The Black Bat was a pulp hero that appeared during the third wave of new pulp heroes, who where more like comic-book heroes. The Black Bat was fairly successful, and ran longer than the others, but didn’t have too much success in comics.
Published in the pulps by Thrilling, the comic-book version was published by Thrilling’s associated comic book company Nedor, which had to rename him the Mask.
Moonstone did a comic that made changes to him. Ron Fortier did a more correct version in comics.
After they started doing other pulp heroes (The Shadow, The Spider, Doc Savage, etc), Dynamite did a Black Bat comic, which they could do as the character is in the public domain.
The comic ran for 12 issues, and moved the character into modern times. But they made such radical changes to the character that I dropped it after eight issues. They have collected the whole comic series in trade paperback.
So, a little review of who the Black Bat is, at least per the original pulps. He is really former District Attorney Tony Quinn, blinded by a criminal’s acid. After a secret surgery to transplant the eyes of a murdered police officer, he regains his sight, and finds he can see in the dark. This is thanks to additional changes to his eyes done by the surgeon. Keeping his new sight hidden, he begins a new career to fight crime as the Black Bat!
He is decked out in an all black outfit, including a full face mask, gauntlets, and a ribbed cape. He is assisted by Carol Baldwin, the daughter of the slain policeman; she serves as a possible love interest. Joining them are “Butch” O’Leary, a large, strong man; and “Silk” Kirby, a small-time confidence man who is recruited as Tony’s valet in the first pulp story.
Got that?
Well, in the comics Tony Quinn is not a DA, but an attorney who starts to defend criminals. But runs afoul them, and they gouge out his eyes. Carol Baldwin contacts him, but is part of a secret private group that outfits Tony with artificial eyes that can see in the dark, as well as giving him training and the Black Bat outfit. Carol is more or less his contact with the group. Silk is a drug addict and confidential informant for the police who Tony meets and befriends. Butch doesn’t show up until later in the series, along with Captain McGrath.
The main storyline in the first several issues is a plot involving the kidnapping of police and getting one to setup a bomb in the courthouse. As I noted, I dropped the comic after that, so not sure how the rest of the series ran. Needless to say, getting the complete series is not high on my “to buy” list.
This is a good example of how not to modernize a pulp hero.
Instead, I look forward to Ron Fortier’s Black Bat comics at Moonstone and Redbud Studios.
Not only did the Black Bat anticipate Batman, but in a sense by first losing his sight, he also anticipated Marvel’s Daredevil.
Well, as the Black Bat and Batman were created independently, and came out at the same time, I don’t see either of them anticipating the other. And it seems they mined the Shadow for stories to use in Batman, so…
And as the Black Bat is NOT blind or have any kind of “radar sense”, I don’t see the connection to Marvel’s Daredevil. I’ve always seen that as a bit of stretch.
I agree completely that this take on the character lost the spirit entirely. And no one should forget Dr. Mid-Nite in the continuity from the Black Bat to Daredevil!