Addicted To Power: Man-Bat | Batman The Animated Series
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 มิ.ย. 2024
- #btas #batman #batmantheanimatedseries #dcau #manbat
In this video I take a look at the first villain to be selected to appear in Batman the Animated Series, and the dark meaning behind his stories.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:37 Comic Book Origins
4:21 Original Character Design
4:52 Unseen Character Designs
5:40 On Leather Wings
8:41 Terror In The Sky
9:51 DCAU Comic Appearances
11:15 Conclusion - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
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Funny how Clayface and ManBat had similar allegories to addiction, just in different ways.
I think they chose that because it’s a common theme that many of us can understand.
@@SerumLake understandable. I mean, all of us have an addiction to something. The question is, how to control it?
Two addicts that turned into monsters and ruined their relationships: one with focus on the change, and one with focus on the relationships
@@coyraig8332 the difference is one fixed the relationship, while the other didn’t
@@jacobphelps4862 Yup. The one with focus on his relationships.
I hadn't heard of Man-Bat until I played the first Lego Batman game and he was a miniboss in a level. Also learned about Killer Moth that way. I also really like the small inclusion Kirk and Francine get in Arkham Knight. It is a very small sidequest, but what's there is good.
Believe me, that game's side quests felt more interesting and even coherent than the main plot.
Are you like.. thirteen?
And one of the few villains you can buy before you unlock the villain missions
The Man-Bat side quest in Knight is especially cool, as the start is triggered randomly when you grapple onto a building the same way you do every other time.
It's insane to think, that Two-Face was a relatively obscure Batman rogue until BTAS reinvented him! It was very risky for BTAS creators to start their series with Man-Bat, but it worked in the end.
It's always weird hearing Serum Lake say "lesser known characters" because this TV show turned them all into house hold names
Kinda makes me wish there was an episode between Man-Bat and Croc. Langstrom needs the serum to let his worst self take over, while Waylon is already his worst possible self. It could be the chance for Kirk to see what everyone else sees when he takes the formula, with that being enough for him to push himself off the serum for good.
@snazzy-hood9988 Except this version of Croc shows no interest in changing in any way
@@jordanloux3883 So perhaps the inverse. Croc wants to go from BTAS Croc to Arkham Croc.
@@PosthumanHeresy
Hell, there's your explanation for why Croc is green and more reptile like in TNBA, he turned monstrous thanks to Langstrom's "help", got cured, but ended up with side effects that made him more animal-like.
I love how BTAS went and made so many obscure villains mainstream for Batman. Hell, Manbat got to come back in The Batman and he was pretty great there too.
I think the only one from BTAS that still wasn't mainstream popular after BTAS is the ventriloquist and scarface
I think it's very important to note that the impulses that Kirk has in the BTAS version, his feelings of needing to let go of all those trappings of society and humanity, they tie even more into the theme of Man-Bat in the series as a man-turned-beast. By separating himself from his need to be a good person, he is also in a way separating himself from his humanity.
That comment about being blackout drunk isn't just the perfect explanation of how Man-Bat works, it is hauntingly profound.
Fun fact, humans actually can use sonar. We actually only discovered the comcept of sonar, because some doctors realized that some blind people were able to develop it as a skill.
So daredevil is actually based on not only a real phenomena, but a very well demonstrated one
I would be mad that Man-Bat is literally The Lizard with the specifics changed a la Mad Libs, but since I love bats and I love animal people I love both and I don't care. Man-Bat remains to me arguably the most striking design of the entire series, and in a work as visually stunning as B:TAS, that's saying a LOT.
I remember that the growl from man bat freaked me out when i was younger as well as the trasnformation scene. But also remember feeling lots of sympathy for him too for wanting to become a better person
The ironic part is in the show Angstrom's motivation is changed to a weird gene splicing thing because he describes bats are extremely tough and durable animals; you'd think he was talking about cockroaches. Except pretty much the same decade scientists were becoming aware social bats (who roost VERY tightly with each other and will share food) are especially susceptible to catching lethal fungal infections from each other, dying in the hundreds.
I really got some David Cronenberg's _The Fly_ vibes from this episode
Absolutely!
7:12
"doctor marsh-............................................... dismisses the recording-"
Man-Bat is my favorite Batman villain! Anytime i see him getting any kind of attention i smile as i think he deserves so much more love.
I love how in this video On Leather Wings is referenced in relation to the dire consequences of addiction to all those impacted by it while also bringing up Man-Bat's comic book origins and especially his fate as portrayed in the DCAU tie-in comics. Brilliant.
The craziest scientist in the 2 Man Bat episodes wasn't Kirk himself but his dad in law Dr March who thought bats were the next stage of evolution or whatever.
I adore Man-Bat when he's a more beast-like character, with little to no humanity left. Really wish he was in Arkham a lot more.
Since you mentioned Kevin Nowlan's initial design for Man-Bat having more ephasis on the Man part of the character what do you think about other designs the character has had in other media? Like the more human looking designs in Arkham Knight and Beware the Batman and the more beastial designs like in The Batman and Batman Unlimited, the last of which is the one most similar to BTAS. There's also the version of Kirk that is more like a Vampire and is also Batman in the animated film Justice League: Gods and Monsters.
I think they all have their merits. I really liked the Gods and Monsters design for Langstrom, and the design from Beware The Batman reminded me a lot of Dan Riba’s early sketches. I think it was the eyes, more than anything.
Ive never thought of Manbat as an analogy for drug consumption o.o
But its so dam good at being that analogy!
If you think about some of the rouges from Batman: Tas share the same problem as Spider-Man's rogues from Spider-man: Tas.
For example the lizard, who's name Dr. Curt Conners, was so desperate to regrow his arm that you forego some of the warning that Peter had given him took it upon himself to take the formula to regrow his arm but in doing so causing to become a giant reptilian monster.
Morbius is another that he too had become so driven to figure out Peter's blood that he accidentally combined with a vampire bats own DNA and he end up coming a pseudo vampire.
You should try expanding to Batman Beyond and its own Rogues Gallery. For one, the Stalker there is basically Kraven the Hunter.
Oddly enough the first time I paid attention to Kirk's story was Justice League God's and Monsters. It was incredibly interesting how Kirk turned out in a universe where Man-Bat was mostly man and became the only Batman.
Also, "superhero vampire" is an honestly underutilized concept. Sure, there's Blade, but he fights vampires and the supernatural. And... there's Morbius. I don't need to say anything. But what about a vampire just out there fighting crime and shit? Not so common.
I always love the sound effect they had for his screech! So supernatural!
I remember "Terror in The Sky" (mainly the transformation scene) as being not only my introduction to BTAS, but to Batman, in general. It's a little vague, but I'll try to explain it as best I can. Sometime in 1994, when I was either 4 or 5 years old, I remember flipping through channels and coming across this episode on a re-run. and I distinctly remember tuning in right when Francine runs to the bathroom. With no hint as to what happened in the story before that point, you can only imagine my reaction to the transformation. It just came out of nowhere.
Now, I don't remember crying and screaming during the scene. All I remember was being in complete shock and not making a sound. This was long before I had seen films like An American Werewolf in London, so monster transformations were new to me. While I was shocked, I was also curious as to what was going to happen next, so I left it on the channel and waited till it came back from commercial to see the outcome. And that's how I got introduced to Batman.
I like the one where he showed his sad reaction to the woman that he loves showing that he's n there somewhere & this episode is like SPIDERMAN all over again
Yes, Kirk Langstrom and Curt Connors are quite similar in the comics
Great work!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it
I never really cared much for Man-Bat. I always saw him as a rip off of the Lizard from Spider-Man's rogues gallery. All the stories boil down to the doctor turning into the monster, fight hero and turns back to a human at the end of the story. I like the more distilled version in TAS. Kirk turns into man bat once and stays cured afterwards.
I know what you mean, it’s clear from his comic book appearances that the only writer with a clear vision for him was Frank Robins, but I guess there’s only so much you can do with a horror character.
I don't remember if its canon or not, but there was this one story of Lizard in which the big twist was that his animalistic side had always been a deception and Kurt Connors had always been in control, thus losing his only alibi. Probably the only Lizard story I actually enjoyed.
@@samrizzardi2213 I remember that story. I think it was an issue of Peter Parker: Spider-Man written by Paul Jenkins in the early 2000s? Pretty sure it has been retconned now though
@@SerumLakeit's better than the last time I remember seeing Lizard in the comics, where he went full reptile-brain and ate his own son (while still being fully aware of what he was doing but just not caring).
Wholeheartedly agree that the likes of the Lizard and the Man-Bat truly deserve to be cured in the end of their tales, no matter the iteration.
And on an unconnected sidenote, clothed comics/TAS and truly lizardlike Lizard >>> saurian and naked Lizard in, I don't know, The Amazing Spider-Man.
Huh. A good video although I thought you might nod to the Batman Beyond episode SPLICERS where we see a kind of legacy from the Man-Bat formula. Even to the point that Bruce winds up making the old antidote as a precaution and needs to use it on Terry who was given an overdose of Bat-based Mutagen.
I was going to mention it, but it’s debatable how much Langstrom was involved in splicing. The comic Harley Loves Joker briefly shows Abel Cuvier as Dr Dorian’s assistant. From that I took Splicers to be more of Dorian’s legacy than Langstrom’s (even though they were colleagues at one point)
Thank you for the video! I always appreciate people making video essays on old cartoons.
And thank you for watching!
Your channel is super underrated
That’s nice of you to say. My audience has grown quite a bit over the last month or so, and is still growing, so let’s see where I’m at by the end of the year.
Just started watching your stuff, and I love it!
This was my FIRST BTAS episode I watched as a kid(in Sweden kinda 1993-94 maybe), and it was quite the introduction which made me HAVE to wake up every saturday morning to see it on tv
welcome aboard!
I always love the final design of man-bat! It is a beautiful work of art and both frightening and cool at the same time! I am a little sad that he didn't get more episodes but then again, it's better to enjoy his moments then have them overused!
The Lizard first comic apprentice was in The Amazing Spider-Man number six on November 1963.
ManBat first apprentice was in Detective Comics number 400 on June 1970.
Incase you didn’t know, now you do.
Honestly I REALLY liked this take on Kirk
Like you said, he wasn't striving to cure deafness and he was quite a healthy man in this show.
All he wanted was power and it corrupted him
Funny enough in the batman 2004 show he did this as well albeit he wanted to be feared like Batman
Yay stuff to watch at the dead hours of work. Love your content 💜
Your videos definitely gave me more of an interest in DC. And batman seeing him be a human with a soul and not just toned down moon knight busting shit definitely makes appreciate him and his rogues gallery more.
You’re welcome! Hope you enjoy it 👍
*Question:* Many of the Man-Bat comic book appearances you show from the 1970s appear to have gradient colour that would seem to come from the mid 1990s or later. Were these _remastered_ editions? Or is this just incredibly deft watercolour from 1970s DC? (À la Spectrum Animation?)
*PS:* I really love your background music. Reminds me of my favourite Bowie track, _Subterraneans._
The comics illustrated by Neal Adams were recoloured about a decade ago and these are the only versions that exist on the DC app now. I originally read those comics in a black and white collection called Challenge of the Man-Bat about 30 years ago, but I do prefer the original colours.
Dope show review
It be kinda neat if the splicers from beyond had some sort of connection to man bat. Hes basically the first splicer
that episode scared the fuck out of me as a kid. His screaches specially would not get out of my mind and terrified me
One of the first BTAS toys I got was a Man-Bat one Xmas morn. I wish I could find it but I think it was lost in one of the various moves since then.
I remember being so impressed by that toy when it came out, but looking at it now, it isn’t very accurate. I still love it though!
@@SerumLake I think 3/4 year old me was just fascinated by the wing flapping action more than anything lol…goddamn I’m old
The one with the button on its back that caused the wings to flap? Man, I loved that thing.
@@samrizzardi2213 yep the very one!
Man-Bat and Batman were my first two B:TAS figures, and I still have all of my old collection saved though they're hardly mint. Man-Bat for instance has the molar marks of a 7-year-old on the bicep wing sections, but he was still the crown jewel.
Funnily enough, only half of my collection was recieved when I was a kid. The other half I bought piecemeal from collector's websites over a decade later in High School to try and round out the roster I was missing. I remember getting Penguin for $150 - still the most money I have ever spent on a single toy.
While I like the Mat Bat in the show, I think his first three apperance in the comics are better story, specially how each issue shows Kirk evolution, both physical and mental, as he goes from a scientist just wanting to find a cure (1st apperance) to become addicted his transfomation (2nd apperance) and decide to turn Francine into a She Bat like him (3rd apperance).
We talking about the main comics or the B: TAS tie-ins?
@@michaelandreipalon359 The main comic books writen by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams
@@alexandrefrauches132Frank Robbins wrote the Man-Bat stories, not Denny O'Neil.
I still remember the night I saw this episode for the first time as a kid. The gloomy atmosphere and the music captivated me completely, and of course the humanity and the heart of Batman inspired me. The sad face of Man-Bat when his wife sees him also really resonated with me. Even though I really didn't understand why at the time.
That series really was a spiritual successor to the radio dramas of yester year. Same tone and high quality story-telling.
I was happy to be able to thank Neil Adams for creating Man-Bat, but also my other favorite winged character, X-Men's sauron!
As a one off, threat of the week? Sure, he's fine. But there's nothing interesting enough about Man-Bat to warrant repeated appearances. Just a feral beast that has to be wrangled, lacking the engaging, colorful personalities of Arkham's regulars. I think the TAS crew understood this because Langstrom only features prominently in three episodes. Also, I always viewed him as a semi-knockoff of The Lizard from Spider-Man. Very similar stories.
I once read a Batman Beyond comic where Langstrom was in full control of Manbat, when his wife was dying I think he used his serum to try and save her life but it ended up killing her. After that his children turned their backs on him, and he went crazy and made himself into Manbat permanently and made his own family of manbat's and when Terry found him he was planning on mutating all of Gotham
Yeah you'll find alot of similar stories of this nature going back at least as far back as the original Jekyll and Hyde story.
I always wanted to see a ManBat movie, live action or animated.
I would LOVE to see ManBat in a film. One of my favourite villains.
Kinda wish we would see more of Man-Bat and She-Bat, kind of makes you wonder what if Lizard from Marvel was semi successful ( with the wife thing from the early comics).
7:00 I wish 🤞 spectrum animation didn't go bankrupt the animation studio I mean.
Same. I mean, working on a budget and wary of delivery times are very important skills, but the way they went the extra mile to add those details showed how much they cared.
Can I just say how I really like the animation quality at 6:01 and 7:49 👏
I actually knew who the ten eyed man was before seeing this video but its only because one of the animated series had a episode based on the comic where joker gets the powers of a god from some guy from the fourth(?) Dimension intact the ten eyed man was in that episode which is why I even knew about the ten eyed man before watching this video
Fifth dimension, actually. Superman foe Mr. Myxlplyx, fifth dimensional imp. Same place Bat-Mite is from actually, they know each other and constantly fight over Batman vs Superman.
@@PosthumanHeresy oh right the fifth thanks for the correction
Also, you should try contacting Lynne Naylor and see if she'll share any Poison Ivy art with you. 😉
Good call, I'll see what I can do.
Shame they didn't use Man Bat more
I think the problem with Man-Bat is there are only so many stories that can be told with him, before you end up having to water him down (like they did in the comics). I would’ve liked to have seen more, but I’m glad they didn’t tarnish him by making him a private investigator or something like that.
The timing for this video is pretty good considering the latest issue of Batman: The Adventures Continue took the addiction parallels from subtext to full-blown text, although I also can't help but see it as a cynical way to reuse the character once more. Also, slightly off-topic, but I never realized how much Beware the Batman borrowed from Man-Bat's debut story arc for their version of the character. He just needed the opera cape.
Just one of those nice coincidences, I guess! I'm hoping that in issue 8 we'll learn he was acting under duress, but we'll see!
I first heard of him through The Batman(2004). Now THAT one was creepy. Even in human form, he was a bit scary.
Man-Bat returned, sort of, in the Batman Beyond episode, " Splicers".
Honestly i love the dc animated movie where kurt langstrom is batman and a vampire its a unique take on kurt. Also love man-bat as a mindless monster
It's a one note joke, but I love in the Harley Quinn series ManBat is her lawyer, who cannot speak English but screech everything.
Man, I’m not gonna lie to me I really enjoy the animated series, man, bat, and the Batman man bat
Dang, looking back on it these shows where exilentally written
The animation when the manbat was flying reminded me so much of the animated show Cybersix
5:30 why does the one on the right look adorable in a way
that justice league gods and monster was my favorite subversion of this character
Another interesting version of Kirk Langstrom is in the film/series of shorts "Justice League: Gods and Monsters". In it, it is not Bruce Wayne that becomes Batman, but Kirk; and the formula he took did not turn him into Man-Bat, but into a sort of vampire.
This is the same world where General Zod's clone/son becomes Superman instead of Kal-El, and Wonder Woman is the New God Big Barda, who fled from Apocalips after Highfather of New Genesis pulled a Red Wedding when she was getting married to Orion (I think) and even managed to kill Darkseid in the fracas.
I like how Man-Bat‘s voice would later be reused for Dranzer.
The Man-Bat is the Incredible Hulk analogue for The Batman.
Man-Bats transformation kinda reminds me of the Wolf-Man (1941) played by Lon Chaney Jr.
legit my favorite batman villan character
I remember him from The Batman, my personal favorite iteration of the man and his gallery.
It shows you, for just a few moments, that the creature is her. Miss it and its gone.
As someone who loves Man-Bat and has every issue of his initial solo series (plus his appearances in Batman Family), I can kind of see why others wouldn't like it.
I'm a little surprised you didnt mention how Terry turned into the Beyond era's Man-Bat, even if it was very brief in the Splicers episode.
It's not really about power, it's about glory. Think about it: batman is what everyone is talking about in Gotham. Becoming man-bat enables him to ride the bat-fame train.
For once, the mostly-hated Bat-Embargo really saved the character integrity of Kirk Langstrom. Him becoming Man-Bat *again* and then making and leading an army of them in the original plan for Justice League Unlimited's "Double Date" just reeks of another lost cause in what is supposed to be a permanent victory by the Batman against the sins of Gotham (and that's barring my slight dislike for any Barbara Gordon becoming Oracle after a Batgirl-ending injury in said plan... can't we just have an uninjured Babs who can be Oracle when she's simply resting from her strenuous Batgirl duties?).
In a sidenote, "On Leather Wings" is still the better starting point to B: TAS and all of the DCAU for the newcomers and revisiting veterans. Also, if you think very deeply about it, Batman Beyond is what Spider-Man Unlimited, the cut short pseudo-sequel to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, should have been.
It's basically Batman's equivalent to the Lizard.
Do a video on Grundy. He was a great villain.
I think the best way to depict Man-Bat would be to _have_ him trying to cure deafness, but then start becoming addicted to being Man-Bat; this would help demonstrate just how destructive drugs can be by showing the way they can affect even the most innocent and promising of individuals.
I always thought Man-Bat was a DC Comics knockoff of Marvel Comics The Lizard.Scientist becomes menacing half human half fierce animal creature,slowly losing his humanity.
I like to think that the Manbat serum is what lead to Splicers in Batman Beyond.
I give credit to the BTAS artists for apparently being the first Man-Bat designers to realize a bat's wings are made of its hands and not some extra rod-like bones coming out of the wrist.
i actually love the idea of ManBat as a private detective, mainly for how dumb it is, but because i could see this working if it was right. for sure no one would notice a man sized bat flying in the air with a camera.
Man Bat is my favorite batman villian.
God I love this channel
🫡
5:46 I wish they faithfully adapted the issues
Amazing
Thanks, glad you liked it
Ive never gotten blackout drunk. Do people actually lose their consciousness when they do? Ive gotten so dizzy that I can't walk and I throw up. But im still present. Often I feel embarassed. Am I so self aware that I transcend drunkenness?
Sounds like you’re not trying hard enough!!! 😅
Joking aside, yes, it’s a very strange thing. From your perspective one minute you’re in one place doing one thing, then you blink and, suddenly, a few hours have passed and you’re somewhere else, with no recollection of how you got there.
Blacking out from drinking is your body shutting you down so you don't do any more damage to it, essentially a hard reboot.
I never knew some of this stuff about man bat or what he calls him self at 1:21 the REAL bat man
Well, they are about 50 years old, so no one can blame you for not being aware of them. I’d never seen some of these before researching this video
Didn't they retcon his reason for creating the serum as a means to combat his hearing lose. I know for Batman TAS,they made the reason to be linked to a crazy Evo theroy involving a man bat hybrid being able to survive the supposed next evolutionary cataclyim
Hell no, Detective ManBat is fucking awesome
Is that you, Marty Pasko???
Dang this and the mr Freeze stuff looks great and that studio did all this great work without asking for more money. Now they are gone because of it? Shows how bad the world is. 😞
I was meaning to ask for a while, what is the ending theme of the videos? I guess it is from btas but I don't remember it
It’s a track from Apple’s free music library called Longitude - it's the closest thing to BTAS music that I could find in their library
@@SerumLake Thanks!
🪴Batman really has that jekyll and hyde exploration thing in spades, huh. siudfhkjshf
It certainly is an interesting exploration, Manbat is sort of the equivalent of the Werewolf in the batman universe. We sort of like that exploration of the 'what's left after the self goes dormant' element that is built into those sort of characters, so that's fun.
(Jekyll and Hyde is always an interesting topic to bring up, because most people refer to it as dominance of different personalities, when the original story it was just the same dude with a *really* extensive makeover going incognito. Interesting how things become interpreted hundreds of years down the line.)
I think around 7:13 to 7:16 the audio cuts out a bit
What about in Batman Beyond and Beware the Batman?
Ugh, why must these always premiere when I'm at work? Ah well, it'll give me something to watch with dinner I suppose.
Can I take that to mean that my accidental 7am Premieres weren’t suitable either? 😂
Manbat is Batman if he completely... bat.
Bro what is the name of music at the end of your videos
It’s a track from Apple’s free music library called Longitude
@@SerumLake thanks 🙏🏻
No , Manbat is us at our most mentally defensive and physically aggressive.
The version of us at our most primal is a baby , not a caveman.
Savagery can only happen when you reject patient satisfaction for instant satisfaction.
This is us when we stop trying , when we become ungrateful and give up hope.
She-Bat. Sheesh.
I have mixed feelings about Man-bat because I get he is supposed an anti Batman where if he was more bat than a man but as I said before I thought of another alternative version of Batman called the Bat king who is a vampire Batman as well I have as said about his Justice league.
So what you’re saying is that he took the formula willingly in the first episode then why didn’t Batman take him to jail that?
Okay that was weird on Man-Bat on being a P.I and that he knew Bruce before becoming Batman, you forgot to mention that he was involved with Cadmus
Speaking of the 10 eyed man I think he should one of those villains that should have appeared in Batman TAS which I guess you should do a top 10 on?
You know I guess this is a bit obvious but he is definitely the Lizard from Spider-Man.
I don’t recall seeing him in Justice League Unlimited. Professor Milo and Hugo Strange, yes, but Kirk Langstrom? You’ll have to tell me which episode he was in.
@@SerumLake he was only mentioned in Doomsday Salvation
the problem with BTAS way is
if you don't spell out importion shit people will write off your messages if feel it in the way of what they belive
got black out drunk at a party that ended in a knife fight. I was told that i removed what little woman was in the party to the front lawn and just went back in. I also kept saying f you to my fam. not saying who but i thought i was saying thank you.