Man-Bat

*What a pity the Batman himself can't be here to witness the birth of Man-Bat!*
―Langstrom transforming into Man-Bat.[src]
Dr. **Kirk Langstrom** is a former employee and scientist at Wayne Enterprises who created a serum that turned him into **Man-Bat**. After he quit the mantle of Man-Bat,he worked as a scientist at Gotham University.

## Man-Bat

* Man-Bat
* Kirk Langstrom

### Affiliation

The BatmanEthan Bennett
Ellen Yin
Penguin
Robin
Batgirl

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Peter MacNicol (English)Shoto Kashii (Japanese)
Grzegorz Pawlak (Polish)
Mario Scarabelli (Italian)

## Physical Appearance

Langstrom is albino. He wears a blue coat with a red shirt underneath and a tie. He has small facial hair on his chin.

Man-Bat is missing Langstrom's shirt due to the bulk ripping it and only wears the remains of his pants. He has grayish-white skin with long pointy ears. He has sharp fangs and red eyes. He also has a stack of fur on his back and long,sharp,and red-striped wings underneath his arms.

Like Joker, he was given black rings around his eyes in his second appearance. (Though only in his Man-Bat form).

Langstrom after reverting from Man-Bat.Langstrom in the Arkham inmate uniform (season 1).Langstrom in the Arkham inmate uniform (season 2).Langstrom in his pyjamas.Man-Bat's season one appearance.
## History

In an effort to become the ultimate "Bat" in Gotham City, Dr. Langstrom worked on a mutative serum that would transform him into the extremely powerful and evil Man-Bat. One day, Bruce Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, inquired about the subject and purpose of his experiments, and Langstrom told Bruce that he was trying to cure his niece's deafness. Bruce soon discovered that Langstrom had lied after a visit to his niece. Bruce went back to Wayne Enterprises, and, after he looked through Langstrom's journal, discovered that he wanted to be like the Batman. Langstrom, not knowing that Bruce Wayne was Batman, took a dose of his new serum, which caused him to transform into Man-Bat. Langstrom terrorized the city during his newfound need for blood. Man-Bat wreaked havoc throughout Gotham, but was eventually apprehended when the serum wore off. Unfortunately,he had another vial and turned himself into Man-Bat again,and this time kidnapped law official Ethan Bennett. Batman tracked him down to the sewers,rescued Ethan,then flushed Man-Bat out using the drain. Man-Bat then reverted again into Langstrom,and Ethan arrested him. At Arkham,he was writing the composition for his formula,in hopes of ruling the night sky as Man-Bat again.

In *Pets*, the Penguin used a sonic device to take control of Man-Bat's mind, and he used Langstrom as a tool to steal gold. Eventually, Batman put together his own sonic device and used it to turn Man-Bat against Penguin.

Man-Bat was later among the many supervillains who were captured by Rumor. Following that incident, Man-Bat was sent back to Arkham Asylum.

After Langstrom served time at Arkham, he turned to an honest life as a scientist, and promised never to use the formula again. Sadly, that same formula was found by the Terrible Trio who were able to alter it to change people into other kinds of animal hybrids. When Batman suspected Langstrom as the cause of the hybrid related crimes, he had him develop an antidote.

## Powers and Abilities

When transformed into Man-Bat, Langstrom had increased strength, a sticky mucus that bound specific areas on the victim, razor-sharp claws, a thirst for blood (his first foray into Man-Bat led him to the Gotham Zoo, where he sucked the blood out of animals), and saw via the means of his new sonar vision. While the world looked solely black-and-white to him, objects that emitted heat showed up as solid white.

### Powers

* **Transformation**
	+ **Wings**
		- **Flight:** He can fly as fast as 185 meters per hour,according to the Batwave.
	+ **Claws**
	+ **Fangs**
	+ **Echolocation**
	+ **Sticky Flux Spitting**: As Man-Bat Langstrom is able to spit sticky flux from his body which can jam guns or bound his enemies.
	+ **Adhesion**

Flight speed.Slime spit.
### Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect**
	+ **Science**
		- **Chemistry**

### Equipment

* **Man-Bat Serum**

**Weaknesses:** Though Langstrom retains much of his intelligence, as Man-Bat he is unable to speak and can be controlled by ultrasonic devices used for bats. He can also behave in animalistic ways, even though it's implied Langstrom is more or less always in control and is decently insane (though he was eventually cured and redeemed, becoming an ally of Batman's). His big size also hinders him in moving in confined spaces. High pitched sounds can dirupt his echolocation.

## Appearances

### *The Batman*

* Season 1
	+ *The Man Who Would Be Bat*
* Season 2
	+ *Pets*
* Season 4
	+ *Rumors*
* Season 5
	+ *Attack of the Terrible Trio* (Only as human)

### *The Batman Strikes!*

* Issue 2 " City Of Bats"
* Issue 10
* Issue 23

### In Other Media

#### Lego Batman

In 2020's 76160 Mobile Bat Base set,the Man-Bat minifigure featured resembles the gray-ish white Man-Bat from *The Batman*.

#### *Batman: Arkham Knight*

Man-Bat has a somewhat similar color scheme and appearance to the version in *The Batman.*

#### Gotham Knights

As with *Knight*,the Man-Bat in the 2022 game has similar charactersitics to that from *The Batman.*

## Trivia

* Langstrom seemed to have albinism.
* The bat DNA that Langstrom used was that of vampire bats.
* Man-Bat is one of the few characters to get redesigned,along with Joker,Hawkman,and The Batman.
* Unlike his counterpart in the comics, he shows no signs of losing his hearing.
* Traditionally a regular brunette, Langstrom is albino in this version.
* In this adaptation, rather than to cure his own growing deafness (though his cover story is that it's for his deaf niece) he created the Man-Bat formula because he wanted to be feared. As a result, while he is in complete control of himself as comics Man-Bat tends to be, he lacks any of the comics' Langstrom's noble traits and deliberately acts monstrously - until his offscreen redemption.
* Drinking three vials of the serum simultaneously would keep his Man-Bat transformation permanent.
* Ellen Yin was the one who named Langstrom's transformation, as she was the first to call it " Man-Bat ".
* Kirk would turn into Man-Bat via sonic frequencies in his later appearances.
* He is one of the few villains in *The Batman* series to redeem themselves. The others are Everywhere Man,Francis Gray,and Clayface I.
* Man-Bat's vocal effects are provided by special sound effects.