The End Of Batman Family

Batman Family ended with issue #20 (October-November, 1978) but, Robin, Batgirl and Man-Bat all migrated to Detective Comics (along with Batman) starting with Detective Comics #481 (December-January, 1978/1979), with both covers by Jim Starlin.

Detective Comics was the one that originally was scheduled to end due to low sales, but it was decided that the title the company was named after should still be published by the company!

Happy Halloween Super Friends

Happy Halloween!

Ramona Fradon and Robert Allen Smith gave us the cover of Super Friends #28 (January, 1980) which teased a confrontation among DC's top heroes and most villainous monsters (but they were only magically transformed guests).

Here, a look at when these monsters first appeared, and when they met who they faced!

Bizarro

The first adult Bizarro version of Superman appeared in Action Comics #254 (July, 1959) by Otto Binder and Al Plastino as an imperfect duplicate of Superman created by Luthor, but, Superboy had faced an earlier Bizarro back in Superboy #68 (October, 1958), though that version was destroyed.

Swamp Thing

The Alec Holland version of Swamp Thing first appeared in Swamp Thing #1 (October-November, 1972) by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, a scientist burned in an accident and healed by the swamp.  He first met Batman in Swamp Thing #7 (November-December, 1973).

Demon

Etrigan the Demon first appeared in The Demon #1 (August-September, 1972) by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer, as an agent of Merlin, bonded to human Jason Blood during the fall of Camelot to fight evil.  He first met Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman #280 (June, 1981).

Man-Bat

Kirk Langstrom created a formula that turned him into a half-man, half-bat creature, called Man-Bat in Detective Comics #400 (June, 1970) by Frank Robbins, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano.  While Batman and Man-Bat faced off in that issue, Robin didn't meet Man-Bat until Power Records 30 in 1976 in the aptly titled "Robin Meets Man-Bat".

Solomon Grundy

Now, Solomon Grundy first appeared in All-American Comics #61 (October, 1944) by Alfred Bester and Paul Reinman fighting the Golden Age Green Lantern as the animated corpse of Cyrus Gold, but, even with multiple encounters with the JLA...never really ran into Aquaman before the Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Though, well after, Aquaman and Solomon Grundy were in JLA: Year One #2 (February, 1998) in a retroactive retelling of the JLA's first year (which, itself, was a story of how five heroes became...super friends!).

How's that for a tricky treat?

Detective Comics Stars Besides Batman Robin Batgirl and Man-Bat

Batman was the main feature in Detective Comics for so long, but every once and a while, the rest of some of Batman's family of crime fighters got to be a feature there as well.

Here, we look at the three main members of the "Batman family"; Robin, Batgirl and Man-Bat, and their runs as individual characters as back-ups in Detective Comics.

Robin

Young Dick Grayson premiered as Batman's Boy Wonder in Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940), but Batman really wasn't letting him stretch his legs on his own for a long time (at least in Detective, Robin did have a back-up in Star-Spangled Comics)...

....not until Detective Comics #386 (April, 1969)!  It must have worked, as the high school aged Robin returned again in Detective Comics #390 and #391, then moved to Hudson University as a freshman college student for #394, #395, #398-#403, then was a back-up in Batman for a bit, before returning for Detective Comics #445, #447, #450 and #451, then a brief stint with 20 issues of Batman Family, before that title merged with Detective Comics, picking up the Robin stories again with Detective Comics #481 to #495.

Now...


....more than a few of those tales of Robin were shared with the Batman family member who had the most back-up appearances in Detective Comics....


...Batgirl!

Batgirl

Barbara Gordon made her debut in Detective Comics #359 (January, 1967), facing off against Killer Moth (with the daughter of Com. James Gordon deciding to keep at the hero business after that tale with her successes therein after accidentally becoming a heroine).

Batgirl's first solo tale premiered in Detective Comics #384 (February, 1969), with Barbara alternating the back-up spot with Robin, having issues #385, #388, #389, #392, #393, #396 and  #397, then sharing #400 and #401 with Robin, and back on her own continuous run with #404 to #424. 

Batgirl disappeared for a bit, but after two guest appearances in the Superman title and a tale with Supergirl in Superman Family, returned for 20 issues of Batman Family (mostly teaming up with Robin, but a few solo tales), then back to Detective Comics with #481 to #499, then #501, #502, a full length tale with Batman and Robin in #503, then back to back-up for #505, #506, #508 to #510, #512 to #519, the end of her solo run before the Crisis On Infinite Earths and the Killing Joke, other than one Batgirl Special.

While Robin had also spent his time working with various incarnations of the Teen Titans, Batgirl really just worked with Robin, private investigator Jason Bard, Commissioner Gordon and the last of the features to be mentioned here....


....Man-Bat!

Man-Bat

Kirk Langstrom first appeared in Detective Comics #400 (June, 1970), as a scientist who was looking to develop a formula to allow one to see in the dark (but instead unleashed a transformation in himself into the half-man, half-bat creature).


After assorted tales where Batman helped cure Kirk, and even his wife, Francine (who became the She-Bat), and two issues of his own title, Man-Bat had a couple of issues of being a Detective Comics back-up in #458 and #459 in 1976.  

Returning for the last 10 issues of Batman Family as a solo feature (though adding Jason Bard to the mix in the last issue), Man-Bat moved over to Detective Comics with the rest, but only for issues #481, #485 and #492 (and much more on Man-Bat is available here!).

Still, these three filled up pages, having interesting stories, but also keeping alive the feeling of Batman in Detective Comics!

The Early Days of Man-Bat

Back in the 1980s, DC Comics gave readers deluxe reprint series, that collected old stories, but on better, high quality Baxter paper, and featured no ads...

...much smaller than tradepaperbacks, yet more focused on a specific purpose.



One of these was 1984's Man-Bat #1, which featured three stories written by Frank Robbins, pencilled by Neal Adams and inked by Dick Giordano...

...featuring the first three stories of Man-Bat, a new, Jekyll and Hyde type of villain for Batman!

Detective Comics #400

Starting off, Man-Bat first appeared in Detective Comics #400 (June, 1970) in the "Challenge of the Man-Bat", where Gotham Museum of Natural History employee and self-styled bat-scientist Kirk Langstrom tried to give himself super-hearing and night vision by injecting himself with bat-gland extract...


...but, instead, turned himself into a half-man, half-bat creature that ended up facing off against Batman, though the two managed to defeat some crooks who planned to rob the museum, before the transformed Kirk wandered off into the night...


....and into his second appearance!

Detective Comics #402

Which was Detective Comics #402 (August, 1970), with the story "Man Or Bat?", where Batman accidentally interferes with Kirk's attempts to cure himself from his bat-transformation...


...and we find out a little more of what drives Kirk Langstrom, by meeting Francine Lee, the woman who was his fiancee!


This Neal Adams' cover also was altered a bit...

....to become the front cover of the collection of this series of three short stories!

Detective Comics #407

The last of Man-Bat's stories to be collected in this tome was Detective Comics #407 (January, 1971), with the story of "Marriage: Impossible".  In this story, Batman crashes Kirk Langstrom's wedding, trying to prevent the mutated zoologist from marrying Francine Lee, except that the surprise is on Batman, as Francine knew, and had taken some bat-extract herself to become the creature known as She-Bat (though Batman did cure the two of them....).


The wedding was postponed and didn't happen until later.....(and these three stories can also be found in the Batman: Illustrated by Neal Adams Volume #2, both Hardcover and tradepaperback).


But, even though this collected ended with this (and an altered back cover of Detective Comics #416, which was also drawn by Neal Adams), Man-Bat's story didn't end.

More Of The Story

Man-Bat continued on in Detective Comics #416 (October, 1971) written and drawn by Frank Robbins, wherein Kirk married Francine, but also changed back into Man-Bat after, with Batman trying to cure him again, Batman fighting a bat-creature in Las Vegas in Detective Comics #429 (November, 1972), except learning that it was She-Bat from Kirk, who was trying to save her in this Frank Robbins written and illustrated tale.

Man-Bat turned the hero in Batman #254 (January-February, 1974) in "King of the Gotham Jungle" written by Frank Robbins, with art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano, helping Batman bring down the Getaway Genius, and also worked with Batman to help "Bring Back Killer Krag" in Brave and the Bold #119 (June, 1975), by writer Bob Haney and artist Jim Aparo.

All of this led to Man-Bat getting his own series with covers by Jim Aparo!

In Man-Bat #1 (December-January, 1975/1976), Kirk had to "Beware The Eyes Of Baron Tyme", a sorcerer who had transformed Francine back into She-Bat and taken control of her in a story by Gerry Conway, with art by Steve Ditko and Al Milgrom, and in Man-Bat #2 (Feburary-March, 1976), Kirk had to be a "Fugitive From Blind Justice", facing off against Batman foe, the Ten-Eyed Man, who got a bit of an upgrade from a secret organization who felt Man-Bat and She-Bat might have been the start of an invasion of bat-people in this story by Martin Pasko, with art by Pablo Marcus and Ricardo Villamonte.

Sadly, the series was quickly cancelled, with Man-Bat getting a back-up in Detective Comics #458 and #459 (in April and May, 1976), and a regular feature in Batman Family in 1977 and 1978, from issues #11 to #20 (including getting his own foe, Snafu, and working with Batgirl and Robin, as well as Etrigan the Demon, and beginning a partnership in a detective agency with Jason Bard, who also had a back-up feature in Detective Comics, with all Batman Family stories written by Bob Rozakis, and art by Marshall Rogers, Don Newton, Howard Chaykin, Michael Golden and Danny Bulandi)...

...before becoming an irregular feature in Detective Comics as the Batman Family took it over with Detective Comics #481 (December-January, 1978-1979), and only making that issue and Detective Comics #485 and #492, then kind of a double epilogue in Brave and the Bold #165 (August, 1980) and DC Comics Presents #35 (July, 1981), and returning as more of a villain in Batman #341 (November, 1981).

Wouldn't it be great to see a collection of Man-Bat stories, from Detective Comics #400 to DC Comics Presents #35 chronicling his days as a hero?