We have a little rumor for Batman: Arkham Knight that’s sure to whet your appetite. Someone may have unwittingly leaked Man-Bat’s appearance in Rocksteady’s final Arkham game.
That someone being accomplished actor Dee Bradley Baker, a near-unavoidable presence in pop culture, even if you didn’t know it. His voice work alone includes the Avatar cartoons, Clone Wars, Ben 10, American Dad, Fairly Oddparents, Phineas and Ferb, etc. His video game-specific work includes the Spider-Man games, Halo, Gears of War, and Portal 2.
He was in Batman: Arkham City, voicing Ra’s Al Ghul. Just recently, his IMDB page accidentally leaked his voice work as Man-Bat for Batman: Arkham Knight. He just played the same role in the new Warner Premiere animated film, Son of Batman. The listing is no longer up, but of course, once it’s found, you can’t really take it back.
Man-Bat has a distinguished career as a Batman supervillain. Kirk Langstrom is a scientist who gives himself a bat extract to allay his incoming deafness. He not only gets the bat’s sonar hearing, but transforms into a werebat of sorts. At various times he has become both an antagonist and occasional ally of Batman.
In the comics, Man-Bat soared under Steve Ditko’s and Neal Adams’ pens. In the cartoons, he received the distinction of being the 1st supervillain featured in the seminal 90s cartoon, Batman: The Animated Series.
However, it’s possible we’re not going to see Kirk himself in Arkham Knight. See, Son Of Batman takes cues from the original comic, where Talia Al Ghul has subjected her League of Assassins to Kirk’s serum to make an army of Man-Bats. So, really, if this turns out to be true, don’t expect one, but an army of human sized bat creatures to face down with your Batmobile. Too bad for them.
Batman: Arkham Knight is coming October to Windows, PS4, and Xbox One.
