Direct Course #3

Man-Bat #1

(Jan 1976)

 “”Pure research," hmm? The question is-- How pure?" -Batman

Beware the Eyes of Baron Tyme 

by Gerry Conway, Steve Ditko & Al Milgrom
                         
Inside his secret lair, a man calling himself Baron Tyme talks to the images of Man-Bat and She-Bat through some kind of magic cauldron. He claims the She-Bat aka Francine Langstrom, is well under his control, and he will make her kill for him. Watching the Langstrom home through his cauldron, we see that Kirk Langstrom aka Man-Bat, has been studying up on bats and has learned about a possible sonar language that bats use.

Suddenly Francine, Kirk’s wife, transforms into a werebat he calls She-Bat “Dear lord, no! Not again--!” She-Bat declares that she must obey Baron Tyme and kill somebody in Gotham and she flies out of a window. Flying over the streets of Gotham, an image appears in her head of the face of the man she must kill for Baron Tyme.

Back at their home, Kirk uses a serum to transform into Man-Bat and chase after his wife. He sees some flying monstrosity in his path, but as he reaches it, it turns out to be an illusion. Glimpsing Baron Tyme out of the corner of his eye, Man-Bat flies up to the building roof he stands upon. Man-bat reaches to grab him, only for his form to dissipate; being an illusion too. Finally finding his wife, Man-bat rushes to grab her too, but she disappears as well into vapor.

She-Bat finally finds the man she is doomed to kill. Man-Bat reaches her just in time to stop her from executing the man. He tries to get her to listen to him, but she seems to be in some sort of trance and won’t respond. As painful as it is, he is forced to knock her unconscious.

Man-Bat approaches the man his wife was about to murder. He asks the man if he knows somebody by the name of Baron Tyme. The man reveals his name to be Professor Raymond Arthur, who works at Antioke University. The only man he knows with a similar name is his colleague, Clement Tyme, a professor of medieval history. As he is about to reveal the only reason Clement might want to harm him, She-Bat wakes back up. Before Man-Bat can react, she attacks the professor, biting into his neck to kill him. Man-Bat knocks her out again, to carry her back to his lab.

Meanwhile, Batman has heard the news of the slain Raymond Arthur which reminds him of a case in Las Vegas he was involved in a year ago. He was too busy to pay attention to the news before this, because he was dealing with the Joker. Telling Alfred not to wait up for him, Batman swings off over Gotham in search of the murderer.

Outside of the Gotham City Museum, Batman’s shadow is cast over a man Batman identifies as Mr. Wilkins who is just leaving the building. Batman tells the man that he needs to speak with their nocturnal mammals expert, Kirk Langstrom. Mr. Wilkins tells Batman that he hasn’t been there since Batman gave him $100,000 as reward money in a previous adventure “Said something about devoting himself to pure research...!” Batman walks off with a haze of doubt in his mind.

At Kirk’s lab Man-Bat has strapped his wife down to a table. He force feeds her an antidote serum, the only one he has at the moment, to make her change back into her normal human form. Man-Bat remembers how she got this way, it was during an unscheduled subsurface atomic blast back in Las Vegas, that reactivated the bat-gland chemicals in her, causing her to change.

As she fully changes back to Francine, Man-Bat is about to speak to her when a huge sound blasts through the room. His sonar blinded by the constant sound, Man-Bat tries to fly out a window only to smash right through it into Batman’s arms. Flying up with him on his legs, Man-Bat kicks Batman off. Man-Bat shouts for Batman to turn off the sonar pulses he has been using from his utility belt to confuse him. Before Batman can hit the ground, he turns the signal off and Man-Bat swoops down to save him.

Before his unconscious wife, Man-Bat and Batman discuss why Man-Bat did not give her a full transfusion of blood to flush out all of the Bat-gland from her system. Man-Bat explains that her system seemed too weak at the time, so they decided to wait. Then two weeks ago, she started to change against her will and she began killing people. Man-Bat did not tell Batman, because he wanted to handle it on his own. He put her under hypnosis, and probed her subconscious, when she revealed the name of Baron Tyme to him. Baron Tyme had been ordering her to kill these people through his magic. Batman offers to help him track down this Baron Tyme, but Man-Bat refuses and decides to go find him by himself.

Man-Bat flies over Antioke University, to discover that it does indeed have a strange tower, just as his wife described when he put her under hypnosis. Bursting in, Man-Bat charges at Baron Tyme who stand before his weird cauldron. Suddenly, tentacles spring out of the walls to grasp Man-Bat. Baron Tyme then reveals why he’s been doing what he’s been doing.

Awhile ago, Baron Tyme started studying medieval magic as a hobby. Eventually he managed to summon a hellspawn, which he made a bargain with. It would supply him with power, if he would supply it with human lives, which he performed through the use of Man-Bat’s wife. Man-Bat lets out a loud screech, piercing Tyme’s ear and forcing the illusion of the tentacles to dissipate, freeing Man-Bat.

In the confusion of Man-Bat’s scream, a brazier topples over on Baron Tyme lighting him ablaze. Man-Bat attempts to save him, but is blasted out of the window by an explosion. Moments later Man-Bat wakes up on the ground around the tower, and flies off.

Bearings

• Referenced in this issue are two previous encounters between Batman and the Man-Bat. They take place in:

• Detective Comics #429 where Batman fought with him over Las Vegas and his wife became She-Bat.

•  Brave and the Bold #119 where Man-Bat helped Batman with a case and received the reward money mentioned in here.

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• The story in this issue is well structured, my main problems with it is that Batman takes up far too much room in the story, that it doesn’t allow Man-Bat, the main character, to fully breathe. I know it’s good to have Batman in it to show their history together, but maybe not as much as he is. It feels like this could have just been an issue of Batman, but focused on Man-Bat. I feel like there isn’t much character to Man-Bat’s wife, and maybe they could have cut Batman out of the story a little less and focused on her just a little bit more. My other problem is with the villain, who also suffers from being only two dimensional. The only reason he’s doing what he’s doing is that he made a typical deal with some demon. If we had seen the demon, maybe this would develop a little better, but the way he is, he just feels like a watered down version of Baron Mordo from Doctor Strange.

• Having said all that, it’s still pretty neat to see Steve Ditko’s Batman swinging around. The artwork is definitely the saving grace to this story. Some of the panels depicting Man-Bat’s sonar hearing are very reminiscent of the modern Mark Waid & Chris Samnee Daredevil and their depiction of Daredevil’s senses. 

• Gerry Conway can be a lot better than this, and the story does have it’s moments. I like when Man-Bat is searching for his wife, and the talk he has with Batman in his lab. To me, they are both the best parts of the story. The thing really irritated me in the dialogue, is that almost every other word Man-Bat speaks, is followed by an in-word balloon "Skreek!" If they had just left this as a sound effect, like they already do, it would have felt less cluttered. It's like... when someone talks.... almost... completely unnecessarily... in... ellipses....

Quotes

“You shall shed your mortal form, and fly once more as the queen of the night-- She-Bat!” -Baron Tyme

“Skreee-eek! Tonight-- the Man-Bat flies alone!” -Man-Bat

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