After years of abusing the Batman serum, Kirk Langstrom’s luck has finally run out.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Dave Wielgosz’s Man-Bat # 1, Sumit Kumar, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Tom Napolitano, now on sale.
Kirk Langstrom has always been addicted to the Batman serum. Although he constantly gives the excuse that he could perfect it one day and finally turn the Batman into a real force for good, it seems that Langstrom is finally running out of time. During perhaps his most destructive fury of all time, Man-Bat is captured by Batman. After doing some tests, Batman confirmed that Kirk Langstrom is dying from the Batman serum and has only a little time left.
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Inside Bat Man # 1, set before Langstrom joined the Dark Justice League, Kirk once again succumbed to serum addiction. This particular relapse was even worse, as it appeared to be the final nail in the coffin with his wife Francine, who could not prevent Kirk from using the formula. But her anger and her departure only served to fuel Kirk’s illusion that his serum could benefit the world. Desiring to prove that Man-Bat could be a force for good, Kirk took flight and started looking for a crime to stop.
Man-Bat quickly discovered the Blackout Gang stealing a sonic cannon from an unknown source. Man-Bat launched himself, certainly scaring criminals, but inadvertently unleashed a high-speed chase through the streets of Gotham that put many civilians in the crossfire. Even Batman’s arrival could not prevent the inevitable disaster that would ensue. The Blackout Gang, desperate to get rid of the winged beast that was chasing them, used the weapon against the Batman. The resulting fight destabilized the weapon’s core and unleashed a huge sonic explosion, knocking out Bat-Man.
When he woke up again, he was in Batman’s custody. The Dark Knight explained that after testing Kirk, he discovered that he was only a few weeks old. But while Kirk would die, Man-Bat would live. His years of exposure to the Bat-Man serum had changed his cellular structure, Man-Bat would soon take over Kirk’s body completely and Kirk Langstrom’s humanity would disappear completely. Kirk refused to accept this, still believing he could improve the serum, but Batman informed Kirk that the explosion injured more than 100 people and left those closest to the detonation deaf.
This blow seemed to take Kirk’s fight away. He originally developed the Batman serum to restore people’s hearing, but his experiments resulted in the creation of a monster that terrified Gotham for years. Now, that same monster has afflicted people with the condition that Kirk himself was trying to reverse. As the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Kirk Langstrom started out as a promising scientist with a bright future, both professionally and personally. Now, his obsession and addiction cost him his family, his morality and, soon, his life. But perhaps he still has time to do one last good thing before being overwhelmed by the monster that gave birth.
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