WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Man-Bat #4 by Dave Wielgosz, Sumit Kumar, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
The best villains always have relatable motives. Even if their ways of attaining that motive make them less than sympathetic, the best "bad guys" turn out to not be bad at all, but merely desperate to meet a goal and willing to go to drastic lengths in the attaining of that goal.
The villainous acts of Man-Bat, aka Kirk Langstrom, have mostly been born out of an attempt to fix what he perceives as broken in his life, including his marriage. In typical fashion, his attempts to correct his problems only made them worse. However, in the latest issue of Man-Bat, Langstrom finally manages to get one of the things he has always wanted: a truly happy marriage with his wife, Francine. Unfortunately, his idyllic life ends up being a nightmare conjured by the Scarecrow.
After inadvertently interfering in one of Scarecrow's operations, Man-Bat was captured by him alongside Francine. The Scarecrow was attempting to change his usual methods of dispersing fear by using soundwaves to bring out existing fears in people. But when Man-Bat destroyed the sonic cannon that would do this, Scarecrow needed someone to recreate the device. The Scarecrow kidnapped the Langstroms, who were both auditory scientists, and subjected them to subliminal audio that made them think they were happily married and working on the project together. In reality, they were living on a manufactured set monitored by their kidnapper.
Unfortunately, this idyllic existence was never meant to last. As the project neared completion, the Scarecrow methodically took away the necessities of their lives, and subliminally pushed them into stressful states of anger and frustration. This eventually escalated into the once happy couple completely turning on one another.
Although the Scarecrow manipulated this outcome, it parallels what happened to the couple without his influence. The Langstroms were happy once, but Kirk's obsessions led him down a path that destroyed more than it repaired. He tried to convince Francine that he was capable of perfecting the Man-Bat serum, but each time only made it more dangerous, both to himself and everyone around him.
Kirk will never be able to have a happy life with Francine until he finds a way to control his obsessive need to fix things. Kirk is more misguided and broken than cruel and evil, and he genuinely wants to make a better life for him and his loved ones. The biggest and most difficult issue for him to overcome is facing the reality that he is the true cause of the nightmare that has become his life.
0 Comments