he is Bruce Wayne’s greatest fear
personified welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we’ll be exploring the comic book
origins of dr. Kirk Langstrom otherwise
known as man-bat
as with most comic book characters there
are often reimagining and different
versions to a character’s past we have
chosen to primarily follow the storyline
that unfolded in 1970s Detective Comics
number 400 which was expanded upon in
issue 402 Kirk Langstrom was once a
geneticist who worked for Gotham’s
Museum of Natural History charged with
preparing a bat exhibit for the museum’s
grand opening he would wait until his
co-workers left for the night to conduct
experiments on bats in hopes of
counteracting his increasing deafness he
regularly extracted the secretions from
the glands of bats in order to gain the
creatures natural hearing abilities once
Langstrom had enough solution he tested
it on himself immediately afterwards he
found that even the noise of dripping
water had become unbearable and that his
eyes could no longer stand light putting
on sunglasses he realized that he was
able to see perfectly in the darkness
and that his vocal cords had begun
emitting supersonic signals having
already made incredible progress
Langstrom decided to call it a night
however he noticed that his hands have
become claw-like and hairy rushing to a
mirror he was horrified to discover that
his entire body had changed into that of
a bat panicking he rushed back to his
lab in hopes of developing an antidote
unable to make progress he decided to go
into hiding and send out a telegram to
his boss saying that he had to take care
of his sick mother throughout the day
he slept upside down in the bat exhibit
waiting for the staff to lock up at
night later while searching for food he
stumbled upon a group of burglars
fighting Batman catching them unaware
Langstrom knocked the villains
unconscious when Batman tried to thank
the Good Samaritan
Langstrom hid his face and explained to
Batman that he was his inspiration for
playing the hero Batman then shined a
light on the doctors face his horrific
visit revealed
Langstrom lashed out and destroyed the
flashlight before running off into the
night leaving Batman to wonder if he had
just made a friend or a foe
soon after the doctor ambushed several
thieves at a biotech company in the
hopes of stealing a potential cure
however when Batman tried to stop him
Langstrom was forced to fight back
Batman then pursued him back to the
museum where he ran into langstrom’s
fiancee who had gone looking for him
taking her into the lab in an attempt to
reach out to the creature her presence
backfired and caused Langstrom to drop
the Cure and jump out of a window
Batman gave chase but Langstrom took
flight signaling that his transformation
was complete instinctually the man-bat
sought shelter and happened upon the
Batcave thus as Batman returned to base
he was caught in a fight with the
creature knocking the man-bat out Batman
went to work on developing and
administering a cure maybe I can undo
the Fate Langstrom has brought upon
himself
does it appear feasible sir I think so
despite having been restored to human
form the mutation turned out to be
dormant and would regularly reemerge
causing Langstrom to experience
blackouts and instinctual rampages a
villain that is the living
personification of Batman’s greatest
fears
man-bat remains one of the lesser known
yet more deadly villains in the Batman
universe he’s continued to appear in
various media most notably as the first
villain to appear in 1992’s Batman the
Animated Series are you a fan of this
leathery winged monster for more great
comic book origins be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com
personified welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we’ll be exploring the comic book
origins of dr. Kirk Langstrom otherwise
known as man-bat
as with most comic book characters there
are often reimagining and different
versions to a character’s past we have
chosen to primarily follow the storyline
that unfolded in 1970s Detective Comics
number 400 which was expanded upon in
issue 402 Kirk Langstrom was once a
geneticist who worked for Gotham’s
Museum of Natural History charged with
preparing a bat exhibit for the museum’s
grand opening he would wait until his
co-workers left for the night to conduct
experiments on bats in hopes of
counteracting his increasing deafness he
regularly extracted the secretions from
the glands of bats in order to gain the
creatures natural hearing abilities once
Langstrom had enough solution he tested
it on himself immediately afterwards he
found that even the noise of dripping
water had become unbearable and that his
eyes could no longer stand light putting
on sunglasses he realized that he was
able to see perfectly in the darkness
and that his vocal cords had begun
emitting supersonic signals having
already made incredible progress
Langstrom decided to call it a night
however he noticed that his hands have
become claw-like and hairy rushing to a
mirror he was horrified to discover that
his entire body had changed into that of
a bat panicking he rushed back to his
lab in hopes of developing an antidote
unable to make progress he decided to go
into hiding and send out a telegram to
his boss saying that he had to take care
of his sick mother throughout the day
he slept upside down in the bat exhibit
waiting for the staff to lock up at
night later while searching for food he
stumbled upon a group of burglars
fighting Batman catching them unaware
Langstrom knocked the villains
unconscious when Batman tried to thank
the Good Samaritan
Langstrom hid his face and explained to
Batman that he was his inspiration for
playing the hero Batman then shined a
light on the doctors face his horrific
visit revealed
Langstrom lashed out and destroyed the
flashlight before running off into the
night leaving Batman to wonder if he had
just made a friend or a foe
soon after the doctor ambushed several
thieves at a biotech company in the
hopes of stealing a potential cure
however when Batman tried to stop him
Langstrom was forced to fight back
Batman then pursued him back to the
museum where he ran into langstrom’s
fiancee who had gone looking for him
taking her into the lab in an attempt to
reach out to the creature her presence
backfired and caused Langstrom to drop
the Cure and jump out of a window
Batman gave chase but Langstrom took
flight signaling that his transformation
was complete instinctually the man-bat
sought shelter and happened upon the
Batcave thus as Batman returned to base
he was caught in a fight with the
creature knocking the man-bat out Batman
went to work on developing and
administering a cure maybe I can undo
the Fate Langstrom has brought upon
himself
does it appear feasible sir I think so
despite having been restored to human
form the mutation turned out to be
dormant and would regularly reemerge
causing Langstrom to experience
blackouts and instinctual rampages a
villain that is the living
personification of Batman’s greatest
fears
man-bat remains one of the lesser known
yet more deadly villains in the Batman
universe he’s continued to appear in
various media most notably as the first
villain to appear in 1992’s Batman the
Animated Series are you a fan of this
leathery winged monster for more great
comic book origins be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com
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