Man-Bat + Man-Thing = Bat-Thing

Bat-Thing #1
“Someone to Watch Over Me”
Writer: Larry Hama
Penciler: Rodolfo DaMaggio
Inker: Bill Sienkiewicz
Colorist: Gloria Vasquez
Letterer: Albert DeGuzman
Separator: Jamison
Associate Editor: Jordan B. Gorfinkel
Editor: Dennis O'Neill
Cover: DaMaggio and Sienkiewicz
Published by: DC
Released: April 2, 1997

Just as Batman isn't the only denizen of DC's Gotham City, Dark Claw isn't the only thing that goes bump in the night of Amalgam's Gotham. And this particular resident is a combination I doubt anyone saw coming.

Man-Thing didn't have an ongoing series at the time, and I don't think Man-Bat ever has. But Hama, O'Neill or somebody decided to drop the “Man” from both and merge them into the Bat-Thing, which I endorse for its sheer curveball nature alone.

The issue opens on two detectives pursuing the mysterious creature: Christine Montoya and Clark Bullock, whose DC halves I recognize well enough as Detectives Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock. More on them later. Well, sort of.

Anyway, Montoya and Bullock exchange what I guess is gritty street dialogue – “You put a load of twelve-gauge buck into Fat Freddy's Face, didn't you?” “Had to. He went for his biscuit, babe.” – as they investigate a killing they're sure was perpetrated by the Bat-Thing. A dramatic silhouette overhead confirms their suspicions.

Bullock decides to go warn Francie-Ellen Sallis – a combination of Man-Thing's wife Ellen Sallis and Man-Bat's paramour Francine – that her mutated husband Kirk Sallis is back in town. As Montoya remarks on how often Bullock checks in on them, her partner is followed by a mysterious man who really emphasizes his S'es. He is in turn followed by the Bat-Thing.

Mrs. Sallis is awakened by a knock at the door. It's her husband, in human form and lab coat, who apologizes for performing genetic experiments on himself after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. However, he suddenly transforms into a green, bat-faced monstrosity, frightening his wife awake from what turns out to be a nightmare.

As her daughter Kelly asks when Daddy's coming back, there's a real knock at the door. It's Bullock, warning her about the Bat-Thing. Mrs. Bat-Thing insists he wouldn't harm his family; Bullock is unconvinced.

Bullock's shadow calls a biker and directs him to the Sallises' address. At the same time, a medical examiner calls Montoya to tell her he found a photo taped to the back of Bat-Thing's victim, showing a woman and child emerging from the Sallis home. She calls to warn Bullock, just as a pair of gun-toting bikers arrive and open fire on him.

Bullock takes a few hits in the Kevlar before blasting both attackers off their bikes with a shotgun. Two more thugs force their way into the apartment, going after Kelly and Francie-Ellen. Bat-Thing crashes into the apartment, and Bullock gives chase. But when he arrives, he finds the creature has brutally dispatched the attackers. As he opens fire, Bat-Thing flies over his head and attacks a gunman coming up the stairs behind him. Similar to his Marvel half, “all who feel fear burn at the touch of the Bat-Thing.

Bullock realizes he's misjudged the monster, who was actually protecting his family. Montoya arrives with an exposition dump that reveals the man following Bullock was the aforementioned Fat Freddy, who survived the shotgun blast and lost a lot of weight since he couldn't eat solid food for a while. He was hiring killers to take out people Bullock cared about, and his frequent visits to the Sallis home put them on the list.

As Bullock monologues about how he misjudged the creature, Bat-Thing returns to his lab in the swamp.

This was an Amalgam that focused on the story rather than the Easter eggs and combos, leading to a more solid tale than some of its contemporaries. There were a few points where the actions taken to put together the overall moody, dramatic story don't quite make sense. Why was Not-So-Fat Freddy following Bullock if he'd already given the Sallises' address to his first assassin? But overall the writing and art deliver a succinct, moody issue that stands on its own rather than relying on a lot of admittedly fun references and mash-ups.

Best Amalgam: It's got to be the title character, and not just because I can't identify any of the others definitively. Both Man-Thing and Man-Bat are tragic figures that can be dismissed as weird side characters, yet Hama used them effectively as the focal point of the issue.

Most Confusing Amalgam: Our lead detectives. I didn't even have decent guesses for the Marvel part of the formula, and the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe doesn't have entries for them. Perhaps Montoya is merged with Christine Palmer, a version of Night Nurse made famous by Rachel McAdams in the Doctor Strange movies. Googling Marvel characters named Clark gives me lots of references to Superman, Agent Phil Coulson* and an obscure Marvel Easter egg character named Clark Kent.

* - Played, of course, by Clark Gregg, but that was more than 10 years in the future when this came out.