An unkillable foe returns from the past to wreak havoc in Gotham City once again, who could this villain be?
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “Unstoppable” a story in Batman: Gotham Nights #16, by Steve Orlando, Tom Mandrake, John Kalisz and Troy Peteri, available now.
While most of Batman’s villains are powerless, some of the Dark Knight’s toughest adversaries actually have superpowers. The better known superpowered Batman enemies are criminals like Mister Freeze, Bane, and Clayface, but a few of Batman’s odder rivals hide in the shadows, coming out rarely to give the vigilantes of Gotham City a headache. In the digital series Batman: Gotham Knights #16, one of these weirder rogues returns.
After a WayneTech satellite falls out of orbit and crashes in Gotham City, Batwoman learns that the device was actually made for the US government as a jail for Lord Death Man, who is now headed to Wayne Enterprises to kill Bruce Wayne and anyone else who gets in his way.
Lord Death Man is a lower level Batman foe who made his debut all the way back in 1966’s Batman issue #180. When he first appeared, Lord Death Man – going by the informal Death Man – was a Japanese crime lord who could use yoga to put himself into a trance so deep that he would appear to be dead. Death Man used this ability to fake his own death and get out of a trial. Once the world was sure he was dead, Death Man started up his criminal activities again.
Confronted by Batman, Death Man once again faked his death. When he popped up again, Batman figured out that Death Man was able to appear dead, so he wouldn’t be falling for that trick again. In their second battle. Death Man got the upper hand on Batman until he was struck by lightning and killed. Believing that there was no way the criminal could fake that, Batman was confident that Death Man’s crime spree had come to an end. Not long after his appearance in Batman #180, Jiro Kuwata adapted the Death Man story for the Batman manga, changing the villain’s name to Lord Death Man, but it seemed like that would be the last anyone would hear of the character.
Almost fifty years later, Death Man would return to the comics, keeping the name Lord Death Man that Jiro Kuwata gave him. As explained in his return, Lord Death Man gave up on pretending to be dead and, by giving himself Lazarus blood infusions, he had literally become a person who could not die. With his upgraded abilities, Lord Death Man set out to kill every superhero in Japan, taking out a number of citizens along the way. When he was “killed” Lord Death Man would wake up a few hours later after his body had time to heal, and just get back to knocking off the heroes of Japan.
Batman and Catwoman found a way to subdue Lord Death Man but believing that he crimelord would forever be a danger, Batman shot him into space. Lord Death Man did make it back to Earth when Leviathan’s Orbital HQ was destroyed by the Outsiders. He was found by Ra’s al Ghul, who planned to use the undying villains Lazarus blood to replenish the Lazarus Pits.
That was the last time Lord Death Man appeared until Batman: Gotham Knights #16. In this out-of-continuity story, Batwoman battles the undying Japanese crime lord, throwing every bat gadget she has at him, with each one seeming to have no effect on the villainous immortal. Luckily, Batwoman found a way to stop her undying foe by trapping him in concrete. Lord Death Man is one of the odder Batman villains, and with any luck, DC won’t wait another fifty years before giving us more of the character.
