Justice League: Gods and Monsters are without a doubt one of DC’s most unusual animated adventure pictures. This Elseworlds adventure, interestingly enough, takes place in an alternate reality, and the heroes differ from the standard roster in that they have different backstories and feature alternate versions of various superheroes.
In 2015, a new production from the DC Universe Animated Original Movies gave us a completely new perspective on the squad. Only Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman were present in this other universe version of the Justice League, and each character was portrayed in a unique way.
In this animated picture, Batman is Dr. Kirk Langstrom, Wonder Woman is Bekka, a formidable fighter from New Genesis, and Superman is Hernan Guerra, General Zod’s son. For a variety of problematic reasons, this picture is also perhaps one of the most important superhero films of the recent decade.
This picture was widely regarded as Zack Snyder’s follow-up to Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, although it garnered a mixed response from the audience and reviewers. Due to personal traumas, the filmmaker was forced to quit this cartoon work.
Following his departure, the film was taken over by Joss Whedon, who oversaw substantial reshoots and went on to re-edit the film. Unfortunately, the film was rushed in order to fulfill a deadline. The backstory of Batman from this unique lineup is discussed in this article.
Justice League: Gods & Monsters Batman Origin
Kirk Langstrom was originally a scientist and researcher who accidentally turned himself into a powerful and mythical vampire while attempting to cure cancer that would’ve eventually killed him. He feeds on villains and criminals and drinks their blood in a bid to keep himself alive and well and this leads to him becoming Batman. He was a student at Gotham University and studied along with Dr. Lex Luthor for three whole years.
During this time he was diagnosed with deadly and chronic lymphatic cancer. But, fortunately for him, Kirk Langstrom was a man of science and sheer will, and he refused to give in to this deadly disease and sought out ways to fight his tragic fate. He attempted to cure his cancer by using many different ways, one of them included a compound he named ‘Bat-Venom” and this was his pet project during the time that he was in the University.
On the day of his graduation, Kirk attempted to finish his work at the lab amidst an unwilling promise made to two of his friends, Tina and Will Magnus, to go to a college party that night with them. On the same night, Tina and Magnus discovered their friend asleep in the lab and went on to wake him up. Kirk confided in them and excitedly revealed to them that he had almost nearly perfected his special Bat Venom and that the coefficients on the coagulants of his blood were almost matching each other.
He insisted on staying up and continuing his work, but Tina somehow convinced him to go to the party with the both of them. Tina, who was the designated driver for all three, took both of her friends, Kirk and Magnus back to their apartment at night. During this time, Magnus decided to bring his project home, and it was based on nanites that were used to construct a ship inside a bottle.
This led Kirk to think about his own pet project, and he asked his friend if it was possible for the nanites to be applied to any organic materials. His plan was to use the unique nanites and program them in a way that they would act as agents and help in stabilizing the now volatile Bat Venom. After this conversation, he suddenly collapsed. He was then rushed to the hospital and Tina went on to discover that Kirk’s cancer was in its final stages. She reprimanded Kirk for not telling his friends how far his cancer had progressed.
Magnus also went through Kirk’s vast amounts of research and decided he would try and help his dying friend. Five days after these events had passed, one of the mice that were used for experimentation in the lab managed to survive the trials that Kirk was running on them.
The erythrocyte count of the mouse was still up and its agglutination was quite normal. Magnus wished to run a few more tests but was unable to go through with them. He then took the bat Venom and proceeded to inject it into Kirk, and Kirk quickly went into a feverish state and had to be taken to his bedroom to rest by Tina.
The bat Venom proved to be successful, but it did not come without its downsides. It turned Kirk from a human to a pseudo-vampire while it healed him. Kirk destroyed his entire room before going on to jump out of his window. He staggered through Gotham and was stopped in his tracks by two evil criminals.
But Kirk had his special powers with him, courtesy of his Bat Venom and with his super agility, sheer power, and speed he threw one of them unceremoniously into a dumpster and the other was quickly tackled to the ground after he dodged a few bullets. Kirk was then overcome by the sight of some blood, and bit into the man, just before he saw his own reflection inside a shard of glass and came to terms with his new reality.
The first issue of Gods and Monster- Batman starts off with Kirk killing a drunk man who is attempting to abuse his wife. After seeing that her husband has been killed, the devoted wife lashes out at Kirk and Kirk begins to reconsider his actions, wondering if he has lost his humanity and if he killed an innocent man who had been driven to darkness because of his past. His hunger to survive had unfortunately been turned into a hunger for blood by the venom and he wonders if this is a life worth living.
The scene flashes to his parent’s house, where Kirk’s father leaves as soon as Kirk enters, and Kirk’s mother assures her son that his father does not hate him, he is simply confused by his interests, but then even she insists that her son should leave. Kirk wishes to convey his new reality and newfound loss of humanity to his mother, but he cannot find the words to do so. Kirk then goes on to meet Francine who was his very first girlfriend, but they are interrupted in the middle of their conversation by Harv, who proceeds to make fun of Kirk, but Kirk quickly loses his temper and furiously throws him away from him, through a glass panel.
Kirk realizes that he doesn’t fit into his hometown and that everyone thinks of him as an outsider and a freak and he goes back home, to his makeshift lab in the middle of a condemned building. He considers hiding away for a long time and letting the venom burn through him and eventually burn out. It is painfully obvious that he has now become dangerous and unstable, but he refuses to let his hunger take control of him. Suddenly, a voice in his head tells him he will never be free of this insatiable hunger, because the hunger isn’t just inside him, it is actually a part of him, and that he has to embrace that he is not a man anymore, but a thing, a creature of the night.
The second comic issue begins with headlines, people hail Batman as a savior and wonder about his true identity. Batman has finally let his hunger free, and it led him to the deepest corners of Gotham, to criminals with no sense of humanity and no conscience. He believes he is doing the world a favor by killing them. In his eyes, Kirk Langstrom is dead, he is now truly Batman. But a part of him still doubts if what he is doing is right. A corner of his heart believes that he is just using this as a rationalization to free the demon inside him.
Lew Moxon is the head of all organized crime in Gotham City, and he is also Batman’s next target. He is currently holding a meeting in order to discuss horrifyingly evil steps taken by his organization and he talks about his disappointment in his best friend, Rupert Thorne. Rupert is skimming off the profits of his prostitution ring and as punishment, Lew orders him to put a gun to his head and kill himself.
The meeting is then adjourned and moved to another room where they will all have some food as well. Moxon has gotten away with evil deeds for years, but this time, Batman has his eyes set on him. Moxon tells Batman that he would like him to join his team, but Batman refuses smugly and kills him coldly and quickly. After this, he shows up at Moxon’s funeral and sees all the underworld hotshots swarming around his coffin.
All the criminals show grief, but Batman knows that all their words are just elaborately spun lies, and the only people who truly grieve this vile criminal’s death are his wife and his young son, Jeremy. Batman wonders if his family will also mourn at his funeral. Moxon’s wife is a devout Christian who immerses herself in charity and his son is a senior at Yale and has no ties to his father’s organization.
He wonders how two such gentle souls could love such a cruel man, and obsesses over this in his head. Batman meets Jeremy, discussing how Van Gough’s self-portrait has always haunted him, and how even after fighting with his demons every day, Van Gough managed to bring such beauty into the world. Jeremy believes that not all things in life are meant to be understood, and their mystery is a sort of grace, and this statement changes Batman’s perspective.
In the third and final comic issue, Jeremy and \Batman become friends. Batman reveals all about his past to Jeremy and Jeremy, using his extensive knowledge of Biochemistry, attempts to help Batman find an antidote. One night, when the two of them are returning from the lab, they find Angela, Jeremy’s mother, lying dead on the floor. Jeremy starts to blame Batman for the plight but quickly takes back his words.
The two of them find out that there are two crime lords who are fighting to take Moxon’s place, and Batman goes after one of them, only to find out that he is Joe Chill, Moxon’s right-hand man that he killed in a previous altercation. Due to his genetic illness, when he is killed by Batman, Joe is somehow able to absorb Batman’s antibodies into his own system. Bullets have no effect on him, and he has become faster and more powerful than Batman.
Batman is somehow able to kill him by pummeling him with an ax, which leads to Joe’s demise. After this Batman approaches Jeremy, armed with information about Joe’s background. Batman has lost faith in Jeremy because he finds out that Jeremy has been groomed by Moxon to take his place in the organization and Jeremy has been hiding this from him for so long. Jeremy is in fact, also aware that Batman is the one who killed his father, yet he accepts Batman as his friend because he believes Batman will never hurt him.
Batman has a host of amazing powers and abilities that help him stand out from other superheroes and make him undefeatable. Batman is a pseudo-vampire, which means he possesses retractable fangs within his mouth that allow him to puncture the skin of humans and extract their blood, usually at the neck. Batman requires blood to survive, however it is said that it does not have to be human blood; it is stated that he has previously drank from rats and that he generally can survive on artificially-created plasma.
Blood seems to be his only source of nutrition. Unlike a “true” vampire, it is unknown whether drinking blood cures Batman’s injuries or improves his health and vigor in any manner. Batman’s superhuman strength is several times that of a regular human being, although it is not quite at par with that of his colleagues Superman and Wonder Woman. His superhuman strength enables him to effortlessly overpower, lift, toss, and even maul regular humans, sending them soaring through the sky with his strikes or stabbing them with his bare hand.
He is substantially quicker and more agile than a typical human being due to his superhuman agility, and can effortlessly dodge bullets and escape physical combat hits. He is skilled at, at least some amount of self-propelled flight, however, he does so with the assistance of artificial wings integrated into his outfit. He is shown to be levitating with Superman and Wonder Woman without making use of his wings.
Along with all of this, he also has the brain of a genius and is skilled in science, and operation of various types of computers along with superior investigative skills. He is also an expert at martial arts and has the ability to be stealthy, intimidating, and escape quickly, even in the middle of a sticky situation.
Mind-Blowing Animated Story Of The Vampire Batman
In the first episode of Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles, Batman is on the search for serial killer Harlequin, who is hiding out inside a warehouse in Gotham. She keeps all the spoils of her kill packed inside a refrigerator, and when Batman looks inside it, he finds it filled with a variety of body parts along with an assortment of heads. He also sees the huge jack-in-the-boxes thrown around.
Harlequin is not just a serial killer, but also a cruel sadist, which we come to see very quickly. One of the jack-in-the-boxes contains a murdered man who is turned into Jack by removing his lower body and there is another woman with blonde hair who is tied up but still very much alive in another box. Just as he notices this, Harlequin suddenly attacks the two of them using a mallet.
The woman who is tied up somehow manages to escape and runs out of the warehouse, but Batman goes deeper inside as Harlequin catches up quickly while Batman holds on to a ceiling fan inside an eerie room that is chock full of cracked mirrors. The two of them continue to fight viciously, but Batman manages to punch through one of the mirrors, which reveals a dark entrance into a tunnel that leads to Harlequin’s inner hideout where her makeshift family resides. They consist of a dead man and a woman as well as a young boy and an elderly lady who have weird and disjointed expressions stapled to their faces and they’re also stitched up and the entire place is festering with flies.
Harlequin then attacks Batman viciously with a chainsaw swinging powerfully into a pillar made up of solid concrete. The chainsaw breaks and seriously wounds the unhinged serial killer who then proceeds to surrender and requests Batman to take her to prison. But Batman has other plans and he proceeds to bite Harlequin and drain her dry by drinking every last drop of her blood.
Later, In Gods and Monsters, Batman and Wonder Woman accompanied Superman in an attack on terrorists hiding in a bunker beneath the Kasnian embassy inside Metropolis. Batman murdered some of the men by crushing their necks and punching holes in their chests, but he had a bit more difficulty in dealing with one of the terrorists, who was known as Blockbuster. Batman was ensnared in a bear grip by him, unable to harm him with blows or kicks. He fed by sinking his teeth into Blockbuster’s neck.
Blockbuster attempted to slam him into a wall, but it was too late by that time. Blockbuster became dizzy as a result of the loss of blood and collapsed. When the battle was completely over, Steve Trevor appeared and gave the League a riot act. They weren’t cops, thus the underground bunker wasn’t off-limits to them, as Batman keenly pointed out.
When they went back to the Tower, upon Superman’s request, Batman disclosed that the Justice League had secured a 22 percent approval rating in the United States and a 29 percent approval rating internationally. Superman commented that revolutions are founded on less, and he momentarily considered taking over the entire planet. That night, Batman went back to his residence near Gotham City. He gets a call from Magnus while preparing a fresh batch of plasma.
Magnus inquired with him if the League might investigate the recently missing Ray Palmer, who was an old classmate of his, upstate. After deliberating on the jurisdiction, Batman promises to look into it. The following day, Batman called upon Superman as well as Wonder Woman and asked them to come to the Tower. He gave them information on the recent killings of three scientists and researchers, Ray Palmer, Victor Fries, and lastly Silas Stone.
Superman came to the conclusion that the Justice League was just being framed for the killings. Batman highlighted that all three of the scientists had one time or the other collaborated on government initiatives. Batman chose to sneak into Stone’s office in the Department of Physics because he was a guest lecturer at Gotham University.
While going over Stone’s emails, Batman came across an email which was sent to all of the three scientists, as well as Magnus about a project that was seemingly named Fair Play. Batman downloaded Stone’s papers before noticing an old senior photo of him and recalling his own graduation day. Just then, a janitor entered the office. Batman took out his flash disk and flew through the window. Batman leaped over the window sill and flew away once the janitor turned her attention away from him.
Batman then went to Magnus’ house and overheard an altercation that went on between Magnus as well as another scientist named Karen Beecher, who said she refused to be the next victim of the League. Magnus found out that Batman was standing outside after Beecher departed. Magnus was questioned by Batman, who asked him whether he was withholding anything from him.
Batman inquired about Project Fair Play after Magnus told him about non-disclosure agreements. Magnus came to a halt and inquired as to how he learned about it. Batman recounted the email, but Magnus brushed it off and said it was nothing to be concerned about. Tina approached Batman as he went outside, alarmed. He had always been too brilliant for his own good, in her opinion.
Batman departed after promising not to allow anything or any harm to come to her or Magnus. With the insinuation of the League’s participation in the killings making headlines, courtesy of Lois Lane, Batman instead of going to the Tower headed to Beecher’s country house to eavesdrop on a conference of researchers and scientists working on Fair Play. They pondered on what to do before they would be killed. Predictably, the three killers soon arrived and they were actually murderous robots.
Batman attempted to engage the Batdroid and attack the robots, but he was hurled through a window. Several scientists were killed by the robots. Batman tackled and tossed the Batroid into the fireplace after it tore Pat Dugan in half, then booted the Superdroid. He rushed to defend Tina from the Wonderdroid, only to be hit by the Superdroid. He watched in disbelief as Tina was slashed with a sword and Magnus was burned alive. Batman was saved by Wonder Woman and Superman, but it was too late. A faint pulse was detected by Superman.
Magnus had barely survived… and was a testimony to their innocence. They returned Magnus to the Tower and pondered on the identity of the robots. Batman doesn’t believe they are from New Genesis because the government had been attempting to replicate the Boom Tube since learning about it through Wonder Woman’s escapades. No closer to determining who was the one who framed them, Batman recommended Superman visit Dr. Luthor in his spaceship. The Superdroid, however, blew up the spacecraft immediately after Superman left. Trevor was given permission by President Waller to shut down the League.
Batman realized it had been ten years since he first met Superman as Trevor’s soldiers encircled the Tower. Batman lifted the shield surrounding the Tower when Superman as well as Wonder Woman stepped outside to ‘speak’ with Trevor. Tina appeared to Batman, much to his amazement. Her right arm reached out and grabbed Batman before slamming him to the floor.
Magnus’s robot, Tin, built a cage around Batman. Tina revealed her actual identity as Platinum, a robot. Magnus returned to normal when she resurrected him using organic nanites. He then revealed to Batman that the Fair Play project involved lasers capable of simulating red sun radiation, similar to Krypton’s sun.
Batman then asked about Tina. Magnus confesses to accidentally killing her when they were a year into their marriage as a result of her continual insistence on finding a treatment for Kirk. He eventually snapped and attacked her, but she died after hitting her head on a table. Magnus stated that he knew Tina sincerely loved Kirk before explaining his plan to transform the world by connecting all brains using his Nanite Bomb and eradicating all sorrow, anger, and guilt.
Dr. Luthor shouted about the conflict outside the Tower, revealing Magnus as the true perpetrator. Batman gained enough speed from Superman’s attack on the Tower shield to kick a pedestal nearby and expose some wires. Batman threw Tin on it and karate sliced off its skull.
Magnus dispatched three droids towards Batman, but he dropped the shield in the nick of time. He avoided the heat vision of Superdroid, but the Batdroid rushed on him and attempted to bite. The Batdroid was decked by Superman. In the city, Superman fought with the droids. As they worked on attaching the Nanite Bomb onto Superman’s spacecraft, Batman worked his way to the core of the Tower, knocking Platinum aside and stomach punching Magnus. Magnus demonstrated his newly gained strength and a healing factor as a result of the nanites.
As Batman snuck about, Magnus said that if Tina, who only liked bats and test tubes, hadn’t loved him, none of this would have occurred. Batman said that he was mistaken and that he only ever loved two individuals, both of whom had died. Magnus was taken aback by the admission. Batman yanked one of Magnus’ limbs and flipped him over, then kicked him forcefully in mid-air and struck him in the face.
He came to a halt when he saw Magnus’ blood. Magnus pleaded with him to have a taste. Batman dumped him and returned to the explosives, muttering that he tasted like trash. He couldn’t stop the timer. Wonder Woman stepped in and thrust her blade into it.
It worked, but Superman’s ship’s core became unstable. Superman piloted the ship back into space, where it then safely exploded, and no harm was done. Magnus realized his mistake and begged Batman to pardon him before deactivating his nanites. Magnus was then reduced to a heap of dust.
A week after these incidents, Batman was astonished to hear Superman suggest that there would be no more politics or murder and that Wonder Woman would be going back home with Dr. Luthor. Batman and Superman get to work immediately, poring through the actual data from Superman’s spacecraft and studying the groundbreaking uses of Kryptonian science.
Conclusion
While many see him as a demon, Kirk started out as a guy with genuinely good intentions. Dr. Robert Kirkland also known as “Kirk” Langstorm, is actually a researcher and scientist whose desire to get rid of his chronic disease would sentence not only him, and also his family, to a life of terror and tragedy, not unlike Marvel’s Spider-Man’s nemesis the Lizard.
Although many believe Langstorm to be a villain, he did strive to become batman and use it as an instrument for justice. Kirk served as a fighter of crime, battling both ordinary and super-criminals in an attempt to control his changes and also to keep his wits intact. Unfortunately, his work as a superhero was plagued by personal issues and conflicts that played havoc on his mind and conscience.