Man-Bat (Dr. Robert Kirkland "Kirk" Langstrom) is a fictional supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Introduced in Detective Comics #400 (June 1970) as an enemy of the superhero Batman,[1] the character belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery.
Man-Bat originated as an anthropomorphic, feral, bat-like creature, lacking sentience and acting purely on instinct; the result of Langstrom testing a serum that could supposedly give humans a bat's acute sonar sense on himself. Batman managed to reverse the effects, but Langstrom would return as 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 Aaron.
Since his debut at the end of the Silver Age of Comic Books, Man-Bat has been featured in various media adaptations, including television series and video games. In 2017, Man-Bat was ranked as IGN's 16th best Batman villain.[2]
