Detective Comics #400 (of 1000000)
Challenge of the Man-Bat ; A Burial for Batgirl
June 30th, 1970
Volume:
Publisher:
Number:
400
(of 881)
Name:
Challenge of the Man-Bat ; A Burial for Batgirl
Aliases:
Cover date:
June 30th, 1970
Store date:
Unknown
Zoologist Kirk Langstrom is working late at the Gotham Natural History Museum putting together a bat habitat; he aims to perfect a serum that can endow people with enhanced auditory abilities via a specialized bat gland extract. Pleased with his progress, he decides to test his new formula upon himself, mutating him into Man-Bat.
Challenge of the Man-Bat (Batman vs Man-Bat (1st appearance) / written by Frank Robbins)
A Burial for Batgirl (Batgirl, Robin / written by Dennis J. O'Neil)
Plot
Challenge of the Man-Bat
While working at the Gotham Museum of Natural History, under the guise of creating the Night-Creature Habitat Exhibit, Dr. Kirk Langstrom creates and uses a serum on himself that heightens his hearing but has the side effects of making him sensitive to light and he starts growing bat features. He is able to hide in the museum while he tries to figure out an antidote.
Meanwhile, elsewhere The Blackout Gang, a group of robbers who use the pitch black, Light-intensifier Goggles and Foam Soled Shoes to commit jewel heists are confronted by Batman. His fighting skills are better than their technology but due their numbers they are able to escape but leave the Ultra Sonic Cutting Tool behind. Batman uses the tool and his equipment to make himself a sonic detector and earplugs that will help him fight the Blackout Gang in the dark.
The next night the Blackout Gang try to rob the Gotham Museum of Natural History in an attempt to steal the gems. Batman is there to stop them, but the leader came prepared and uses ping pong balls to ruin Batman's hearing advantage. It looks like the end of the Caper Crusader but then Man-Bat Langstrom shows up and attacks the gang, giving Batman tie to recoup and the Bat duo are able to stop the Blackout Gang.
Batman wishes to speak with Man-Bat, but Kirk doesn't want to talk to Batman and runs off into the darkness, leaving Batman to winder if Man-Bat will be a friend or a foe in the future.
A Burial for Batgirl
Barbara Gordon goes to college and catches a possible murder, but she is unsure of even the fact she collected.
