It’s officially the spooky season, and what’s more spooky than bats? How about just shy of a dozen bat-PEOPLE? Welcome to Ten Things: The Extended Bat Family!
Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian and youthful idiot hero Batman Jones, Presents:
TEN THINGS: THE EXTENDED BAT FAMILY!
10) BATMAN (Terry McGinnis)
Important safety tip: The Batman of Batman Beyond, Terry McGinnis, is not called Batman Beyond. He is just the new Batman of a nebulous future time, working under the tutelage of an elderly Bruce Wayne. His reality is the future of Earth-12, the world of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, which becomes important later on when we discover that he is the product of genetic engineering by Project Cadmus. His father was unknowingly injected with Bruce Wayne’s DNA, causing Terry to be born a perfect genetic duplicate of Wayne.
That retcon is, in my opinion, one of the rare missteps of the later seasons of JLU.
9) BATGIRL (Young Justice)
Like her comic counterpart, Barbara Gordon of Earth-16 became Batgirl against the wishes of her father, police commissioner Jim Gordon. During her time with “The Team,” the central super-group of Young Justice, Batgirl served as second-in-command to Aqualad until she was accidentally paralyzed in an encounter with Cassandra “The Orphan” Kane. Even after losing the use of her legs, Barbara chose to remain active as a hero as Oracle, serving as information broker and mission control for the heroes of her former team.
8) BATMAN (Thomas Wayne)
To be filed under “Questions Nobody Asked,” the continuity of Earth-1 during the Silver Age of comics included the fact that Bruce Wayne became fascinated with the idea of dressing up as a bat-man when he saw his father Thomas wear this costume to a masquerade ball. It’s a detail that modern comics mostly ignored until Grant Morrison resurrected it for Batman RIP, having the villain Doctor Hurt wear the suit while pretending to be a returned Doctor Wayne. As psychological warfare goes, it’s quite impressive.
7) BATWING (David Zavimbe)
The first Batwing of post-Flashpoint Prime Earth, David Zavimbe was once a child soldier in his home country of The Congo. As an adult, he served as a police officer before being chosen as a member of Batman, Incorporated. As Batwing, David was also a member of Justice League International before that team was disbanded, Not long after, Batwing resigned due to a number of stresses, including losing his “Alfred,” a man called Matu Ba, leaving the armor to Luke Fox, the son of Wayne Foundation administrator Lucius.
6) THE LUNAR BAT
Though a hero in the DC Universe, and in fact, in Gotham City, The Lunar Bat (real name unrevealed) was not a fully-sanctioned member of the Bat Family, copyright Wayne Industries. Indeed, his only appearance came when he saved an elderly couple from a group of would-be muggers, only to be shot in the head by a hidden assassin. It wasn’t even clear whether he had ever adventured in costume before, but he ended his life with a quiet triumph before bleeding to death in the gutters of Gotham.
That’s one depressing tale.
5) BAT WALKER (The Jurassic League)
A founding member of the Jurassic League, Bat Walker is an Allosaurus with a taste for justice… and flesh.
But mostly justice.
His world is designated Earth-27 in the Multiversity-era cosmos and is differentiated by the fact that sentient saurids are the apex predators. Bat Walker, though, works to protect “the little ones” (which is to say, humans) from being toyed with, taunted, and eaten by his brethren, which seems a little bit off-brand for a Batman analog character. Either way, the Flash on this world is a Velociraptor named Flashraptor, which should keep your brain chugging along with any number of unanswered questions.
4) THE BAT-HULK
After exposure to a chemical of The Joker’s design that turns him into a giant, gibbering freak, Batman seeks out the assistance of Metamorpho, the self-styled Man of 1,000 Elements! It’s an impressive claim, given that the periodic table of elements numbered only one-hundred-and-four in 1964.
Also, that other Bruce, Doctor Banner debuted in 1962, meaning that this is almost certainly an intentional nod, though I’ve always been puzzled about the whys and wherefores of it.
3) THE DEVIL BAT
After seeing the horrors of combat in the Middle East, Anthony James Blaine returned home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Plagued with visions of demons tormenting innocent people, Sergeant Blaine vowed to become a new force for justice… a slayer of demons!
No, he’s not from Gotham City. He’s not even from DC Comics.
But if you can’t appreciate that visual, you probably don’t like comics.
2) BATWOMAN (Dark Genesis!)
In a fictionalized story-within-a-story, a man named Simon Petrarch sold his soul to Lucifer in return for the power to become the vigilante demon known as… THE BAT-MAN!
Bruce Wayne was less than thrilled to read this unauthorized version of his alter-ego, but it was at least a short-lived tale, as a copycat killer calling himself Batman brought the comic to a halt. This Batwoman only appeared on the cover of one of the issues, as drawn by legendary Batman artist of the 1950s, Dick Sprang.
Honestly, I’d love to see this look in action again.
1) BATMAN (Turtle Armor)
After the arrival of a quartet of vigilantes from another dimension, Batman finds himself facing the ninjas of The Foot Clan and their leader, The Shredder. It’s a hard-fought battle that requires him to up his game in unexpected ways. And if there’s one thing that The Batman knows, it’s that new villains sometimes require new methods, including his very own protective turtle-armor.
If you’ve ever wondered how Oroku Saki and Ra’s Al Ghul would get along, the answer is “Backstabbing.” Oh so very much backstabbing.
Once again, this week’s topic, The Extended Bat-Family, is all me, but feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra to suggest a topic of your own! There’s always more Ten Things madness on my Twitter or check out the full Twitter archive here! As with any set of like items, these aren’t meant to be hard and fast or absolutely complete, if only because DC Comics has actually introduced three new Bat-variants while I was writing this, one of which is a Bat-Hamster, I think. Either way, the comments section is below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!
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Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.