Bat-Mite
Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAT : Bat-Mite
Bat-Mite is a fictional comic book character who appeared in stories published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Detective Comics #267 (May 1959).
Bat-Mite is an imp similar to the Superman villain Mr. Mxyzptlk. He appears as a small childlike man in an ill-fitting Batman costume, with a black lightning bolt instead of the Bat-insignia. Bat-Mite possesses near-infinite magical powers and comes from another dimension, much like Mr. Mxyzptlk. In Bat-Mite's dimension, the resident imps idolize the heroes of the DC Universe and impersonate them, re-enacting their heroic feats and adventures. Bat-Mite's favorite hero is Batman, and thus the imp visited Batman on various occasions, often setting up strange events so that he could see his hero in action. Despite this, Bat-Mite is more of a nuisance than a supervillain, and often left his hero alone when he realized he had angered his idol again. Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk teamed up four times in the pages of World's Finest Comics to plague Superman and Batman together, as well.
Bat-Mite regularly appeared in Batman, Detective Comics and World's Finest Comics for five years. However in 1964, when the Batman titles were revamped with a more serious tone under new editor Julius Schwartz, Bat-Mite vanished along with the other extraneous members of the Batman family such as Ace the Bat-Hound. After this, only three more Bat-Mite stories were published in the pre-Crisis DC Universe: two Bat-Mite/Mr. Mxyzptlk teamups in World's Finest Comics #152 (August 1965) and #169 (September 1967) (which were not edited by Schwartz but by Mort Weisinger), and "Bat-Mite's New York Adventure" from Detective Comics #482 (February-March 1979), in which the imp visits the DC Comics offices and insists that he be given his own feature in a Batman comic.
After the continuity-changing 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths was published, Bat-Mite was mostly removed from the Batman comics canon. Bat-Mite made an appearance in the series Legends of the Dark Knight, although he may have been the hallucination of a minor character. This version of Bat-Mite later appeared in Mitefall, a one-shot story in the same title book, that was a parody of the "Knightfall" Batman storyline. He also appeared in the 2000 one-shot else-world comic special World's Funnest, in which he battles Mr. Mxyzptlk, destroying the pre-Crisis multiverse and the Post-Crisis Universe of DC Comics, as well as the Elseworlds of Kingdom Come, [[Batman: The Dark Knight Returns]],and the DC Animated Universe. Despite being an Elseworlds story itself, it isn't clear whether World's Funnest is in continuity.
Apart from World's Finest, there has been no direct connection between Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk; the World's Finest special implied that different rules applied to their powers. In the Bizarro Comics anthology, Mxyzptlk's native fifth dimension seemed to include beings similar to Bat-Mite and Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt. Neither of these comics are considered canonical, however, in a JLA/JSA crossover in JLA and in JSA #78-80 it was revealed that both Mxyzptlk and Thunderbolt came from the 5th Dimension. Letter columns and writer interviews indicate that Bat-Mite comes from there as well, although this has never been shown thus far in the comic stories themselves.
In the post-Crisis issue Superman/Batman #25, it was revealed that the Joker had gained Bat-Mite's powers by absorbing his essence; at the end, Bizarro was able to free him. As such Bat-Mite has been fully re-established into the current continuity, though his exact connection or whether he idolizes Batman like he previously did, has not been established.
Other media
Bat-Mite was a regular character of the 1977 animated series The New Adventures Of Batman where he was depicted as a well meaning magical fan of the superhero. As such, he tried to help Batman even though he usually complicated matters. One episode featured his home planet, called Ergo, as well as a villain of Bat-Mite's species named Zarbor. Bat-Mite was voiced by Lou Scheimer.
An animatronic Bat-Mite briefly appeared in the "Deep Freeze" episode of [[Batman: The Animated Series]], in which Bat-Mite enthusiastically greeted Batman, saying, "Hi, Dynamic Duo! I'm your biggest fan!" before kissing Robin, who was shocked. It then malfunctions and falls apart, stuttering "I just wanna help!" as it does so. In the background, an animatronic Mr. Mxyzptlk and Streaky the Supercat can also be seen.
One episode of the animated series Teen Titans had the appearance of a very similar character named "Nosyarg Kcid" ("Dick Grayson" spelled backwards) but whom the characters rename Larry for ease. In this episode, "Larry" idolized Robin rather than Batman. He also claims to be his dimension's incarnation of Robin (hence the name), and they are proven to be genetically identical.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.