Leader of the Batmen
The leader of the Batmen was a human who had risen to that position by January 2065 after crashing on an asteroid in hyperspace.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
While he was a prisoner on board the prison ship Black Maria 9, the ship was struck by a meteorite shower and was partly destroyed, crashing on an asteroid occupied by the Batmen. The man was the only survivor of the crash and Valeen and the other Batmen attempted to care for him during the day. However, they returned at night to find that he had apparently turned into one of them. In reality, the man had used the time to make the skin and oxygen kit necessary to fool them.
By January 2065, the man had become the leader of the Batmen and had begun using them as a way to continue his gangster work. The leader led the hijacking of a space freighter in Area 4 of Sector 25, which drew the attention of the World Space Patrol and Fireball XL5. The Batmen put Steve Zodiac into a "frozen sleep" before escaping with the freighter, though he soon recovered and Fireball was able to pursue the Batmen back to the asteroid. The Fireball crew began to search the asteroid, resulting first in Venus's capture and then the capture of Steve and Professor Matic during a rescue attempt. At this point, the leader threatened to drop Venus into a lake which contained a liquid that "crush-freeze[d]" if Steve did not disarm Robert the Robot and surrender Fireball to the Batmen. Steve agreed to save Venus, (COMIC: The Batmen) news which reached the front page of TV Century 21 on 13 February. Space City was said to be "stunned" that Steve had done this, spawning "utmost concern for the safety of all space freighters and passenger flights throughout the Universe" and resulting in Space City's combat ships being placed on Emergency Red. (PROSE: Fireball Surrenders!)
The leader told Valeen to hold the prisoners while he took Fireball for a test-flight. When he landed, the leader opined that the ship must be "one of the most powerful in the Universe" and boasted that "every space ship" would be at their mercy. As the leader celebrated his victory, he passed close by to Robert, who was given an order by Steve to grab him. Robert's grip tore off the leader's wings which exposed him as a human wearing a spacesuit. (COMIC: The Batmen) Space City officials found out about this and expressed concern for the safety of the Fireball crew should the Batmen's leader take revenge for Robert's attack. (COMIC: Power Play) This proved not to be an issue; he tried to flee but was chased down and tackled by Steve. Steve asked the Batmen if they wanted to risk an attack from the World Space Patrol for the sake of an impostor, which was met by calls from some of the Batmen to kill their former leader. However, Valeen forbade this by pointing out that they used to be peaceful and instead asked that Steve take him back to Earth and leave them in peace. This they did, with Steve jovially requesting that Valeen call Space City the next time he found someone in space. (COMIC: The Batmen)
