Warning! Spoilers ahead for Man-Bat #4
In the latest issue of DC Comics' Man-Bat, Dr. Kirk Langstrom's monstrous form is continuing to become more like Marvel's Venom, which even includes Venom's new status as the new King in Black. In recent issues, the villain Scarecrow has taken advantage of Man-Bat's current predicament, and he's looking to use Langstrom's mind to evolve his fear tactics further than ever before. However, the resulting battle motivated Man-Bat to evolve his own power, transforming himself into the new King Man-Bat in the DC Universe.
In DC's Man-Bat from writer Dave Wielgosz and artist Sumit Kumar, Kirk Langstrom is on a ticking clock, trying to find a means to reverse his condition before he turns into the Man-Bat for good. His transformation into Man-Bat will soon become irreversible, and he'll eventually lose his mind and identity to the beast. As a result, Kirk is on the run as a fugitive from Batman, the GCPD, and even the Suicide Squad, and he's been desperate to find a cure. However, Jonathan Crane's Scarecrow has other plans for Langstrom in the new Man-Bat #4, having captured Kirk and his ex-wife, forcing them to build a sonic cannon capable of sending subliminal messages to induce fear, replacing his traditional fear toxins.
In order to force their compliance, Scarecrow had Kirk and his ex-wife believing that they were living their perfect fantasy, hallucinating thanks to the subliminal speakers Crane placed all over their workspace. While the Langstroms build Scarecrow's cannon, Batman arrives on the scene. However, the Dark Knight is hit with the cannon, which brings out the darkest parts of himself to the surface. Having come back to reality, Man-Bat realizes that he has no choice but to fight Batman before he can deal with Crane. This motivates Kirk to take desperate measures, injecting himself with a sample of the villain Bane's venom compound, transforming himself into the "near godlike" King Man-Bat to take down the Dark Knight.
Interestingly enough, even this new development with Langstrom follows suit with recent events for Marvel's Venom. While this new series already created some strong similarities by having Man-Bat be a separate consciousness and personality for Kirk to interact with (just like Eddie Brock and his Venom symbiote), giving Man-Bat godlike power and giving him the title of King tracks with Venom becoming the new King in Black as the Marvel Universe's new God of Symbiotes.
While Venom appears to be a god in official title with a variety of new powers and Kirk seems to be using the term purely in terms of having greater physical strength, the comparisons are easy to make nonetheless (especially considering the compound Kirk used is called "venom"). In any case, King Man-Bat certainly looks like a force to be reckoned with, but hopefully, it's one that can be guided to do good, allowing him to incapacitate this darkened Batman long enough for him to then take down Scarecrow in future issues. All in all, Man-Bat is a tragic foe who never wanted to be a villain. Now, with everything on the line and his entire future at risk, it's pretty cool to see Man-Bat attempting to do the right thing in his new series from DC Comics.
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