Character Profiles - Villains - Man-Bat
Real Name: Dr. Kirk Langström
Occupation: Biologist
Marital Status: Married
Base of Operations: Gotham
Height: 7ft 4in
Weight: 315 lbs
Eyes: Red
Hair: Brown
First Appearance: Detective Comics #400 (June 1970)
Created By: Frank Robbins, Neal Adams
Dr. Kirk Langström, a scientist specializing in the study of bats, developed an extract intended to give humans the bat's sonar sense and tested the formula on himself because he was becoming deaf. While it worked, it had a horrible side effect; transforming him gradually into a hideous human bat.
He first clashed with Batman when he tried to steal the chemicals needed to reverse his transformation, but his control over the new animalistic instincts resulting from his bat-like state was tenuous, and Batman was forced to subdue him in order to administer the antidote.
Langström was cured, but still unbalanced; shortly afterwards, he transformed himself again and kidnapped his fiancée Francine, turning her into a human bat like himself with the intention of starting a new race of bat-like beings. Again, Batman was able to subdue the pair and return them to normal.
Langström later refined his serum, enabling him to retain his human intelligence while in bat form, and allowing himself control over his transformations. He worked for a while as a detective and independent crime fighter as Man-Bat, while he and Francine married and had a daughter, Rebecca. Eventually, however, his instability returned and he was left unable to control his transformations. In this condition, he clashed several times with Batman in the Batcave (which he found by following other bats through the network of caverns; he did not recall its location in human form, and he never knew Batman's secret identity), believing — erroneously — that his daughter was dead and that Batman was somehow responsible.
Although he briefly regained control of his transformations, this appears to have changed. He recently has begun to suspect that his cures missed an element of the serum, and he's losing control to his bat side. He believes he has slaughtered his own wife, son, and daughter.
However, both Kirk and Francine are shown to be alive in One Year Later. Talia al Ghul takes Francine hostage and threatens to poison her if Kirk does not give her the Man-Bat formula. Talia utilizes the mutagen to turn members of the League of Assassins into Man-Bats.
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