Fans keep stuff like comics alive. Bat-Mite is the ultimate fan, his fanfics become fan realities. Batman has to deal with a lot of villains but Bat-Mite would fall into the deadly annoyance category more than anything else. So who is he? Where does he come from? Let’s find out!
Bat-Mite hails from the 5th Dimension. Or maybe he’s the drug hallucination of criminal Bob Overdog made manifest by Mr. Mxyzptlk. Or even strangers he’s basically the mind baby of Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Joker after the Joker had control of Mxyzptlk’s powers. (That’s where that header image came from, he’s not getting eaten, he’s being born.)
Bat-Mite is basically the Batman equivalent of Mr. Mxyzptlk but he is far less malicious. He loves Batman, his number one fan even. He gets to visit him and then to show how great Batman is he’ll put him to the test. When you have the ability to warp the third dimension at your whim, you might as well get something fun out of it. That isn’t magic, it’s technology that is so advanced that our third dimensional brains can’t really understand it any other way.
Bat-Mite was always pretty naive and oblivious about how much of a pain he was being to Batman but on occasion he would team up with Mxyzptlk cause c’mon, think of the crossover potential. He is that fan that does not consider the thoughts of anyone else because his idea is the coolest and if you can’t see that then it’s your problem. That’s annoying enough when it’s just something you see on a webpage but this is someone who then gets to take over the lives of countless Gothamites all so he can witness Batman out-thinking his “incredible” death traps.
As a being of the 5th dimension visiting upon the 3rd dimension sometimes the guy breaks the 4th wall. He knows that Batman is the best superhero and would be able to beat your favorite at any time. He may be a problem every now and then but he truly does love Batman with all his heart. Even when he may be a hallucination, sometimes by Batman himself when drugged by enemies, he is there to make sure Batman remembers who he is and what he does.
In the New 52 it was recent that Bat-Mite was given a series of his own. What kind of weird adventures will the imp of the 5th dimension get into? Guess we’ll have to wait and see to find out.
I wish I had more to tell you about the little guy but even though he kind of has a reputation he’s only been active for a few years out of his long life span as a character. Maybe with his new book we’ll get some more fun stuff out of him. If you really want some solid Bat-Mite zaniness go check out the Batman: Brave and the Bold animated series. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Detective Comics #267
Batman: Brave and the Bold
Bat-Mite
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
