Spoilers for Man-Bat #1 ahead!
In Man-Bat #1, the title character makes an interesting observation about Gotham City, and its relationship with Batman and his allies. The issue, the first of a five-part mini-series, is written by Dave Wielgosz with art by Sumit Kumar and colors by Romulo. Fajardo Jr; it is available in stores now and on all digital comics platforms.
Man-Bat was created by Neal Adams and first appeared in Detective Comics #400 in 1970. Originally zoologist Robert “Kirk” Langstrom, he experimented on himself with a formula designed to give humans the super hearing of a bat. Unfortunately, this mutated Langstrom into a gigantic human/bat hybrid; most of the time he transforms into a mindless brute but sometimes he can retain his humanity. He would run afoul of Batman and go on to become one of the Dark Knight’s most memorable foes. He eventually made the jump to other media as well, appearing in early episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. In recent years, however, Man-Bat has turned over a more heroic leaf, joining the Justice League Dark team as a scientific consultant as a way of making amends for his past crimes.
In this issue, set before the events of both Death Metal and Justice League Dark, Langstrom takes the Man-Bat serum after his wife Francine storms out on him, angry over finding a vial of the serum; Langstrom was actually keeping some for his deaf sister. He mutates into Man-Bat and takes off. He is able to maintain a presence of mind, but barely. While flying, he notices some thieves and swoops in to stop them, determined that he will show Francine what “real bad people do.” Before he does, he says “Gotham City respects bats. Trusts them to protect her.” He dives down after the thieves, and they panic, proving his point.
Man-Bat is right about Gotham City: it respects bats. Batman is the most obvious example of this, as are Batgirl, Batwing and Batwoman. This also includes the various other members of the Bat-family: Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, Spoiler, Huntress and so on. All of them, in addition to being affiliated with Batman, are all largely nocturnal—just like bats. Also consider that Gotham City may be the only city where such a theme exists—no such thread runs through the heroes of Metropolis, or Star City, or Opal.
Gotham City is synonymous with Batman and the rest of the Bat-family, and Man-Bat correctly points out the unique relationship the city enjoys with its protector. It remains to be seen in the rest of the limited series whether Man-Bat will receive the same level of respect as the Dark Knight.
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