Man-Bat's Greatest Hits
Interrupting our previously scheduled Future State months, we have a story that brings us back to our present continuity or at least present adjacent with the Man-Bat five-issue mini-series. The reason I say present adjacent is because we aren't really picking up where we last left Kirk Langstrom in the Justice League Dark series but instead look like we're just being thrown into a story that takes place "Gotham City - Somewhen" Let's jump into this issue and see what's going on with Man-Bat and if it feels like something important. Let's check it out.
So for this story, we see some greatest moments of Man-Bat put together into a collage. Feels like we have the New 52 origin, sprinkled in with the addiction angle to the Man-Bat that we had Post Crisis, while also pitting the Man-Bat against the criminals The Blackout Gang that appeared in his debut in Detective Comics #400....... Not to mention, the Suicide Squad coming after our leathery villain by the end of this issue. So if you're a Man-Bat fan, maybe you'll appreciate this "Greatest Hits" aspect to this story, while you also get the new addition to keep this a bit fresh in that the Man-Bat serum is actually killing Kirk Langstrom.
Now that I've gotten the way the story feels compared to what's been going on with Man-Bat, then and now out of the way, in this issue, we have a pretty straight forward story showing Kirk Langstrom losing control of his personal life and thinking that he can get the love and respect of his wife Francine back if he just shows her he's a hero, but with his first outing that pits him not only against the Blackout Gang but Batman as well, things don't turn out the way that Kirk would have hoped and only shows him sinking further into darkness by the end of the issue.
All in all, the art is decent in this issue but the story is a toss-up in my mind. Either you're a Man-Bat fan from way back, who's missed his more classic take or you're a fan of what's been going on with him lately in Justice League Dark...... if it's the former, well you've been there and done that with most of the story that we're presented with here and if you're the latter, this isn't the Man-Bat that you want at all and the only real thing to get people interested in this title is the idea that Kirk is dying and seeing how far he'll go in his last days to make sure he's not captured, but able to fly free and die the way he wants to. Even with my two scenarios that I laid out about who this could be for.. or not be for, I'm sure there are people out there that have a cursory knowledge of Man-Bat that this will be fine for because it is the Greatest Hits version of him so if you haven't heard these awesome tracks yet, you'll probably dig what's on this Man-Bat album because everyone else already has.
Bits and Pieces:
While I do enjoy the way the book looks, I was looking for a story that did something with our current iteration of Kirk Langstrom but instead got a book that's taking different aspects of Man-Bat's backstory since he debuted and repackaging them here with a new twist to keep this story going for five issues. Ultimately, this issue isn't bad it just isn't really all that new but I am interested to see if it does end up in new territory by the end.
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