Man-Bat #1

Man-Bat #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Dave Wielgosz

Illustrated by Sumit Kumar

Coloured by Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Lettered by Tom Napolitano

For years Kirk Langstrom has struggled with his monstrous alter ego, Man-Bat, and the serum that transformed him. But he’s finally hit rock bottom following a devastating setback, and he’s going to take his anger out on every single citizen of Gotham City. Will the combined might of Batman and the GCPD be enough to stop Langstrom once and for all? Or will this just be the start of Man-Bat’s devastation?

Now I was looking forward to a Man-Bat series after his emergence as a member of Justice League Dark. I had to look up who Dave was as I have never read anything that he’s done and to learn he’s a Batman fanatic well that made me question this a whole lot more. I mean this is basically what we’ve seen when dealing Kirk in the past and it feels like more of the same just regurgitated. Granted that the Man-Bat is rewriting his DNA so that he’s losing his humanity to the bat in such a dramatic fashion is a nice twist but I am kind of tired of seeing him as this villain instead of the misunderstood hero. By the same token seeing Amanda Waller playing the hardened bitch is overkill as well, isn’t time she went back to being likable in her role as she tries to prove time and again she’s as smart if not smarter than everyone gives her credit for?

I can see Gotham at large not truly understanding the Man-Bat and with Kirk finding it harder and harder to control the rage that the transformation brings puts him in conflict with the local authorities. Batman constantly capturing him and trying to put a leash on him even after all we’ve seen him do as a Justice League Dark member rankles my feathers. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented well. Personally this isn’t the direction I’d like to see the story go and this includes the character development as well. The pacing we see is nicely done as it takes us through the pages revealing the story through its twists and turns.

The way that we see this being structured is actually very nice to see. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is well achieved.

I am also underwhelmed by the interiors here. Here’s why, the first page where we see Kirk’s wife, she looks like a man I wouldn’t have known otherwise without reading the story. Then to see Gotham from above is absolutely amazing as we see it through Kirk’s Man-Bat echo location radar. But then we see Batman for the first time and I can’t see how those body proportions are supposed to work. There is a lot of inconsistency here and when it’s done right they nail it, when it’s not it crashes hard. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show someone who understands storytelling but needs more work at it. The colour work is really well rendered. Seeing the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully done.

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There is this two-fold aspect of this book for me. One is the reality versus expectations and the other is the sheer inconsistencies that we see. Yes I wanted to see something new and fresh that’s never been done before which is based off the character in the Justice League Dark series. So that might have jaded my view at times but from a critical eye of someone who reviews a lot of books this falls short on it’s delivery of simple things. So if you are a Man-Bat fan then pick this up and give it a go and tell me if i’m just not seeing what I want or if you agree with me.