Man-Bat Madness!

One of Batman's weirdest foes was eventually to become an even weirder ally. During the heyday when Neal Adams was cranking out some of the most compelling Bat-art ever, there came Man-Bat, a twist on the Batman's name and as it turned out his very nature.

Here was a "monster" to threaten Gotham, but as a bizarre alternate-universe doppleganger of the Caped Crusader himself. He debuted in the four hundredth "smash issue" of Detective  Comics but was not at all a one-shot wonder.

Man-Bat was co-created by Neal Adams, the artist not only of the covers of his first trio of stories in Detective Comics #400, 402 and 407 but the stories as well and writer/cartoonist Frank Robbins who for a short time was in charge of the Darknight Detectives adventures. The two of them give us a Man-Bat trilogy which sees the tragic Kirk Langstrom transformed into the Man-Bat and perhaps saved.

Robbins himself drew the fourth and fifth Man-Bat stories as well as write it as the character became a semi-regular.

I've always been a fan of the art of Frank Robbins, though I know he has his many detractors who object to the way he is so distorts certain aspects of the characters. His energetic pages just leap and scamper before my eyes and I love the.

When Man-Bat finally made a show in Batman's comic book, the durable and underrated Irv Novick was on hand to handle the character.

Then in 1976 Man-Bat got his own series in the "Conway Corner" with Gerry Conway and Steve Ditko combining for the debut issue.

After that Marty Pasko too over the writing with veteran Jim Aparo on the art chores.

Alas the book only held on for two measly issues before succumbing to the pressures of the dwindling comics marketplace. But Man-Bat himself has stayed and as far as I know is still a part of the Batman mythology.

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