The Impact of Batwing

The Bat-Family has been incredibly expansive over the years, but perhaps one of the most interesting members is also one of the newest. Batwing is one of the most recent additions to DC Comics’ lineup of heroes, and while he may share many of his powers with Bruce Wayne, he’s certainly unique on his own accord.

Batwing was created by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham and debuted in Batman Incorporated #5 (June 2011). The character’s original identity was David Zavimbe, a police officer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was already fighting crime in his area before being discovered by Bruce Wayne. David was drafted as a boy soldier into the army of General Keita, known as the Army of the Dawn, though David eventually turns on Keita.

David is found by Batman, who at the time is working on his “Batman Incorporated” program that works to put Batman-like figures in countries around the world. David is then inducted as the newest member of that team, and together he and Bruce Wayne work to take down the terrorist threat Leviathan.

Batwing was known as “The Batman of Africa” during this time, using technology provided by Bruce Wayne to take down villains. His abilities were thus almost identical to Batman’s using martial artist skills, flight via the Batwing suit’s wings, high-tech gadgets and weapons, and so on to fight crime. Batwing got his own series starting in November 2011, which helped expand the DC universe outside of the United States and into Africa.

While David Zivimbe was the first Black and first African Batman, he resigned his position after Batwing #19. He was then replaced in the role by Luke Fox, Lucius Fox’s son. Though Batwing ended in August 2014 after 34 issues, the fact that the series popularized a black member of the Bat-Family has been influential, and we look forward to seeing this character return in the future of DC Comics.