help from Batman to capture Francine and use the antidote to return her to human form. Next, he confronts Baron Tyme one on one. The Baron uses magic like causing tentacles to spring from the walls to grab Man-Bat, but the battle eventually causes the villain’s cauldron to overturn, resulting in the explosion of Baron Tyme’s lair.

MAN-BAT Vol 1 #2 (March 1976)

Title: Fugitive from Blind Justice

Villain: The Ten-Eyed Man

Synopsis: The Langstroms have moved to Chicago, Kirk’s home town and a very toddlin’ one at that. By now Kirk is able to turn back and forth from bat-form to human form at will. He has taken to flying around Chicago as Man-Bat for a while at night.

Sightings of Man-Bat have been reported, and a secret criminal group called the CLA have hired the supervillain called the Ten-Eyed Man to capture the bat-creature so they can try to study his powers and replicate them in their own operatives.

That particular night the Ten-Eyed Man (Who had optic nerves transplanted into eight of his fingertips as his idiotic origin.) attacks and nearly captures Man-Bat, but Kirk escapes. Langstrom returns home to his and Francine’s apartment, where he discovers a surprise Welcome Back Party thrown by his sister Britt Langstrom. 

While Kirk and Francine mingle with the many guests, Francine starts to have an odd episode. She and Kirk slip into their bedroom momentarily so he can chain her to the bed (?) in case she involuntarily turns back into She-Bat again.

Later that night, the Ten-Eyed Man targets Man-Bat again, but in a battle on a rooftop, the villain winds up falling to his death after letting slip info about the CLA.

DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #458 (April 1976)

Title: Peal of the Devil-Bell

Villain: Dr. Thanatogenos

Synopsis: One night in Chicago, a sorcerer named Dr. Thanatogenos sounds his Devil-Bell and the peals cause Francine Langstrom to transform into She-Bat once again.

She flies off into the night, so Kirk becomes Man-Bat and follows her.

She-Bat is hypnotically led to the tower of the Cathedral of St. Aloysius of the Doves, from where the Devil-Bell’s ringing originates. Man-Bat flies in too late to stop Dr. Thanatogenos from turning She-Bat into a female stone gargoyle.

Our hero fights the sorcerer but one of his wand-blasts finally hits Man-Bat and knocks him out. Dr. T does a Villain Rant about how he will now turn Kirk into a stone gargoyle as well.   

DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #459 (May 1976)

Title: Scream of the Gargoyle

Villain: Dr. Thanatogenos

Synopsis: The villain has tied Man-Bat upside down by his ankles and begins ringing the Devil-Bell once again. Kirk manages to free himself before he can start transforming into a stone gargoyle.

Man-Bat battles Dr. Thanatogenos and eventually manages to destroy the villain’s wand AND the clapper for the Devil-Bell. The defeated Dr. T turns into a stone gargoyle, Francine is freed and Man-Bat takes her home.

*** After this, DC wasted the next several years using Man-Bat as a bounty hunter and private investigator (?) instead of the horror comic badass he should have been.