If you’re like Daniel Mills of ScreenRant and have come to the realization that Batman has some very odd enemies then you’re entirely right, and Kite Man is one of them since his main ability is, as you might guess, to utilize a kite better than many others. Of course the fact that he’s gone up against the dark knight and even Hawkman makes it clear that he’s not that bright no matter that he does possess average intelligence when compared to many. He’s also in pretty good shape, but without any innate or manufactured powers Charles Brown is way out of his depth since Batman has beaten him handily and Hawkman, as you should suspect, has taken him out in one issue. He’s not the same caliber of villain as others that have challenged the DC heroes for years, and in fact he’s been the lackey of the other supervillains that have been seen as the true threats. It’s kind of hard to take someone seriously when they’re seen as the gopher for other villains that probably look at him with something akin to amused disdain.
His whole back story has to do with loving kites, being obsessed with them, and then needing to find a way to utilize them to be better than others through his use of theft and his ability to plan a heist. Still, this doesn’t make him much more than a jacked-up bank robber that’s basically a warm-up for most heroes and a joke to other villains. It might sound cruel to think this way, but Kite Man’s catchphrase “Kite man, hell yeah!” doesn’t exactly help his case when it comes to being taken seriously. Plus, if you’re going to be a bank robber it might pay to not wear a spandex suit that’s colorful enough to be seen coming from a long ways off, or use a mode of transportation that seems kind of flimsy and could be greatly affected by someone with a better than average aim. It’s true that flying a giant kite above the city might make it harder to really target him, but Kite Man is a man flying a giant kite or a glider most times, an officer on the police force with a good aim could possibly take this guy out of the sky. And of course when we’re talking about Batman, this would be an exceedingly easy villain to beat, which has happened in the past.
For all that he’s kind of a goofy villain though Kite Man has somehow managed to hang around for years and years, maybe as a gimmick, maybe as an added villain groupie that gets a good laugh now and again. But he has been allowed to appear in the games and even in the Lego Batman movie. You might think that out of the entire lineup of enemies that Batman has earned throughout the years that Kite Man would get lost in the mix, but so far that has yet to happen it seems. Instead he’s stuck around somehow, no matter how many times he’s been beaten and sent to the back of the bus so to speak. Maybe DC thinks that he’s just another splash of something interesting that is able to round the enemy pool out, or maybe they have yet to fully clean out their closet since this guy seems like so much ridiculousness that might need to be finally locked up and kind of forgotten. The fact that he’s been upgraded throughout the years to keep up is kind of hard to fathom since honestly he’s the kind of villain that at this point should have figured out that he’s not really at the same level as anyone around him. Even as a hero he would be seen as little more than a sidekick or a minor character that might only get in the way and be better as a last ditch support effort.
This kind of character isn’t confined to DC to be honest since Marvel has done this as well. There are characters out there that were somehow and for some reason developed beyond what should have been, and if they do have fan bases it might have started as a joke. Seriously, if Kite Man has a fan base then it leaves a person wondering just what these folks consider to be a supervillain and how weak of a hero it might take to allow this villain to notch out a victory. To each their own and all that, but this is one villain that after being busted the first time should have at least thought to steal the kind of technology or develop something that might make himself a little tougher. For Charles Brown though the idea of getting tougher and more advanced in his methods didn’t really seem to be a priority.
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