Man-Bat

Man-Bat (Robert Kirkland "Kirk" Langstrom) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Introduced in Detective Comics #400 (June 1970) as an enemy of the superhero Batman, the character belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery. Originally portrayed as a supervillain, later incarnations show the Man-Bat as a sympathetic villain or antihero. In the original version of the story, Kirk Langstrom was a zoologist who tried to give humans a bat's acute sonar sense. He managed to develop an extract that could supposedly do this, but upon testing it on himself, he transformed into an anthropomorphic feral half-bat hybrid, lacking sentience and acting purely on instinct. Batman managed to reverse the effects, but Langstrom would return as the Man-Bat time and time again, albeit not necessarily as a villain, as Langstrom would sometimes retain enough sanity to use his powers for good. Several other characters have since appeared as similar Man-Bat creatures, including Langstrom's wife Francine and father Abraham. Since his debut at the end of the Silver Age of Comic Books, the Man-Bat has been featured in various media adaptations, including television series and video games. In 2017, the Man-Bat was ranked as IGNs 16th-best Batman villain. The character made his first appearance in Detective Comics #400 (June 1970) and was created by Frank Robbins and Neal Adams in collaboration with editor Julius Schwartz. The Man-Bat was the star of his own eponymous series in 1975–1976, which proved to be unpopular and was cancelled after only two issues. Dr. Kirk Langstrom, a zoologist who specializes in chiropterology, develops an extract intended to give humans a bat's acute sonar sense and tests the formula on himself. The extract works, but it has a horrible side effect: it transforms him into a monstrous human/bat hybrid creature. This side effect makes him so distraught that it temporarily affects his sanity. He goes on a mad rampage until Batman finds a way to reverse the effects.