The real Batman

"Do we know each other?" Batman asked, puzzled, after casually dispatching the criminals from Blackout. "Your voice sounds familiar."

The fight ended quickly. Batman stopped the man who had fought beside him, hoping to thank him face-to-face.

"You wouldn't want to see what I look like. Nobody would," Man-Bat said, preparing to leave.

"Um, actually, we can see you," Kara interjected. "I have to say, you look much more like a Batman."

"Uh—" Man-Bat froze. He tried to fly away, but Batman stopped him.

"It's fine. Cassidy looks stranger than you," Roland reassured him.

"Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I think they're about the same," Kara said.

Realizing he couldn't leave, and that they had already seen his face, Man-Bat sighed. "Sigh..."

Batman brought every member of Blackout up from underground and handed the whole lot over to the police.

"But why did you turn out like this?" Batman asked Man-Bat.

"Your great struggle against criminals in the night inspired me to become what I am now," Man-Bat said. "My hearing was failing. I was gradually going deaf, so I developed a serum in the hope of treating myself. It worked, but obviously... the side effects were worse."

"That's incredible..." Batman was astonished.

"That sounds like a better claim to the name 'Batman' than yours, too," Roland said. "He injected himself with the Bat Serum. You just thought bats were scary. It's like the difference between the Avengers and the Great Lakes Avengers."

Batman stared at Roland in stony silence.

"I agree," Kara said, nodding.

"Wait, you're Kurt Langstrom, the cave boy?" Batman finally remembered that familiar voice. "Do you remember me? You once told me a story about bat-men."

"You're that little boy?" Man-Bat had to think for a long time before he remembered. "...I