Man-bat
Man-Bat (Eng. "Mann-Bat") is the title of a series of comics that the US publisher DC-Comics has been publishing since 1975.
The comics in the series are about the experiences of the scientist Dr. Kirk Langstrom, who was turned into a monstrous creature half-human and half-bat as a result of a failed self-experiment. Man-Bat belongs to the horror comic genre, and some issues or series also contain elements of detective or crime comics and the superhero genre.
Publications on Man-Bat
The first series under the name "Man-Bat" was started in December 1975. The series, which was artistically designed by the author Frank Robbins and the draftsman Neal Adams , was discontinued after only two editions in March 1976. Instead, the stories prepared for the series continued to be published by making "Man-Bat" a feature within the " Batman Family " series, which continued to feature stories in the series until the early 1980s.
In the 1990s, two more series were published under the title "Man-Bat" (1995 and 1996), each comprising 3 issues. In addition, a "Man Bat" story was published as the lead story in issue # 11 of the anthology series " Showcase '94" . Another four-part miniseries followed in 2004 that dealt with the subject. There was also a variation of the “Man-Bat” theme, which was published under the title “Bat-Thing” of “Amalgam Comics”, a joint imprint of the publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics , and the title characters of DC's “Man- Bat ” and Marvel's “ Man-Thing ” merged into a single character in an experimental story.
The 1996 mini-series and the "Man-Bat" story from Showcase were penned by the author Chuck Dixon . The artists Flint Henry (pencil drawings) and Eduardo Barreto (ink drawings) were responsible for the visualization of Dixon's stories .
The 1995 miniseries - which appeared under the so-called "Elseworld" label, intended to indicate that a story takes place outside the regular "continuity" of the DC Universe - was written by writer Jamie Delano and in impressionist style by painter John Bolton Pictures taken.
Title character and plot
The title character of Man-Bat was conceived by Neal Adams and suggested by Frank Robbins and Editor Julius Schwartz. "It was first visualized (by Neal Adams) for a story first published in Detective Comics # 400, which appeared in June 1970. This story was - like all stories published in Detective Comics - part of the series about the superhero Batman.As the name Man-Bat in contrast to Batman suggests, Man-Bat was originally an antagonist of the superhero, a kind of anti-Batman designed because he turned its symbolism - the bat as savior and protector of Gotham - into the negative. Like the character of Batman, Man-Bat is owned by the Time Warner Corporation.
Adaptations
In the Batman animated series Batman from the 1990s, Man-Bat appeared in the episodes On Leather Wings , Tyger, Tyger and Terror in the Sky , in which he was dubbed in the English-language original by Marc Singer .
While On Leather Wings essentially retells the genesis of Man-Bat from Batman # 400, Langstrom only appears in Tyger, Tyger in human form to analyze a serum for Batman developed by Emile Dorian. In Terror in the Sky , Francine is eventually infected with the Man-Bat serum, but is ultimately saved through the collaboration of Batman and her husband.
In the series The Batman Man-Bat was dubbed by Peter MacNicol . In this version, Dr. Langstrom is unmarried, has albinism and works as a mad researcher for Wayne Corps, otherwise the story remains essentially true to the original.
Computer and console game versions of Man-Bat can be found in the SNES video game The Adventures of Batman and Robin , in which Man-Bat appears as the boss opponent in the final level. In the game Batman: Arkham Knight , which was released for PlayStation 4, X Box One and PC, the player can get to the bottom of the origins of Man-Bat as a side mission. Furthermore, Man-Bat is another opponent of Batman in the game.
Man-Bat action figures appeared in the Batman: The Animated Series and Dark Knight series, produced by toy maker Hasbro, and in the Arkham Asylum and Art Asylum's Minimates series , distributed by DC Direct.
Publications
- Batman Klassik Volume 6, The Man-Bat-Saga, 1990, Norbert Hethke Verlag, Frank Robbins, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, ISBN 3-89207-409-7
credentials
- ^ Foreword to Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2, p. 8, Neal Adams