Welcome to The Bat & The Fury!

"But there must be some means of identification," Quinn pursed his lips.  "Something by which men can recognize me.  An insignia - a name, Silk - I have it!  I've been blind - as blind as a bat.  I still am as far as anyone knows.  I shall prowl during the night.  Bats are blind and fly by night also.  I'll be the bat, Silk.  The Black Bat!"

If you've visited my other blogs, this one may be slightly surprising. Of late, my focus had been on Canadian comics and characters. And it still is.

However, The Black Bat and Miss Fury are two characters in which I've had an interest for some time.

In the case of Miss Fury, I first became aware of her in the early 90's. I was a huge fan of the Protectors book from Malibu. She appeared in only a handful of issues, but a number of fans expressed excitement at her inclusion on the team resulting from a 4-issue mini-series published a little earlier by Adventure Comics. In any event, I enjoyed the character but assumed that she "died" along with the rest of the Protectors. I didn't really get the whole "public domain" thing at the time.

I've also been a Green Hornet fan for a while and bought Dynamite's Masks limited series on that basis. Miss Fury's involvement in that book, as well as recent news of her own series spinning out of it, was a pleasant surprise.

As for The Black Bat, Moonstone's version of the character is the one that caught my eye some time ago as they were preparing their "Return of the Originals" event. I was a hugely interested in Dynamite's Project Superpowers book (and its various spinoffs) at the time, so Moonstone's plans seemed to be right up my alley too.

I only vaguely knew of the Bat up until that point, but reading about him made me realise how many characters he helped inspire (at least allegedly; I know there's some debate about that). His origins and abilities mirror those of Batman, Two-Face and Dr. Mid-Nite, among others.

The Black Bat is currently appearing in Dynamite's very fine Masks book as well and will also have a series of his own starting in May, the first issue of which is scheduled to be released at the same time as Miss Fury's second issue. For both characters, the solo series appear to be different versions of the characters appearing in Masks, which is not a new phenomenon for Dynamite.

Another aspect of The Black Bat which I've found interesting is his sudden surge in popularity in recent years. Aside from Moonstone and Dynamite, other publishers have put their spin on the character. I'll use this blog to help sort out the various versions.

As I chip away at all that, I am presently reading the first volume of The Black Bat Omnibus, seen at the top of the right column. It contains the character's first stories from 1939 and only a few chapters in, I'm completely hooked. Clicking on the image will take you on the Amazon.com page from which you can order it for yourself. I don't believe you'll be disappointed.