| “ | Dear God. Is this what I have become? More animal than man. When will the surrender be complete?
— Man-Bat
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” |
Dr. Kirk Langstrom, a scientist specializing in the study of bats, develops an extract intended to give humans a bat's sonar sense and tests the formula on himself because he is becoming deaf. The extract works, but it has a horrible side effect: it transforms him into a hideous man-sized bat. The serum also takes away his intelligence, so he goes on a mad rampage until Batman can find a way to reverse the effects.
Later, Langstrom takes the concoction again, and Man-Bat returns. He also coaxes his wife, Francine Langstrom, into drinking the serum, and she goes through the same transformation, becoming She-Bat. Together, they terrorize Gotham City until Batman can once again restore them.
On some occasions, Langstrom takes the serum and retains enough intelligence to work for the forces of good. During one of these periods he works with the detective Jason Bard. On another occasion, in Action Comics #600, Jimmy Olsen inadvertedly puts Superman into a cave occupied by Man-Bat to protect him from Kryptonite radiation that had reached Earth following the explosion of Krypton. Man-Bat calms the maddened Superman and then summons Hawkman, who helps Superman overcome the radiation.
Kirk and Francine have a daughter, Becky, and a son, Aaron. Because of the effects the serum had on Aaron's DNA, he is born with a deadly illness. Francine turns him into Man-Bat form to save his life. This occurred in issue three of the Man-Bat mini-series by Chuck Dixon.Battles here were deemed to be unfair or otherwise not in accordance with wiki standards, and have been removed from the statuses of the warriors and displayed below.
Battle vs. Giant Short-faced Bear (by GSFB)[]
It had been months since Gorilla Grodd sent all superheroes and almost all supervillians (save for himself) back in time, in different epochs. Months it had been since he became the sole superpowered being of the modern era, and tried to conquer the Earth. Among those he sent back in time was Man-Bat, who now found himself flying above the great Plains at night, hunting for a meal.
He was given enough vials of his bat Serum to last him several months, but he took a large dosage and inevitably remained in bat form permanently. He had managed to survive when others who had been sent back to the ice age, like the Joker, Lex Luthor, and Parasite had met their doom. Man-Bat did not know how many others from his time where there: all he or it knew was that survivial was key, and soon it would grow too cold to hunt: he needed sustenance fast.
As he glided, his echolocation detected a Giant short Faced bear, chewing on the mutilated remains on an unidentified animal. Man-Bat, desperate for food, decided to fight the bear away from its kill and take its prize, just as it had seen the Bear do on numerous occasions to other predators, such as Saber tooth cats and giant American Lions. Screeching, Man-Bat dived towards the Bear.
The Bear, smelling Man-Bat, reared up and looked to its right, seeing the monster approach. It roared, then swatted with its paw to warn off the flyer, but Man-Bat kept coming, and in one fell swoop slashed the bear in the face. It flew off again, before the Bear could retaliate.
While the Bear rubbed its bloodied face into the permafrost, Man-Bat dived again. As the Bear looked upwards Man-Bat clawed again, this time taking an eye.
The Bear roared in fury as Man-Bat took to the higher air again, and then flew back down. This time however, before Man-Bat could land a blow, the bear roared at him, the noise nearly deafening to Man-Bat's ultra sensitive ears. Rolling over grass and several stones, Man-Bat stopped and shook his head, trying to recover from the roar. He opened his eyes, and caught sight of the bear approaching. It moved before the Bear could hit it with its paw, but the bear charged and tried to land more paw swipes. Man-Bat clawed and snarled, slashing at the bear's limbs and face until the bear was caked in blood. Yet the Bear roared and struck the wings of Man-Bat, smashing the thin bones within. Man-Bat screeched, hurting the Bear's ears. If leaped twice before collapsing, reeling from the pain in its now useless wings. He frantically tried to crawlm away, only to meet a cliff and jagged rocks below. Man-Bat turned, and saw that the Bear was charging, frothing at the mouth. Man-Bat stood up, screeching mightly, but the bear roared back, both combatants hurting in their ears. The Giant short Faced Bear was rearing to leap onto Man-Bat when the latter charged lighting quick to the monster bear and tried to body slam it. Both tumbled over the cliff and fell, the Bear hitting the ground and several rocks during the fall. Man-Bat held on and struck at the gut of the bear, spilling intestines. The two fell over and over again, until they finally struck the bottom of a small ravine.
Man-Bat was knocked out and had a leg broke, but regained consciousness. SHaking its head, Man-Bat turned to the Bear, which smelled of death. The giant did not breathe, didn't move, and Man-Bat heard no heart beat. The Fall had killed it: if it hadn't been for the cliff, the bear would have killed him. Nursing its wounds,Man-Bat screeched loudly, its call echoing across Ice Age Oklahoma.
As Man-Bat turned to the bear, beginning to feed, more of the bear's guts spilled out, including its somach, bloated with whatever the bear had brought down earlier. It two was cut in two, and slowly, out slid the devoured corpse, which was intermingled with a black cape and cowl, the latter sporting a pair of tall, thin, pointed ear-like projections...
Expert's Opinion[]
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